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Improving Work-Life Fit in Hourly Jobs
The Center for WorkLife Law
why she worked compressed workweeks:
Well, because (exhale), I can work, I can
do three tens, get my days over and done
with, and then I have four days off with
my kids....Because otherwise, if I worked
days, I would hardly, I mean, the only
time I would see them is at night....I'd
only have two days off with them. (Weigt
2006, p. 333)
Examples of compressed workweeks include both
public and private employers in a broad range of
industries and regions:
· The Kentucky Orthopedic Rehab Team,
a physical therapy management company
that owns and operates 43 outpatient
clinics and over 250 employees, offers
a full-time schedule spread over 4 ½
days, with one afternoon off each week.
(Swanberg, Loeffler & Werner 2007)
· W. Rogers Company, a construction
company, offers a four-day workweek,
which is particularly important because
construction workers often have to travel
several hours and stay away from home to
reach their job site. (Swanberg, Loeffler
& Werner 2007)
Business benefits of flexwork: Johnson Storage & Moving Co.
"Denver had a booming economy here in the early 90s, where it was exceptionally
difficult to find quality people we could afford to pay...Cheyenne was a struggling
labor market...so we found just some fine talent up there that was very well
priced. Some people can't quite get their minds around a move coordinator who
isn't there with them. But...the advantage of being virtual [is that it] disciplines
everyone. In person, we get casual about hand-offs in our business...then people
forget things. When you're moving that information around over the Internet, it
has to be well documented and well communicated, which is really good for our
business...One of the benefits of being virtual is that we really have multi-state
job sharing. If one of them is going to be out on vacation or at a child's school
activity, they just choose someone else in the group and say, "Can you cover for
me?" They they'll let the customer know, "During this period of time I'm going to
be out. If you have any problems or issues, Sheila's going to handle this for you."
And when we went into severe cuts, we had this great pool of tenured talent, so
we virtualized. We used to have a move coordinator connected to each branch,
or more than one. But we said, "That's kind of silly. Let's just look at the load. And
we may have a move coordinator who's at a branch that's suffered severely in the
downturn who we don't want to lay off because of tenure. So let's give a portion
of that person to another office. The person in New Orleans wasn't really justified
as an FTE, but she had been with us for 30 years, and had just won a national
award. How foolish of us, as a company, to lay her off and then hopefully to get
her back or find equivalent talent. So it's really, really beneficial to the company."
-- Jim Johnson, President, Johnson Storage & Moving Co.