Compressed weeks fill an HR niche

HR Magazine, June, 1995 by Dominic Bencivenga

If they are incentives for some industries, compressed work weeks are a matter of operation and policy for others. The compressed schedules are particularly popular among manufacturing and service industries in areas that have enacted clean air legislation. In the larger companies, managers see compressed work weeks as a way to meet Clean Air Act standards and maintain productivity and customer service, while helping employees balance work and family issues, according to human resource specialists.

LONGER HOURS ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE

Stanley Nollen, a professor at Georgetown University's School of Business who has studied compressed work weeks, says the determining factors in establishing a compressed work week should be the job and the jobholder. Repetitive or monotonous manufacturing jobs would be hurt by such a schedule, as would very stressful jobs.

Older employees may become tired and be unable to work effectively for 10 or 12 hours, Nollen says. Compressed work weeks can also cause problems for people with young children; a 10-hour workday added to a long commute can make child care arrangements difficult. Some parents are not comfortable spending such long hours outside the home.

The programs appear most effective for young, single employees, who value long weekends and are able to work longer days. But, Nollen cautioned, compressed work weeks can send the wrong message: "The four-day week tends to feed into the notion that work is bad and weekends are great. It's not the right kind of frame of mind or climate for the workplace."

Employers considering a compressed work week need to be aware of potential overtime problems, according to Suzanne Smith, co-director of New Ways to Work, Inc., a San Francisco nonprofit consulting firm that specializes in work-time options. In California, Alaska, Nevada and Wyoming, employers are required to pay overtime after an eight-hour day. To limit overtime exposure, employers such as Bechtel - the international construction company based in California that uses a 980 system - must start the work week at 1 p.m. on Friday.

Employers also can avoid the daily overtime issue by having employees approve the new schedule, Smith said. All employees work the same approved schedule and another vote cannot be taken for a year.

The overtime issues make compressed work weeks "much more complex and much more regulated than a lot of other forms of flexibility," Smith said. "It means something more permanent than saying, 'Let's do a pilot program and try it.'"

AN OPTION FOR SOME

Despite these concerns, many major corporations are successfully using the compressed work week. AT&T conducted focus groups and employee surveys before implementing a compressed work week program for non-manufacturing operations in 1992, says Mary Kay Ross, the company's work and family coordinator. The program is included in flextime policies for AT&T's 240,100 domestic employees. So far, the 410 schedule is the most popular, followed by the 312 and then the 980, Ross said.