First, what is a 9/80 schedule?
“9/80s work schedule” is a compressed work schedule which consists of eight 9-hour days, one 8-hour day, and one day off in a 2-week period.
Employees typically work four 9-hour days followed by an 8-hour workday that is divided into two 4-hour periods under a 9/80 arrangement.
Find out more about the 9/80 schedule as you continue reading.
Table of Contents
What Does A 9/80 Schedule Mean? ( Sample )
A 9/80 workweek is made up of a total of eight nine-hour days, one eight-hour day, and one day off.
In more detail, a 9/80 work schedule requires employees to put in 80 hours over a period of nine days (hence the name: 9 days/80 hours) rather than the usual 10 days (assuming a five-day workweek). You are now able to provide your staff with a full day off every other week.
Your staff members would work four nine-hour days (a total of 36 hours) on a typical 9/80 schedule before working one eight-hour day. For payroll calculations, you allocate the first four hours of an eight-hour workday to the current week and the second four hours to the next.
In total, that equals 40 hours worked (all without overtime) from Monday through Friday the first week and 40 hours worked from Monday through Thursday the following week. Then, without reducing work hours, you can completely give employees the second Friday off.
First Week
Monday: 7-12 and 1-5 with an unpaid lunch break in-between (9 hours total)
Tuesday: Same
Wednesday: Same
Thursday: Same (for a total of 36 hours)
Friday: 8-12 (first week ends) + 1-5 (second week starts)
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Second Week
Monday: 7-12 and 1-5 with an unpaid lunch break in between (9 hours total)
Tuesday: Same
Wednesday: Same
Thursday: Same (for a total of 40 hours including the four hours worked the previous Friday)
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Remember that a 9/80 work schedule has many variations, and this is just one of them. Instead, you might have workers report to work at 8:00 a.m. and work until 6 p.m. The required nine hours would still be available in a day in that case.
Read about: Ask For Feedback After Job Rejection
9/80 Workweek Advantages
Due to its many benefits, a 9/80 schedule is frequently implemented by employers. Employers have the option to try something new rather than imposing a standard 9–5 workday. Some of the many benefits of a 9/80 schedule are listed below:
Increased Productivity
The extra day off is often viewed by workers as a merit reward. In order to accomplish it, it might motivate them to put in more effort throughout the week. In turn, the extra day off can raise spirits and help staff members view their jobs more favorably. Less sick days and vacation requests might be made to employers with this schedule.
Fewer Interruptions
Employees won’t have to interrupt work to take care of personal obligations because they will have more time to do so. It’s better for their involvement and for the overall productivity of your company that way.
Flexibility
The possibility of coverage loss is one of the areas that worries employers. They believe that taking the day off will result in less productivity. This problem can be solved with a 9/80 schedule.
An employer might feel she cannot afford to grant an additional day off due to the nature of her business. Instead, she grants Friday off to half the team, and Monday off to the other. In order to give everyone a three-day weekend while keeping the company open all week, she divides the day off incentive between two teams.
Improved Task Completion
Your staff members are more likely to finish tasks on the day they begin them thanks to the extra hour of work each day.
Better Rest
Your employees will have more time to recover from the demanding workweek thanks to the extra two days off each month. The following Monday, they’ll be rested and prepared to work.
Easier Commutes
Long-distance commuters are given additional incentives by employers who target them by utilizing their schedule. For those commuters, they alter schedules so that they can avoid periods of congested traffic. This saves them a lot of time getting to and from work while minimizing the physical strain associated with it.
Higher Incentive For Potential Employees
In the hectic workplace of today, hiring new employees can be challenging. Before committing to your company, new hires frequently seek out the fringe benefits they can get. A 9/80 work schedule increases the appeal of your business to prospective employees.
When you offer this type of schedule on their very first day, new hires can achieve a work/life balance that is more tailored to their unique situation right from the start. It won’t take them weeks, months, or even years to gain more control over their schedule.
That’s a tempting incentive that will significantly help your hiring efforts.
Work-life Balance
Because of the other benefits mentioned, employees can successfully balance their personal and professional lives with this kind of schedule. Employers guarantee two days off per month, which workers can use for rest, vacations, or even doctor’s visits.
Read about: Accepted Job Offer Haven’t Heard Back
What Are The Drawbacks Of A 9/80 Work Schedule?
Employee morale and payroll time tracking are two issues that arise with a 9/80 work schedule. Here are some of the most typical problems.
Longer Workday
Employees who work nine-hour shifts might feel as though they only have time to get home, eat dinner, and go to bed. After some time, that may start to lower morale.
Changing The Regular Day Off
In order to better fit their schedules, employees occasionally request to switch the regularly scheduled day off. Your time tracking could become very challenging as a result.
