Page 276 - Introduction to Business

250 PART 2 Managing Business Behavior

The prevalence of work-life programs is a function of the business environment.
For example, if the economy is booming and unemployment is low, employers will
be more willing to consider alternative work styles like flexible work schedules. How-
ever, if the economy is in a deep recession or unemployment is high, employers may
not be enthused to entertain the flexible work schedules that employees may
request. Two major considerations that are troubling to employers are how will the
implementation of flexible schedules affect work flow, customer service, and corpo-
rate performance, and what is the work ethic of the employees who request flexible
schedules? Despite these concerns, about one-third of full-time U.S. workers are on
flexible schedules of some type or other. These employers see flexible schedules as a
way of keeping valued employees satisfied.
Some of the most common types of work-life programs used globally include
flextime programs, part-time work, work-share programs, self-managed work
teams, telecommuting, and alternative work styles.

Flextime Programs
About one-third of U.S. employees work on flexible schedules. For various rea-
sons, some workers are required to work during so-called nonpeak hours. Manu-
facturing plants, especially those based on continuous-flow operations in indus-
tries like chemicals, drugs, and steel, operate on a 24-hour basis, and employees
working in such facilities generally work on three shifts of eight hours each. Some
of these employees work on rotation and are on flexible schedules. Similarly, in
the health care field, doctors, nurses, and paramedical personnel operate on flex-
ible schedules. There are a number of other professionals, like police officers and
commercial airline pilots, who work on flexible schedules. Yet, when we speak of
flextime, we generally talk about people who work staggered times during regular
daytime.
flextime The flexible daily work hours Employees on flextime choose their daily work hours in consultation with their
chosen by employees in consultation supervisors. Each company has periods during the workday that it considers core
with their supervisors in addition to core time, periods during which all employees are expected to be at work to facilitate
time, the daily period during which all
employees are expected to be at work interactive communication and workflow. Generally, the core time can be any block
to facilitate interactive communication or blocks of time between 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. when all employees are required
and workflow
to be present. The noncore time is the flextime, and employees are given the option
of choosing the flextime most convenient for them, provided they put in a total of
eight hours (core time plus flextime) each day. Sometimes, managers may allow
workers to put in ten hours of work one day and six hours another day. There is no
hard and fast rule on what the workweek would look like for a flextime worker. This
is something that employees need to work out with their managers. Anyway, an
employee will need to put in a total of 40 hours of work each week.
While flextime does provide employees freedom as far as work hours are con-
cerned, managers face some challenges. First, since employees work on different
schedules, the manager’s job gets more thorny, and the manager may at times get
the feeling that she or he has lost control over the job situation. Second, a good sys-
tem for monitoring work hours (time cards) needs to be in place; otherwise the
manager will just have to hope that the employees behave ethically. Some employ-
ees, unless they are closely supervised, may not put in their required hours. Finally,
colleagues generally look on employees on flextime programs suspiciously. Fellow
workers are not sure whether flextime employees show up for work, put in the
required hours of work if they do show up, or do any work when they are there,
since supervisors may not be present.

Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.