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A 32-Hour Work Week: Challenges and Benefits
Piloting a 32-hour work week in my organization may be a challenge. My organization is in the public sector and offers services that are necessary for the day-to-day operations of many other firms. It would therefore require government acquiescence before adopting a 32-hour week. Failing such permission, my organization must have at least a 40-hour work week, and a 32-hour work week would necessitate additional staff and the creation of a shift roster to ensure the offices are manned at all times. This would create additional costs and activities such as orientating new staff and the potential loss of fluency in operations as shifts change. Moreover, the piloting phase could potentially raise questions about job analysis and wages of workers whose terms of service would have changed considerably (Mathis et al., 2020). From the perspective of my organization, piloting a 32-hour work week would present significant teething problems and potentially huge increases in staff costs.
According to research, the 32-hour week affords several advantages to employees in particular. Firstly, it affords them extra time to be with their families (Veal, 2022). This is important for many workers who feel that the typical work week leaves them too exhausted and with too little time to socialize with their children, spouses, and relatives. Veal (2022) adds that employees who spend adequate time with their families may feel motivated as a result of having a good work-life balance which may offset their reduced work hours. Another positive outcome of the 32-hour work week is that it may increase job opportunities. As noted earlier, the 32-hour work week for employees does not necessarily mean a 32-hour work week for the business. Thus, businesses may need to employ additional staff to fill out the extra hours beyond the 32 work hours for conventional staff. This outcome may be particularly welcome in the face of rising inflation and unemployment in most industries.
Thirdly, a 32-hour work week could positively influence the retail and tourism sector. In a study on peoples opinions on the 32-hour work week, more than half of their respondents said that they would spend their additional free time shopping (Laker, 2022). Some of the participants of the study described the current work week as suffocating to the extent they hardly had time for shopping, traveling, and recreational activities. Thus, retail stores could have more and more shoppers which could in turn positively affect manufacturing as the demand for goods increases. After evaluating the three positive outcomes of the 32-hour work week, it is clear that it can confer certain advantages to the economy and the organization.
I maintain that piloting a 32-hour work week could present a huge challenge to my organization, and the employment regime in general, despite the advantages it confers to employees. For a 32-hour work week to be feasible, there needs an entire cultural change across society. In particular, people need to agree to it and embrace it as the modus operandi. There needs to be an agreement that synchronizes business hours across the board. For instance, people may need to decide that Thursday is the last working day of the week. From that point, people can adjust accordingly to the new schedule in terms of schooldays, a longer weekend, and knowing that certain services may not be available on Friday. If corporations arbitrarily design their 32-hour work week, there may be a clash of schedules that would severely affect productivity and continuity in operations.
References
Laker, B. (2022). What does the four-day workweek mean for the future of work? MIT Sloan Management Review. Web.
Mathis, R. L., Jackson, J. H., Valentine, S. R., & Meglich, P. (2020). Human resource management (16th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Veal, A. J. (2022). The 4-day work-week: The new leisure society? Leisure Studies, 116. Web.
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