I have been trying for years to get people to see the savings in going to a four day work week. Fuel, Air Quality, Cost of Daycare, Employee Absenses. Working a 4 day week could also be handled by rotating working Fridays or Mondays. Making it an acceptable plan for business owners who feel they need to be open five days a week. I worked for a company who let me institute this arrangement on a temporary basis. The outcome was employee performance doubled when the employee was told if they could get the work done in 32 hrs a week and get paid for 40 they would not have to work the additional 2 hrs a day. Everything got done with time to spare and the employee moral was so high it was a pleasure to see people working together to finish projects. This also was an added benefit for the company. Even though they paid for 40 hrs. the work was all done, sickdays were reduced to minimum and working together to get everyones work done provided a backup system for every position.

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My work is doing a workshare program put on by the Canadian Government, and it is a great system. What happens is the company must cut your salary by the one day a week, but the Federal government kicks in 55% of the lost day. So, there is some cost by the the employee and by the government. It can run a total of 52 weeks. The company must apply for it, and some people don't get to go on it. For an example is the if the company says the sales people are needed to get the company out of the economic slump, then they can 't be on the program.
So, they just take a pay cut.

I like it better then the pay cut, that you will never get back, no matter how much the economy improves, or the layoff. You can keep your team together, and have less training. But it is hard if you have information hogs, or people that hide the bodies (so to speak), then people can not do anything when they are not around.

I like the program, not sure if you'll get companies to pay for five days, but have people work four. That is a pipe dream and not real.

But a cost sharing system would work fine.

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A 4 day ten hour work day would be great. Less commuting and longer week-ends to get things done around the house. I would recommend that schools think about doing it too. Students would have longer days but have three day week-ends or they could reserve the saved day for all their sports and extra curricular activities. Personally I would rather work 4 long days that 5 shorter ones. I can stay focused and get more accomplished. In a 5 day week--I have to stop in the middle of things quite often--then jot down notes so I remember where I left off when I return the next day. It would be great to just stay later and finish up.

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In my last job, I worked 4, 10-hour days. It was great: I was more productive at home, enjoyed my weekends more, and felt more relaxed on Mondays.

Incidentally, I didn't call it TGIT -- I was "So Happy It's Thursday." Get it? ;)

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I manage a restaurant. Patty Spring I would like to know what type of business are you in?

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I worked a 4-day work week for about 5 years, but recently switched back to a standard 5-day week. I really liked the 3-day weekends, but the 10-hour days were getting to be too much. What I have found since switching back to 8 hour days is that my productivity has skyrocketed. My concentration and productivity would wane each day after about 7 or 8 hours, making the last 2 hours practically useless and painstakingly long. Conservation is great, but I think it does have to be weighed against the likely loss in employee productivity.

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I tried a 4-day week for a while. The 3-day weekends were nice, but the 10-hour days were disastrous on family life! Factoring in commuting time and the lunch hour, my son was spending 12 plus hours a day in daycare. By the time we got home, he was cranky and tired and could barely make it through dinner. My old children didn't fare any better. Family dinners (something I always considered very important) became rushed because by the time I got home, it was already late and we had to still get baths and homework completed. There just wasn't any time left to spend as a family. The extra day off helped, but you can't just be a parent 3 days a week and leave them to fend for themselves the other 4 and that is exactly what I felt I was doing.

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