Offering employees the option of a fourJday workweek won't affect the company profits,
economic conditions or the lives of employees in the ways the reading suggests.
First, offering a fourJday workweek will probably force companies to spend more,
possibly a lot more. Adding new workers means putting much more money into providing
training and medical benefits. Remember the costs of things like health benefits can be
the same whether an employee works four days or five. And having more employees
also requires more office space and more computers. These additional costs would
quickly cut into company profits.
Second, with respect to overall employment, it doesn’t follow that once some employees
choose a fourJday workweek, many more jobs will become available. Hiring new
workers is costly, as I argued a moment ago. And companies have other options. They
might just choose to ask their employees to work overtime to make up the
difference. Worse, companies might raise expectations. They might start to expect
that their fourJday employees can do the same amount of work they used to do
in five days. If this happens, then no additional jobs will be created and current jobs will
become more unpleasant.
Finally, while a fourJday workweek offers employees more free time to invest in
their personal lives, it also presents some risks that could end up reducing their
quality of life. Working a shorter week can decrease employees’ job stability and harm
their chances for advancing their careers. FourJday employees are likely to
be the first to lose their jobs during an economic downturn. They may also be
passed over for promotions because companies might prefer to have fiveJday
employees in management positions to ensure continuous coverage and consistent
supervision for the entire workweek.