(Professor Name)
(Correct Date) August 11, 2014
Going to a 9/80 Work Schedule
The interests of the employer and the hired worker contradicted in the days when workers had to be in place for 70-90 hours a week. In only 30 years, unions have achieved the established 40-hour limit on the working week. The growth of megacities, congestion of road transportation, a growing number of working mothers and the chronic fatigue syndrome has resulted in declined productivity of tired employees.
Output was the development of alternative working time. Today, about 70% of the companies in the USA operate on a flexible schedule (Kokemuller, 2016). In the Old World there are 48%, and the leaders are the Scandinavian countries (bmscentral.com, n.d.). In Italy, Portugal and Greece, this mode is rarely used. It is believed that when the employee himself decides when to come to work, and then there is nothing good. This complicates management and control. But this mode has many advantages. It leads to savings in operating costs. In terms of flexible working arrangements employees are not overworked and are ready to work not only within the set 40 hours, but more. There are fewer complaints about unfulfilled household chores.
The introduction of alternative working time improves the psychological climate in the company and increases motivation of employees, many of them enjoy the work, have the opportunity to solve family problems. Another program of flexible work schedule no less popular – a shorter working week. It has two kinds of 4/40 and 9/80. 4/40 schedule – the duration of the working day 10 hours, but there is an extra day off on Monday or Friday. The second type 9/80 work day is 9 hours, but put an extra day off every two weeks. This mode is popular in Holland and France. In enterprises where productivity depends on season, number of working hours increased in the loaded time, and periods of stagnation employees have extra days off and are paid the bonus to the holiday.
Problem Statement
The research was concentrated on the evaluation of the 9/80 work schedule and on the study of its pros and cons. The topic is very important, since currently a lot of companies in the world change their traditional schedule for the alternative ones. They choose between flexible workweek and some alternative scheduled that have the same number of workhours in the work week, but different schedule. The report will help to evaluate all the pros and cons of alternative and flexible schedule and provide the analysis of them following five criteria. This will study the most common differences between standard nine-to-six schedule and 9/80.
Terminology
Work week is a sequence of 5 or 6 days from Monday till Friday or Saturday.
Compressed work week is a workweek with the same quantity of workload, but compressed to gain extra one or two days off.
The flex day is the day when a worker may be off depending on the schedule.
The short day is a 8-hour day of 9/80 schedule week.
9/80 work schedule is a two-week period of eight nine-hour workday and one short day.
Overview of Alternatives
Alternative A is to implement a compressed 9/80 schedule with one extra day off every two weeks. This is better for employees, but may insult the business, especially when partners have traditional workweek.
Alternative B is not to implement the compressed work week and stay on the traditional in order to catch up with the schedule and not to make the workers feel tired and depressed because of the tempo and rhythm.
Criteria
Employees’ satisfaction. One extra weekend showed that the workers are more satisfied and feel more relaxed after a long weekend (Arce, 2013). It is easier for them to make all the tasks faster to spend more time at home. Traditional workweek gives only two days of a week. Moreover, it helps the employees to avoid one extra day of commuting, petrol bills and work routine. So all in all it makes them happier.
Work Tempo. On the first glance, nothing changed in the number of workhours, but the flex day creates the necessity to plan each two weeks to cover all the tasks for ten days in 9. Moreover, there is one extra hour every day, so employees need to plan the workload to have powers for extra working time. The tempo and pressure stay high and stressful to catch up with usual schedule (bmscentral.com, n.d.). To gain some extra weekend workers have to do their best in completing tasks for five days in four. That is why it may be one of the criteria of the evaluation. Such a rhythm is not suitable for those who used to do everything quick, qualitative and stay energetic. Also some businesses feel a challenge when Friday, for example, is a day off. For example, some services like delivery or cleaning should be done during the full workweek.
