There is a movement afoot to switch business operations to a four-day work week. Typically in the past that’s meant four, 10-hour work days but now it sometimes means four eight-hour days, with the commensurate reduction in pay. A study released by two Brigham Young University professors suggests that four, 10-hour days may increase job satisfaction and productivity in offices.

There is no magic about the 40-hour work week consisting of five, eight-hour days. That standard was established in 1938 with the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The energy shortage of the 1970s brought experiments with shorter work weeks but they were abandoned when the shortage ended.

Last summer’s run-up in gasoline prices motivated businesses to reexamine the possibility of different work weeks. But there are significant differences in the working atmosphere today than in 1938 or even 1970.

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Today, much work is done remotely and electronically. Telephone calls can be forwarded seamlessly anywhere in the world, any time of any day. Workers can work in home offices on computers tied to the company’s system. Computers allow a worker to work anywhere, anytime. There is not always the need to go to a central place to do work.

Government and private offices offer their services on the Internet and are available 24/7. Employees that work at home eliminate the necessity of providing space and facilities for them at the employer’s location. That’s a substantial saving. In fact, it’s a whole new world for employment.

The day usually nominated for elimination is Friday. I would have suggested Monday since we have so many Monday holidays already, but no one asked me. Fridays off would allow us three-day weekends. Employees like that because it allows families to do more together.

Depending on the nature of the business, workers can either select the four days they want to work, or everybody can take the same additional day off. Jettisoning the standard work week allows greater flexibility consistent with the kind of work to be done.

The flexible work week does not seem to have caught on in Arizona yet. So far it’s only in the city of Avondale, which adopted it last June, and the city of Mesa, which is planning to go that way next month. But Arizona is different, as it is in so many ways. We don’t follow daylight-saving-time for reasons lost in antiquity. Some blame the cattle that would be upset by the change in feeding times. But so few cattle can tell time, that at seems frivolous. Much outdoor work, construction and road work, in the hot summer months is started before dawn, takes siesta in the heat of the day and finishes in the relative cool of the evening. So if Arizona adopts more widely the flexible work week, it will probably reflect differences in the way Arizonans do things.

The public has no great problem getting used to offices being closed on Fridays as they now are on Saturdays and Sundays. Some more essential operations, however, remain on the longer week such as courts, universities, prison systems, and other essential services.

Ironically, retail outlets are open longer hours, often seven days a week, to accommodate customers. Of course, their workers still can work the more flexible hours. They just hire more people.

I asked other self-employed people, including heads of businesses what they thought of working a four-day week. Most thought that sounded like a vacation. But such people routinely work longer hours. When it’s your business, you don’t knock off when a bell rings. You finish your work or take it home with you. And employees working at home don’t work less, they usually work more. But they are free to rearrange their work to fit it into the rest of their lives.

We are seeing a revolution of workplace requirements. With the assistance of electronics, many workers have given up regular commutes to get to work. And those that don’t, at least often have the flexibility to avoid the rush hour horrors. While many things are wrong with our economy right now, this is a trend that can help most everyone. 

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.waxmanmedia.com. Lionel Waxman’s Flashpoint commentaries are published in The Daily Territorial.