4-10 Workweek

The standard work schedule week is five 8-hour days, totaling 40 hours. Some companies opt for a 4-10 workweek with an additional day off each week.

There are several pros and cons to each schedule. To make the decision even more challenging, the pros and cons can flip for different people. The criteria for job satisfaction are highly personal.

From a company perspective, several factors impact whether it is a good decision. In most cases, customer-oriented organizations will need to staff all five traditional workdays. That may make a 4-day workweek an impractical decision.

Company Considerations

In general, from a workplace perspective, the longer days can create flexibility. For example, there is an option to create a 3-day weekend shift if the company has 4-10s. You also have the option to work on Fridays (as overtime) if there is a spike in demand. You can even set up Fridays to operate at lower capacity (i.e. with a longer takt time) to be more accommodating to team members who have prior personal commitments. (This would require playbooks to do effectively, though.)

The short of it is that 4-10 workweeks can give you some “in-between” options to get more out of your team and physical resources without having to run a full second or third shift.  

If there are long startup times for equipment, 4-10 workweeks can remove a lot of waste. For example, if equipment takes half an hour to get started up, that means you can save a half hour per week of paid time when a team is not producing. There are other ways to deal with that (i.e. bringing in a skeleton crew early to turn on machines), but every solution offers other obstacles. There are also 20% fewer stand-up meetings, end of day cleanup sessions, maintenance checks, etc.

There is some question about whether teams are more productive on 10-hour shifts vs 8-hour shifts. Some data shows that certain jobs can be more productive with shorter days, but those studies don’t cover production work that is tied to a fixed process, or to a physical pacing device like a takt time clock or moving assembly line.

Finally, having teams working different schedules might have a negative effect on a company. There can be communication or coordination issues if administrative groups are working Fridays and the shop floor team is not. If some production groups work different schedules than the rest of the crews, it can disrupt flow.

Personal Considerations

Workweek schedule is an issue of personal preference for team members. Some people thrive with a shorter day. They get worn out and end up going home with no energy to have work-life balance. While the long weekends are valued to recuperate, they don’t offset the loss in satisfaction during the week.

It’s not that the others prefer working longer, though. What they prefer is flexibility. They like having an extra day off to take care of personal business during the work week without having to use up scare personal hours or vacation time.

So, from an employee perspective, there are some who like 4-10’s and some who prefer a standard 5-8 schedule.

Be EXTREMELY careful when transitioning between the different work schedules. People may feel resentful if they signed on for one thing and end up having to swap to something else.

Also keep in mind that this can be a very costly experiment. If you switch and things don’t work out, you can have a lot of turnover and disgruntled employees to deal with.

Finally, be data driven about the decision. If you are considering a transition, you might try it as a pilot program, or might do a lot of surveying in advance to see if your workforce is partial to a 4-10 workweek.

4-10 Workweeks Words of Warning

• Some locations may have overtime rules that are based on daily hours rather than weekly totals. If there is an 8-hour limit on hours at standard pay, then it can get expensive if 20% of a company’s base hours are paid at an overtime rate.
• While there is no specific empirical data, it is reasonable to assume that there could be safety issues associated with operating machinery if people are fatigued. You’ll have to assess that issue based on your specific circumstances.

Childcare issues can be very challenging for people with 4-day workweeks. Many daycares have hour limits which can make pickups hard, especially for single parents or on days when overtime makes the 10-hour day even longer.