The pros and cons of different compressed schedules
The standard 9-5 work day has been around for a long time.
It started with workers’ rights movements in the late 1800s.
But it was Henry Ford who famously made this the standard in 1926.
His Ford Motor Company assembly line workers were among the first to experience the 9 to 5 work day.
Soon it would be commonplace all over the world and is still thought of by many as the standard work week. But things have changed at pace not just in the 21st century, but in the past few years. The pandemic and the rise of home-working and digital solutions has made it easier than ever to work flexibly.
As such, now fewer than 1 in 10 people still work a traditional 9-5. Many are either exploring flexible hours, working the same 40-hour, 5-day workweek starting from 8 or even 7.
But others are choosing to completely change the make-up of how many days they work and for how long. Typically, this involves working the same 40 hours a week on average, but over fewer days. And this is fast becoming a popular choice. In fact, the growth in compressed work weeks between 2022 and 2023 was over 50%.
So what are the different kinds of compressed work weeks and should your business be considering them? Let’s find out.
Different types of compressed work week
Four 10-hour days
Also known as a 4/10 workweek, this is perhaps the simplest compressed schedule. Instead of working the normal 40 hours a week across five days, each eight hours long, this schedule compressed those same 40 hours into four days.
Often, that involves working something like 9-6 or 8-5 Monday through Thursday, and then having Friday off. This gives employees a three-day weekend, which may allow them to do more with their leisure time.
It may also lower their travel costs and commitments if they are only having to come into work four days a week instead of five. However, the longer days may prove challenging at first.
The 9/80 schedule
The 9/80 schedule is a bit more complex but it does mitigate some of the downsides of simpler schedules like 4/10. The chief benefit of the 9/80 schedule is that employees never work more than a 9-hour day, which can be a bit more manageable than a 10-hour one.
They also work every other Friday, meaning that your business needn’t miss them every single week!
In the 9/80 schedule, employees work 80 hours across 9 days—these days are split across two working weeks. In the first week, they work four 9-hour days and one 8-hour day for a total of 44 hours.
In the second week, they work four 9-hour days and then have the fifth day off, for a total of 36 hours. Added together, that brings you to 80 hours across the 9 days.
This schedule is also called a 5/4/9 workweek, though there are sometimes payroll differences in how the two approaches are handled. 5/4/9 schedules are often happy to have employees book uneven work weeks—44 hours one week and 36 hours the next.
A 9/80 schedule sometimes tries to balance the work weeks so that both are 40 hours. They do this by assigning half of week 1’s final day—the 8-hour day—to the first week and half to the second week. This means both weeks are recorded as 40 hours long.
Three 12-hour days
Where 9/80 and 5/4/9 schedules look to reduce long days, there are other approaches that go the other way. Working three 12-hour days is a more extreme example. This only totals 36 hours a week, which in some industries is also considered a standard work week.
Employees need to be hardy to last 12 hours a day, but their reward for doing so is four days off from work. This can be a real swing in the work-life balance compared to a standard 9-5 work week.
This approach is most often employed by businesses with much longer working hours or ones that require round-the-clock coverage, since two 12-hour shifts can cover a whole day. As such, it’s common to see this pattern in scheduling for healthcare or emergency services rotas.
Which compressed work week is best for your business?
Whatever schedule you decide to try, communicate with your employees to maximise its chances of success. Find out what their preferences are, including any caring commitments they might have, to find a schedule that suits the most people.
When it comes to implementing a compressed work week, it’s important to remember that change doesn’t happen overnight. Of course, having a smart scheduling solution will help to remind them of their new shift times!
Allow your employees some leeway as they look to get used to their new schedule, and once they’ve settled in, you may well find yourself with a happier and more productive business.