The Washington county reduced hours due to a tight budget, but most employees say the shortened week has also improved their work-life balance.

The Washington county reduced hours due to a tight budget, but most employees say the shortened week has also improved their work-life balance.

  • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
    34·
    13 days ago

    most employees say the shortened week has also improved their work-life balance.

    This is worded funny, implying there are some who said less hours did not improve work life balance. I can’t really figure that.

    Regardless I really wish this would catch on. 32hr workweek would be such an awesome improvement. But in the USA I’m really not holding my breath this would be adopted wide scale. Our system is about exploiting the worker not altruism. I just see big business fighting back hard for as long as possible.

    • n2burns@lemmy.ca
      11·
      13 days ago
      most employees say the shortened week has also improved their work-life balance.

      This is worded funny, implying there are some who said less hours did not improve work life balance. I can’t really figure that.

      FTA:

      Most notably, at the one-year mark, 84% of all employees “somewhat” or “strongly” agree that the 32-hour work week has improved their work/life balance.

      One reason I can see why someone wouldn’t agree with this statement is because an employee already has a great work/life balance, so while an extra 8 hours (plus commute) of free time is nice, it may not improve their work/life balance.

      Also, there are exempt employees who may be negatively impacted by the initiative:

      Another concern raised by the report is the fact that exempt employees are having to work more than 32 hours per week. These are salaried employees, not eligible for overtime pay.

      …

      31% of exempt employees, mostly managers and directors, responded that the initiative has had a negative impact on their workload. Nonetheless, 67% of exempt employee respondents agree that the initiative has improved their work/life balance.

      • Talaraine@fedia.io
        91·
        13 days ago

        Or it could be that as the article also said,

        The Washington county reduced hours due to a tight budget

        Which implies that pay was cut and not everyone could do without that extra bit.

        • n2burns@lemmy.ca
          8·
          13 days ago

          Nope. FTA:

          Employees were offered the same pay for 32 hours as they had received for a 40-hour work week.

          It was part of their contract negotiation, and they took reduced hours in lieu of a pay increase.

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
      53·
      13 days ago

      This is worded funny, implying there are some who said less hours did not improve work life balance. I can’t really figure that.

      That’s not what that’s implying. It explicitly states “most employees said…”. This implies others either said something else or just did not say something specifically with regard to work life balance.