Employers rethinking five-day workweek

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Employers rethinking five-day workweek
Some see improved productivity, but old habits die hard

continuing to monitor the new work system to
make sure it’s saving money and working both
for employees and the public that uses state
services.It’s a radical idea and not without its critics.
Utah State Rep. Michael Noel called the
initiative “stupid” in a New York Times article
last week that said other states are
considering following Utah’s lead. Some
experts question whether we would ever be
able to abandon the five-day grind so
entrenched in corporations and society at
large.

But others are questioning the very notion of
the formal work day.

“We are in fact seeing many more companies
willing to be flexible in all areas of the
workweek — fewer days, fewer hours per day,
some long days and some short days, etc.,”
said Allison O’Kelly, CEO of Mom Corps, a
staffing and search firm.

The trend is driven more by the bottom line
than any desire to improve work-life balance
for employees. In the case of Utah, the move
to four-day schedules was driven largely by
the tough economy and budget issues.

Many companies also shook up their
workweeks at least temporarily, implementing
steps such as furloughs that sent employees
home without pay for a few days.

 

Today about 34 percent of employers offer
some sort of compressed workweek benefit,
up from 26 percent in 2008, according to the
Society for Human Resource Management. But
will these initiatives grow more widespread

once the economy accelerates?“I don’t see it happening,” said Robert
Whaples, a professor of economics at Wake
Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He
said the traditional five-day, 40-hour week
simply has been in place too long.

Whaples said the move to the five-day week
began in the 19th century, when a six-day
workweek was more standard. Workers got
Sunday off for religious reasons, but as the
country’s affluence grew people wanted more
leisure time.

“The kind of jobs they were doing wore them
out. It was tough physical labor on farms, in
factories and mines,” Whaples said. “It made
sense to have time off.”

Since then there has been little movement to
change the basic five-day week. Calls for
change by some working parents represent
only a small subset of the population, he said.

The problem, according to Cali Yost, CEO of
consulting firm Work+Life Fit Inc., “is that
many if not all human resource policies and
corporate financial reporting systems are built

around and reinforce the inflexible 40 hours,
five-days-a-week, in the office model.”Karissa Thacker, a management psychologist,
thinks it goes even deeper.

“The five-day workweek goes back to
kindergarten,” Thacker said. “The structure
and conditioning people have around the five-
day workweek is huge.”

Despite technological advances that should
have led to radical changes in the structure of
the workweek, she added, “we’re still very
early in the curve in terms of how the
workplace is changing.”

Some believe we’re actually going backward
when it comes to rethinking how and when we
work.

“It’s pathetic,” said Nadine Mockler, founder of
Flexible Resources Inc., a staffing firm. “Most
companies are not allowing flexibility. They
want people there, they want face time, they
want to make sure work is getting done, and
now people are working even longer.”

This is happening, she added, even though
providing such flexibility makes the workforce
more efficient.

Leigh Steere, co-founder of management
research firm Managing People Better, agreed
and pointed to a study done by Microsoft in
2005 that found workers who put in 45 hours
a week said they were only productive for
about three days.

“Employers should be paying based on results
delivered and not hours worked,” she said.
“Should a person who can deliver a project in
two days be paid the same as a person who
takes six days to perform the same work?”

While productivity is important, for many
four-day advocates it’s more about gaining
personal time.“I’m a better husband and a better father,”
said Utah’s Herring about his extra day off.
The state has also seen a rise in volunteerism
among its workers as a result of the four-day
week.

There were some early challenges, including
figuring out how to find child care with
extended hours for employees who were now
working until 6 p.m. Public transportation was
another issue. State officials worked with
transit authorities to adjust scheduling, and
officials put resources into helping working
parents find child care options.

Martinez, the CEO from Houston, is hoping his
experiment is as successful. The father of five,
including 10-year old twins, is optimistic he
can find a better work-life balance.

“We were told that by being connected to the
Internet we would get more done and have
more time to ourselves and with our family,”
he said. “That didn’t happen. Now I’m looking
for my own rest and recovery. Let’s see if it makes us more productive too.”