Topic: Alternative work schedules (Read 4265 times)

BizB · « **on:** May 14, 2007, 07:43:14 PM »

I recently heard about the 5 day weekend movement on the radio and it sparked a discussion about alternative work schedules.
Among the variety of possibilities were...

4 nine-hour-days and 1 four-hour-day. (commonly called "summer hours")
I'm not a big fan of this one, but some people really like it. Some employers have already adopted this one. Mine allows it between May and September - with your manager's okey-dokey.

4 day work week working 10 hours each day
Under this schedule, you'd get 3 days off per week. Theoretically, you could take them as a 3 day weekend. I'd personally prefer to have a regularly scheduled 2 day weekend and 1 day to chase the wind and take when I wanted to - so long as it fell between the 2-day weekends.

12 hour work day with a day off between each work day
This one sounds great to me. Work one 12 hour day and then have a day off? Awesome! This is the schedule worked by pharmacists, paramedics and fire fighters all across the USA. The funny part about this one is that you actually would end up working more than the typical 2080 hours per year at 2190 hours. Work 2-12s back to back and take a nice weekend. Want to take a 4 day weekend? Work 4-12s in a row, first. Hell, when I worked retail, a 12 hour day was the norm between Halloween and New Year's Day.

I see the benefits to each of these alternatives for the employee. The question is, how can we make them attractive to the employer as well?
Which one would you prefer to work?
Or, are you happy with the standard work week?

pbsaurus · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2007, 07:48:39 PM »

I'd love to do any of these. But being an exempt salaried employee, I can work 20 hour days for five days straight and still have to come in over the weekend.

Chris · « **Reply #2 on:** May 14, 2007, 08:10:37 PM »

My ideal hours, as of right now, would be Monday - Friday 8am - 4pm. Though, probably not possible given I still attend college.

If I had to pick from that list and I still worked in the food industry, I would probably go for the one 12 hour day, next day off routine. This would provide me with an entire day every other day to devote towards my studies and whatever else I have to take care of.

The only downside to this for employeers is that they must pay overtime wages for anyone that follows this schedule and is an hourly employee, as a total of 48 hours will be worked per a 7 day period.

Evonus · « **Reply #3 on:** May 14, 2007, 08:18:22 PM »

For me it'd depend on the ride I'd have to do each day. If the ride was short I'd prefer a 4-5 day workweek, but if it's a long ride I'd rather work fewer days and more hours.

Agent_Tachyon · « **Reply #4 on:** May 14, 2007, 08:29:15 PM »

I'd prefer to work about four or so hours every day, and take a few break days as I require them. As long as I was working at a job that I enjoy, I'd likely end up working a lot more than that anyway.

12AX7 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 15, 2007, 12:17:05 AM »

I do 4 / 10s on third shift telecommuting. I log in Sun/Mon/Tues/Wed nights at 8PM until 6am
I have Thurs/Fri/Sat (and SunDAY) off.
I like it.

LuciferSam · « **Reply #6 on:** May 15, 2007, 04:42:15 AM »

What are these "work schedules" that young people talk about all the time, anyway?

dcrog · « **Reply #7 on:** May 15, 2007, 05:06:56 AM »

I've worked 4 10's on several jobs over the years. I always liked the three day weekends. The most interesting that I worked was on a job where we had to work seven days a week. We took one set of crews working 4 10's Monday through Thursday. The second set of crews, which I ran, worked 10 on Friday, 10 on Saturday, and 8 on Sunday. With time and a half over eight on Friday plus all day Saturday, and double time on Sunday the pay came out about the same as a forty hour week.

It worked out well for our construction crews. The job lasted four months. I've worked jobs where we've tried working lots of overtime but the people burn out after about two weeks. They get a couple of good checks and decide to start taking days off, usually through the week, when they want to. And after about 4 weeks of long days seven days a week everybody is mad at everybody and everything.

I prefer the 4 10 scenario but the three day work week was nice for a while.

12AX7 · « **Reply #8 on:** May 15, 2007, 06:21:15 AM »

Ugh. Back in the construction days it wasn't uncommon to work 7 / 12 hour days. I worked for JF Adkins Electric on the Fuji Film plant in Greenwood, SC; seven 12's for almost four months solid. When I drug, I still had several checks to deposit; since the hours were 7-7 I never could even get the fuckers to the bank. The ones I did get deposited were taken to the bank by family members for me.
The pay is nice, but that aint no way for a man to live for long. I know several electricians who work like that for about six months; then take the rest of the year off. Yes; they can MORE than afford it by then. Remember; after the first 40 hours, you go on time and a half until the weekend when you go double time. KA-CHING!
Of course; those guys all look like they're around 75-80 years old when they're only 40-something, heh.

