Alternative Work Schedules
In order to improve the working environment and to increase the productivity and morale of workers, many companies are letting employees adjust their work schedules. Many employers are trying to move away from the traditional time patterns and are allowing employees to match their work schedules more closely to their lifestyles.
Three of the modifications in the traditional workday that are being utilized by many organizations are: the compressed workweek, flexitime, and job sharing.
Compressed Workweek Typically, the compressed workweek consists of a four-day, forty-hour week where the employees work ten hours a day. How-ever, “some organizations are experimenting with a three-day, thirty-six hour week {average of twelve hours per day}” {Quiable, 1980, 341}. An advantage of the compressed of the workweek is that workers have an extra day to handle personal matters or participate in leisure activities. This additional free time tends to reduce employee absenteeism and tardiness and to increase the morale and job satisfaction of the employees. Another advantage of this schedule is the reduction in the time and expense of commuting to work by 20 percent each week {Chruden and Sherman, 1984, 42}. One major disadvantage of this work schedule is the employees, increased fatigue which results from longer hours worked each day.
Flexitime
Another alternative that is becoming popular is one whereby employees may determine their own daily work schedules. Their arrival and departure times each day are flexible. However, all employees must work a forty-hour workweek and be present during certain core or peak workload hours each day. Again, absenteeism and tardiness are reduced under this system. Job satisfaction seems to increase between employees have control over their hours. People can choose to work during their most productive hours