Weekend duration. An extra day off every two weeks during working days gives the opportunity to relax and establish your personal business (Arce, 2013). Many employees can't afford to visit companies who work only during the working week. Employees will have more opportunities to plan trips, to recuperate before next week. In General, the extra output has a positive effect on the mood and motivation of employees.
Balance of private life and career. Consequently, an extra day off is very useful for those, who have families or some hobbies that need a lot of time. Mothers who work may, for example, take care of their children and help them with studies or spend some extra time. People may spend more time with their families and friends.
Workday duration. On the other hands, rest of workweek is longer for an hour, so it makes less possible spend more time at home every day. Moreover, coming home late may cause some stress and fatigue.
Research Methods
The general methods of the research are the literature review and the evaluation of the data. It helped to compare the alternatives.
Evaluation of Alternatives
Criterion 1, Employees’ satisfaction
Alternative A
Workers feel more relaxed
They have more day-offs
They spend more time at home and less money and time on commuting (Arce, 2013).
Alternative B
The workers who cannot work in high tempo prefer this alterative.
Not all the workers have a possibility to stay for one extra hour in an office.
Criterion 2, Work Tempo.
Alternative A
Makes workers work faster to catch up for one extra day-off.
Makes workers work longer to cover hours of extra day-off.
Alternative B
Workers can work in their own rhythm and have one planning for a whole period.
Workers can go home earlier for an hour.
Criterion 3, Weekend duration
Alternative A
Gives 5 days off for 2 weeks.
Alternative B
Gives 4 days off for every 2 weeks.
Criterion 4, Balance of private life and career.
Alternative A
There is a possibility to spend more time with family and friends
There is a possibility to attend a lot of places on own business.
Gives more opportunities to travel.
Evenings at home are shorter.
Alternative B
Gives no opportunity to visit places that do not work on weekends.
Give more opportunities to take a rest in the evenings.
Criterion 5, Workday duration
Alternative A
Workday is one hour longer. Less time to relax at home.
Alternative B
Standard workday gives opportunity to come home earlier.
Findings and Analysis
Compressed working week (NRC) is one of the varieties of redistribution of regulatory 40 hours per week. One of the kinds is schedule 9/80. The World Bank in Washington experiments with this model, which provides employees working 9 days with increased duration of working time, and take a rest on the 10th day (Kokemuller, 2016).
Compressed work week allows employees have more free time than the standard mode. It is believed that this innovation reduces anxiety and stress, and is beneficial to family life. It is expected that these benefits, in turn, will reduce absenteeism, increase loyalty to an organization, increase job satisfaction and higher productivity (bmscentral.com, n.d.).
However, fatigue of workers at the NRC has tended to increase. Studies generally confirm the relationship between the implementation of the NRC and increased satisfaction with work schedule. Less evidence the improvement of labor productivity, but there is evidence that the employment indicators in the NRC are not reduced. Among the disadvantages is still the problem of fatigue, and there are fears that this model may lead to an increase in the number of accidents and injuries.
Recommendation
Despite some potential drawbacks, compressed working week, apparently, makes its way to success. This trend has many causes, among which is the fact that the NRC is one way of response to the growing need of employees to work in flexible workplaces; to solve the problem this way management is much easier than at the expense of its most common alternative a flexible work schedule. It is better to make new schedule for employees step by step, considering the pros and cons of the system.
References
Arce, E. (2013). Common Pitfalls in Using 9/80 Schedules and How to Avoid Them. Lcwlegal.com. Retrieved 14 August 2016, from http://www.lcwlegal.com/84915
Employee Scheduling: Four Day Work Schedules Pros & Cons. Community.bmscentral.com. Retrieved 14 August 2016, from http://community.bmscentral.com/learnss/Tutorials/Fundamentals/four-day-work-schedules-pros-cons
Kokemuller, N. (2016). Pros & Cons of a 9/80 Work Schedule | eHow. eHow. Retrieved 14 August 2016, from http://www.ehow.com/list_6872765_pros-cons-9_80-work-schedule.html
