skip to main content

Commuting fewer days by implementing compressed work week schedules

What employers can do to implement a compressed work week schedule program for employees:

  • Establish program goals and metrics
  • Determine how to measure job performance
  • Work with employees, payroll staff and labor organizations to develop suitable policies and practices
  • Write program policies and procedures for work hours (including core hours and overtime); create forms such as an application and compressed work week schedule agreement between employee and supervisor 
  • Notify managers and employees about program
  • Select and train participants and telework supervisors
  • Integrate telework into your organization’s Emergency Management/Business Continuity plan

With a compressed work week, the total nmber of hours an employee works does not change; only the way his or her hours are scheduled changes.  The most typical compressed work week schedules are:

  • 4/10s:  Forty hours are worked in four 10-hour days
  • 9/80s:  Eighty hours are worked in eight 9-hour days and one 8-hour day
  • 3/12s:  Thirty-six hours are worked in three 12-hour days