Compressed Workweek

In compressed workweek schedules, the workweek is compressed into fewer than five days by increasing the number of hours an employee is required to work each day. The most common form of compressed workweek in the United States is the four-day, 40-hour workweek (4/40). Usually employees will take either Friday or Monday off, extending their weekend to three days. However, because some compressed workweek schedules are implemented because of long distances between the worker's home and workplace (e.g., oil industry, merchant shipping), having a three-day weekend is not necessarily a part of a compressed workweek schedule. Recently, variations of the typical 4/40 schedule (e.g., 3/36, 3/38, and 3/40) have been adopted by some organizations. The Society for Human Resource Management's 2001 Benefits Survey showed that 31% of respondents offered compressed workweeks.

The literature indicates that compressed workweek schedules are most commonly used in manufacturing settings. This is probably attributable to two reasons. First, because compressed workweek schedules still require all workers to attend work at the same time, they meet the interdependence requirement of assembly line settings. Second, manufacturing organizations typically do not serve retail customers and thus do not require employees to be present at regular time intervals (e.g., Monday to Saturday).

When considering the use of compressed workweeks, employers must keep in mind that the workweek can only be compressed to the extent that an employee's daily working hours do not exceed any legal limit. Although the United States does not have any federal law that caps the number of working hours, many state and industry-specific laws do impose a cap. For example, truck drivers are only allowed to drive 11 hours per work period. Many other industrialized countries have federal caps that limit the use of certain types of compressed workweek schedules (e.g., a 3/40 schedule). For example, Germany and Japan have a 10-hour legal limit on the number of hours that can be worked on any given day.

Compared with other alternative work schedules (e.g., flexible work schedules), compressed workweeks are not always desired by employees and sometimes are even less desirable than the normal 5/40 work schedule. Research has found that younger employees favor compressed workweeks, whereas older workers do not. In addition, employees who favor compressed workweeks tend to occupy lowerincome or lower-level jobs.