Socrates · « **Reply #9 on:** May 15, 2007, 07:23:49 AM »

When I worked in manufacturing we had a weekend shift, three 12 hour days in a row Friday-Sat-Sun or Sat-Sun-Mon 7am-7pm. Plus we paid you for working 40hrs. We had a few dads that loved it. Their wives could work during the week and they could be home for the kids, only needed one day of day care. Plus we commonly called them in for overtime during the week if we needed extra help.

Where I work now we got to summer hours after memorial day through the week before labor day, 8am-4pm instead of 8:30 am-5pm

I personally would love the four 10hr days long weekend.

Most good employers just want to be sure that the job is getting done, whatever that job is. For some jobs that means you have to hang around just waiting for a server to melt down, or a important report request to come down from upper management, or a "must happen" web update, etc.

Agent_Tachyon · « **Reply #10 on:** May 15, 2007, 08:03:57 AM »

Quote from: 12AX7 on May 15, 2007, 06:21:15 AM

When I drug

No way, were you in those wicked LSD experiments?!

xolik · « **Reply #11 on:** May 15, 2007, 09:23:02 AM »

Quote from: 12AX7 on May 15, 2007, 12:17:05 AM

I do 4 / 10s on third shift telecommuting. I log in Sun/Mon/Tues/Wed nights at 8PM until 6am
I have Thurs/Fri/Sat (and SunDAY) off.
I like it.

This is pretty much what I do as well. 7a-6p mon-fri but work from home on one of those days with an extra day off. It rocks.

dcrog · « **Reply #12 on:** May 15, 2007, 11:09:34 AM »

Quote from: Agent_Tachyon on May 15, 2007, 08:03:57 AM

No way, were you in those wicked LSD experiments?!

Whadda ya mean were.

Zephyr · « **Reply #13 on:** May 15, 2007, 11:51:51 AM »

I'd prefer 4 10 hour days. I can't see the appeal of a 12 hour day and a day off. It doesn't seem like you could really relax.

Min · « **Reply #14 on:** May 15, 2007, 04:05:21 PM »

Right now I work 14 hour monday, 9 hour tuesday, 14 hour wednesday, 8-9 hour thursday and friday.

It sucks. I'm tired.

Starting June 18ish, I'll be working 0 hours mon-friday with weekends off. That's only for 2 weeks though. Then it will be 6 hour days mon-thurs with 3 day weekend. That's for 5 weeks. Then I have the 0 hours/day again for another 3 or so weeks. Then it starts again what I'm doing now.

But seriously, 12 hour days sounds interesting. I always liked the 4 10 hour days. It wouldn't really work at my job.

Agent_Tachyon · « **Reply #15 on:** May 15, 2007, 04:08:16 PM »

Polyphasic sleep was fun for the few weeks I did it, though the rest of the world not working with my rigid schedule posed some problems and I eventually grew tired of it.

Evonus · « **Reply #16 on:** May 15, 2007, 05:11:37 PM »

Quote from: Detta on May 15, 2007, 04:05:21 PM

Right now I work 14 hour monday, 9 hour tuesday, 14 hour wednesday, 8-9 hour thursday and friday.

It sucks. I'm tired.

Starting June 18ish, I'll be working 0 hours mon-friday with weekends off. That's only for 2 weeks though. Then it will be 6 hour days mon-thurs with 3 day weekend. That's for 5 weeks. Then I have the 0 hours/day again for another 3 or so weeks. Then it starts again what I'm doing now.

But seriously, 12 hour days sounds interesting. I always liked the 4 10 hour days. It wouldn't really work at my job.

I thought you were an algebra teacher. Do you teach multiple schools or something?

pbsaurus · « **Reply #17 on:** May 15, 2007, 05:36:52 PM »

Night school.

TheJudge · « **Reply #18 on:** May 15, 2007, 06:50:19 PM »

I've done the 4 day weeks/3 days off two summers ago. It didn't work well considering we have one car and my wife and I weren't on a similar schedule. Overall, I found myself more tired in the long run, and that extra day off was required to rest becaused the compressed week fried my brain. I wasn't really ahead in the end so I switch back to regular work week. Some of my peers work an extra 45 mins or so every day and they take a day of every second week. That seems to work well.

I'm seriously considering taking leave with income averaging, where they ditch a small portion of you paycheck so you can take like 2 months paid vacation (on top of regular vacation). That means my biweekly pay is reduced a little, but I can deal with that.

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Author Topic: Alternative work schedules (Read 4265 times)

12AX7

12AX7