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Alternative Work Schedules Essay, Research Paper

Alternative Work Schedules

Alternative Schedules offer both the employer and employee a versatile and innovative

work scheduling program in the work place. In recent years, the importance of flexible and

compressed work schedules have been enhanced by the emergence of work and family issues. As

the workforce ages, becomes more culturally diverse, and women make up a greater percentage

of the work force, management officials are grappling with ways to resolve conflicts that arise

when an employee’s work and family responsibilities collide.

Alternative Work Schedules (AWS) are non-traditional work programs that allow employees an alternative to the standard 8 to 5, Monday through Friday workweek. An alternative work schedule refers to varying types of flexible and compressed work schedules.

Compressed Work Schedule (CWS) means a full time employee who has an 80-hour biweekly basic work requirement can choose to work more than 8 hours per day in order to complete the basic work requirement in less than 10 days. Examples of a compressed work weeks are the 4/10 schedule, in which an employee works 10 hours a day four days each week, or the 3/13 where a full time employee works 13 hours and 20 minutes each day three days a week for 40 hours per week, or the 5/4-9 model which schedules employees to work nine hours a day for 8 days and 8 hours one day gaining one extra day off every other week.

Flexible Work Schedule (FWS) refers to a full time employee who has an 80-hour biweekly basic work requirement can choose to vary his or her times of arrival to and departure from the work site within the limits set by the requirements of the position and consistent with the policies of the agency.

The difference between the two types of schedules mentioned above are, flexible work schedule frequently referred to as flextime replaces the fixed shift work-day, by breaking the day into two types of time bands, core time and flex time. Within a flexible work schedule, an employee must be present during core time and must work the total number of hours for which she or he has contracted. On the other hand compressed work schedules modify the basic work requirement to less than 10 days but continue with required shifts that make up a pre-established biweekly pay period.

A compressed work week may be the flexible work arrangement you need as part of your

work and family balance management strategy, but you must first carefully consider the personal

advantages and disadvantages.

On the positive side, most employees appreciate having a regular full day off, while still

preserving full-time income. Additionally, the commute to and from work may outside the usual

“rush hour” traffic time because of the extended work day, and thus less stressful. For many

commuters, the road to and from work is paved with too much traffic and congestion, and not

nearly enough time to get where they?re going. Along with reducing statewide traffic congestion,

everyone benefits with less crowded roads and cleaner air (Levitan, 1977).

On the negative side, an ongoing schedule of ten-hour days, while it may be the norm for

some professionals already, can be physically and mentally draining. Not only is the work week

squeezed into a shorter time frame, but, after-work activities must also be wedged into the

remaining hours of each work day. Chronic fatigue caused by current work and family conflict

time pressures may or may not be offset by the regular day off. Child care coverage to match

Work Week 4

your compressed work schedule may also be a challenge. Of course, working parents are not the

only ones with a time-pressured lifestyle. Other career professionals with various work and life

balance needs, such as eldercare, school, home and business, leisure and community pursuits,

have also been drawn away from alternative work schedules (Maklan, 1977).

Alternative work schedule programs have the potential to enable managers and supervisors to

meet their program goals while, at the same time, allowing employees to be more flexible in

scheduling their personal activities. As employees gain greater control over their time, they can,

for example, balance work and family responsibilities more easily, become involved in volunteer

activities, and take advantage of educational opportunities. The employee benefits provided by

an alternative work week programs also are useful recruitment and retention tools.

Instituting a compressed work schedule can be a great asset to an employer, it can; reduce

absenteeism, tardiness and turnover, provide employers with more customer contact, allow for

more set-up time at the start of a shift, give employees more flexibility for family

responsibilities, lower operating costs, if a facility can be closed one day a week.

Management has the authority to alter employees’ scheduling arrangements when

arrangements interfere with the effective accomplishment of government business. Management

is also able to adjust employees work schedules, especially their arrival and departure times to

ensure that the duties of employees positions are fulfilled or to ensure office coverage during the

hours the office is open for business, will be subject to the arbitrator’s definition of “substantially

disrupted” and “additional costs (Cyriax,1980).

Additionally, using a flexible and compressed work schedules it has helped agencies recruit

for some hard-to-fill jobs and helped agencies retain employees who otherwise would have

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