My company recently mandated a 4/10 schedule. Sound good? It's not.- It becomes much easier to jeopardize the exempt status of salaried employees.
- Exempt employees generally work less hours in a week. I used to put in 45-50 on most weeks and a lot more when necessary. Now? 40
- Decreased productivity. Assuming an employee works the same 40 hours they used to, are those hours as productive as a 5/8 schedule? Isn't productive time really the point of "working?"
- Employees don't like their coworkers enough to spend 10+ hours a day together.
- Instead of a "flexible schedule" being a perk, a mandated schedule easily becomes an expectation. It cannot be called "flexible" or "alternative" when it doesn't come with a choice.
- Negative turnover results when employees cannot manage all of their responsibilities with a mandated 4/10 schedule. Is it worth losing them?
- Goodbye work/life balance.
- Goodbye single parents, parents of young children, and older workers.
- Hello burnout, bitterness, bitchiness.
Management's attitude ....."Be thankful you have a job."
If only it were that simple.
