The 9 Day Week
I’ve been ruminating on an updated calendar for about a decade, and while I don’t have it all worked out, what follows is perhaps the best idea I’ve ever had.
How long has the world operated under a 7 day week? And why? Is it the ideal? Is it arbitrary? Have governments ever considered a different option? Let’s explore how changing from a 7 day week with 5 working days to a 9 day week with 6 working days could improve everything from productivity to health and wellness.
Our current 7 day week in America means 5 working days totaling 40 hours for full time work, which equates to 71% of the week being a work day and 24% of the week’s hours being work hours. In a 365 day year, there will be 260 or 261 working days. Most school systems follow the 5 days a week model, resulting in about 180 days of school per year, or 36 full weeks and about 70% of working days are also school days. The structure of the 7 day week is 5/2, meaning 5 consecutive days of work/school, then 2 days off.
The new proposed 9 day week offers a slightly smaller share of days and hours spent working, and fewer consecutive days as well. Each week would consist of a 3/1/3/2 format, meaning 3 work days, one off, 3 work days, two off. Six days of work and school for every 9 day week means 67% of the week being a work day, and assuming an 8 hour work day, 48 hours of work per week is 22% of the week’s hours. In a 365 day year, there will be 243 or 244 work days, a reduction of about 9%. There would be no need to reduce the number of school days per year, 180 days would equal 30 full 9 day weeks.
The reduction of working days and hours at first seems significant, yet several studies have shown that this could actually improve productivity at work and student performance at school. If your work day was reduced from 8 hours by 10%, you would get back 48 minutes. Not every 8 hour per day job can be done in 7 hours and 12 minutes, but many can. Can you reduce the workday by 10% and keep employee performance the same? Many studies have shown it is possible, but what about reducing the work days by 10% and achieving the same or better performance? Let’s walk through some scenarios to understand how this week would work.
My week begins with three work days, let’s call them Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a day off, for this example we will call it Breakday. Following the day off, I have 3 more work days, Twednesday, Thursday and Friday, followed by 2 days off, Saturday and Sunday. Just the prospect of only ever having to work 3 days in a row sounds magical, I’m dreading Monday less, knowing that it’s only three days later I get a nice Breakday with my family. I’m excited to plan vacations, I can get 6 days off in a row for 3 vacation days, or 11 days off in a row for 6 vacation days, so depending on the vacation plan I’ve got a lot of flexibility. My friend works retail, which is open every day, so what would her week look like?
Right now, retail workers often do not have a set schedule, or even a set amount of hours per day or week. For some, this offers flexibility around other parts of their lives, but for others this type of schedule forces them to flex the rest of their life around an unpredictable work schedule, and unfortunately a 9 day work week does not alleviate this automatically. Retail operations have different needs for staffing based on daily traffic and inbound shipments of goods, and prioritize staffing around projected needs, and then give schedule choice by seniority. One benefit of the new work week might be an opportunity to set, and deliver on, schedule preferences based on wanting to work during the first half or second half of the week, or primarily on Breakdays and Weekends. The employers that utilize an approach that engages their staff the best may hold an advantage in employee satisfaction and retention, which typically translates to better operations, revenues and profits.
Another friend works in a 24/7 facility working 12 hours shifts. What does their new schedule look like? Currently working alternating 4 day and 3 day weeks of 12 hours per day, they would likely move to a 5 day and 4 day rotation. Depending on the employer and the job being performed the schedule might vary, but here is an option: Have 3 shifts during the 6 normal working days, each working a normal 8 hour shift, and use two 12 hour shifts on the 3 Breakday/Weekend days, which means you’d have 3 shifts working 48 hours per week and 2 shifts working 36 hours per week. An employer could also chose to make 36 hours full time work, and have 3 day shift teams and 3 night shift teams each work three 12 hour days. This model works especially well if employee sponsored health care is replaced by government sponsored, and the significance of full time employment is reduced. It would also help with vacation and sick day coverage, as you would have 2 other teams to draw from to cover these shifts. Would you find a staff that would be engaged to earn 75% of full time pay for 3 days of work in a 9 day week? Yes I think you would. Sign me up today.
Since consumer spending is such a large part of the American economy, considering the impact of a 9 day week is important. With a reduction of work hours per week and work days per year, the opportunities to shop, dine and recreate increase, and all of the spending associated will increase as well. How would you spend your Breakday every week? Would you be more likely to use your vacation time 3 days at a time, or 6? Or would you look for a 3 day per week job, and spend some of the other 6 following your dream?
This is the first post of a series that I hope to publish on the 9 day week as I continue to develop the idea and figure out if it would work for real on a large scale. (One thing to discuss is would any country do this on it’s own without the world going along, and I say yes, the US could do it without anyone else in the world going along, just like we do with the Imperial measuring units instead of Metric).