¶ … working arrangement at the County Health Department includes a five day work week of eight hours each day. An alternative to this would be to introduce a four day work week of ten hours each day, with every Friday a day off. This four day work week would increase productivity, increase employee motivation and result in significant cost savings for the department.
The four day work week would allow employees to be more productive, using more of their work time for work-related tasks. Firstly, all employees have a wind-up and a wind-down period, the wind-up where they begin to work and the wind-down where they prepare to stop working. The most efficient period is the middle period, where employees are fully focused on working. Longer work days means less time is spent in the wind-up and wind-down periods and more time is spent in the more efficient middle period. Secondly, the four day work week would allow employees more time to take care of personal errands such as paying rent, paying bills and organizing car insurance. Often, employees take unnecessary time off just to complete...
If employees had a weekday available to complete such tasks, less time off would be taken.
Finally, these personal errands that need to be completed are often completed at work out of necessity. This means that work time is used not for work but for personal tasks. Having time to complete these tasks means that less work time is used to complete these personal tasks. Overall, the four day work week allows employees to direct more of their work time towards work activities, thus resulting in increased productivity.
The new working arrangements would also increase employee motivation. Firstly, the new arrangements would allow employees to balance their working and personal lives. The challenge of managing this balance is a major reason for employee stress. Making this balance easier would reduce employee stress while increasing job satisfaction. Secondly, a longer weekend gives employees a longer break to look forward to. It also means that employees have longer to enjoy their time off and get over any work-related stress. This makes the working week…
