Now that employees are accustomed to working from home, along comes a back-to-the-office notice from many employers. Hearing complaints, a number of businesses are searching for ways to keep reliable, industrious staff from resigning. Would working 30 hours a week but getting paid for 40 be a solution? Seems like a no-brainer. But wait…here are some interesting details:
- Working from home research shows many staff thought they worked more than full-time hours at home and needed to be “always available”. Now they question the value of all the “face-time” requirements of the workplace.
- Not surprisingly, several companies see working a shorter week can be used as a recruiting tool.
- During the Great Depression, hours were cut so more jobseekers could find work. But the 30-hour workweek proposed by Congress was denied by FDR and the 40-hour work week became part of all New Deal legislation.
- Some professions, especially financial services, and law practices, produce high-paying jobs, and staff see working late nights and weekends as a badge of honor, as they laugh all the way to the bank.
- Large corporations expect their staff to be available at any given time to make decisions quickly. Working out a road map to give employees more manageable schedules can be challenging. Consultants need to cover the full work week and briefing the “missing employee” is time consuming. And volunteering to work on a regular day off only breeds resentments. Also not being included in the critical meeting of the day leaves the team-work culture frayed.
- Other countries have tried a 30-hour week and failed: Germany, France, Great Britain, New Zealand. Here’s a surprise: success was achieved in Iceland where employers advised employees to prioritize projects, work at shortening meetings, and keep personal activities such as calls, errands, and social media at a minimum.
The outcome of this all seems to be that working at home wasn’t widely accepted until the pandemic came along. Then people saw the advantages and accepted the new way of working. It will take major planning to get this back-to-work plan rolling as successfully. Go for it!
