What if there was a simple way to make the work scheduling task easier and at the same time reduce human stress in the workplace? The answer is that there is, and it would probably be good for us all.
The time that humans use, namely the length of time of a day and the 365 (or 365.25) days of the year are immutable. However, the other time identifiers, the hour, the week and the month, are human inventions. If there is a better possibility for a wider-use time definition and allotment, why not consider it?
What is the Problem?
The 7-day week creates a set of problems since ‘7’ is a prime number and is not divisible. Thus, the week cannot be divided easily in two or three which creates difficulties when scheduling teams of workers, especially if work over a weekend is an essential part of an enterprise being able to deliver its services. Among the weekend-working entities are retail shops, restaurants, delivery services, funeral homes, and other services that you can knowingly add to the list.
A second consideration comes from the observation of this writer, that over the span of my lifetime, people are working harder today and are under more stress than any time during the past 60 years. Something should be done about the extra pressure because it is easy to see that the business workers are heading downward, psychologically speaking.
One Solution
One solution is to create a 9-day week with the idea that people work for six days and then enjoy a three-day weekend – every weekend. This solution solves both problems above.
The Mechanics
With a 9-day week (and, keeping the familiar 12-months of the year intact) the number of weeks per month would be 3 and a fraction. Imagine an arrangement as follows:
| Month | Weeks (27 days each) | + Days | Total Days/Month |
| January | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| February | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| March | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| April | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| May | 3 | 5 | 32 |
| June | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| July | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| August | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| September | 3 | 5 | 32 |
| October | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| November | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| December | 3 | 5 | 32 |
| Total | 324 days | 42 days | 366 |
Thus, each month would have 3 weeks plus a few days. Or, work could be designed a less effective 6-day week.
What it Means for the Individual Worker
In the current system where a year has approximately 52 weeks (365.25/7 = 52.18), the average weekend time off is 52.18 x 2 = 104.36 days per year. With the proposed system above having approximately 41 weeks (365.25/9 = 40.58), the normal weekend time off would be 40.58 x 3 = 121.74 days per year, a difference between the old and the new, each average year of a bit more than 17 days per year.
Herein lies a choice for the powers that be. The current statutory holidays during the year should be reviewed and perhaps half of them eliminated because of the new free time. Or perhaps not. If we assume that we eliminate half, but retain the more popular ones: Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, our National Day, and Thanksgiving, the ‘free’ days of the new system would number 17-5 = 12 more days.
Surely most workers would appreciate 12 more free days per year. But businesses will be aghast!
What it Means for the Businesses
Two advantages to business should offset the increased expense of 12 more paid days off.
The first is that stress-related work errors should decrease dramatically. I believe the mistakes eliminated would have a value much greater than the 12-extra-days’ expense. Time off for stress-related disorders should also drop substantially. (If nothing else, we have seen during covid-19, how quickly humans’ stress factors increase by an inconvenience.)
The second advantage to the business of the proposed system is the ability to create schedules that are fair and easy to layout. (The 7-day week does not permit such.) An example is a 2-shift store, open every day from 9 am to 10 pm, say. Break the employee group into several equal-numbered teams with the schedule as follows for Group A: 3 days on the evening shift, 3 days on the day shift, and then three days off. The following week, it would be 3 days on day shift, 3 days on the evening shift and then three days off. Group B would be similar except the evening and day shifts’ order would be reversed. Note that the busier shift could have both Group A and B working together. This is just one arrangement. All sorts of scheduling possibilities exist including balanced shifts for 24-hours-per-day operations. The schedules will be consistent and fair, which surely would be a relief to enterprise owners, especially those dealing with endless schedule squabbles.
Divisions
As you can see above, every month’s day total can be divided in half (except that February can only be divided in a leap year). Three of the months can be divided into four parts. This compares with the present system where only 4 months of the year can be divided into two and only February can be divided into four equal day sections (most of the time). At the moment this dividing note is only information, but time in use of the 9-day week would tell if humans can put this divisional capability of the new arrangement to special advantage.
Of course, irrespective of my suggested schedule of the previous page, the experts can fiddle with, and then put into law, the number of days for each month as their wisdom dictates. The biggest problem I see is coordinating this change worldwide since, globally, most of us want to use the same time reference.
Conclusion
The trade-off for the business owner is 12 days’ pay (equal to a 5% pay increase) vs. the savings from a less stressful work environment. It is likely that the new schedule would provide a smoother operation everywhere, leading to saving money and a better world.
By the way, you don’t have to wait for governments to legislate a 9-day schedule, you can install it at your own enterprise any time, assuming your workers would be willing to trade the 2-day weekend habit for 12 more days off each year. While this may create the fear that your days off will not match your staff’s partners regular weekend, be aware that more than half of your staff’s new time off would match all or part of their partners’ regular weekend.
I imagine that 10 or 20 years after the installation of the 9-day week, people will look back and wonder why we tolerated the 7-day week for so many centuries.
Bill