Early Arrival Or Departure
Allowing your workers to adjust their arrival and departure times may result in them working more than 40 hours in the first week and fewer than 40 hours in the second, which may necessitate overtime and cause a variety of other issues.
Problems With Focus
The 9/80 schedule can become problematic for your team members who prefer a quiet workspace. Employees may become disengaged and lose focus when there is an excessive amount of activity variation.
Additionally, it may negatively affect freelancers and telecommuters who might be working when the rest of your office is not.
Staffing Gaps
The 9/80 schedule is less than ideal for smaller businesses with fewer employees. There might not be enough team members to cover all the shifts required by alternative schedules like the 9/80, which would prevent your company from operating during the additional days off each month.
You might not have enough workers to maintain the smooth operation of your business even if you stagger the schedule so that some employees work on Friday and others work on Monday.
Inactive Customers And Businesses
In some cases, the additional hours of work that come with a 9/80 schedule might not be productive for your clients or other businesses.
If you can’t find a way to keep your team members on task during the few hours when other businesses are closed and your customers are elsewhere, this could result in drops in productivity and even a loss in revenue.
Sick Leave
If you implement a 9/80 work schedule, you might have to change your sick leave policy. An illness-related day off from work would equal nine hours under this schedule as opposed to the usual eight.
To make the new schedule work, you’ll need to reorganize a little because nine hours and eight hours don’t divide evenly into the same numbers (unless you want to offer fractions of a workday or increase your sick leave to 72 hours).
Issues With Overtime
Issues with overtime are another possibility. If members of the team don’t strictly adhere to the set working hours (for instance,, they work an extra hour on Tuesday to finish a project), you might be paying more overtime pay than you intended.
If it only occurs once or twice a month for one or two employees, that shouldn’t be a problem. Your bottom line will start to suffer if it occurs more frequently and for a larger number of team members.
Avoid letting these difficulties stop you from implementing a 9/80 work schedule. Simply reinforce teamwork and group cohesion throughout the demanding workweek and enforce the schedule’s rules to avoid tracking and calculation problems.
A 9/80 Workday Is Authorized In What Way?
According to the law, the conditions for implementing a 9/80 work schedule are outlined in California Labor Code section 510. At least two-thirds of the workers in a particular work department must vote in a secret ballot election in favor of 9/80 before your company can even consider implementing it. If more than 5% of employees speak a language other than English, the employer must provide written wages, hours, and benefits information in both English and the non-English language and hold an election at their expense during working hours.
The California Division of Labor and Research needs to receive the election results. Additionally, if one-third of workers submit a petition to revoke an alternative schedule, a new election must be held within 30 days of the petition.
Affected employees fill out a form choosing their day off between Monday and Friday when an organization or company chooses a 9/80 work schedule for a particular department or shift. For instance, if they decide to take Wednesday off, they will have to decide between two possibilities: They can choose to start a work month with the first Wednesday off or the next (within a two-week window) by scheduling Wednesday A or Wednesday B.
Except in exempt situations where the request is discussed with a supervisor or manager, scheduled days off are fixed and cannot be changed once they have been established. There are some situations where specific worker groups may be exempt from this work schedule. People who have specific medical conditions, single parents with young children, or university students who work and study may request to be excluded from this schedule. Additionally excluded from the compressed workweek schedule are groups of employees who provide round-the-clock coverage, such as customer service representatives and computer operators.
In order to avoid any fines or legal action, the aforementioned steps should be taken exactly as instructed.
Editor’s pick: How long will it take me to get to work really? How to cut commuting time? Click here!
An Illustration Of A 9/80 Work Schedule: Clif Bar & Company
American food company Clif Bar makes energy drinks and power bars. In addition to other outdoor enthusiasts, cyclists and climbers also enjoy it.
As a result, they reportedly integrated an alternative 9/80 schedule as an available work schedule for their employees because they value their time off. The key to their success is having a positive, stress-free working environment. Clif Bar employees have the chance to spend more time with their families engaging in fun and healthy activities thanks to the 9/80 work schedule. Additionally, this company wants to make running errands for their staff members as quick and easy as possible, so they provide extra benefits to make their staff members’ 3-day weekends as enjoyable and fulfilling as possible.
Gary Ericson, the proprietor of Clif Bar, thinks that this alternative work schedule boosts employee satisfaction, motivation, personal development, and workplace productivity. According to Ericson, his employees’ success is largely dependent on their wellbeing, which is made possible by a 9/80 work schedule.
The 9/80 work schedule and the laid-back work environment, as rated by current or former employees, are actually the two most significant benefits of Clif Bar & Company, according to job reviews from a number of websites. Therefore, they find that this alternative work schedule works for them.
Final Words
Adopting a 9/80 schedule can be difficult but also ambitious, whether you’re an employee or a business owner. It is necessary to follow the guidelines we’ve outlined in this blog post when making this change to your work schedule. To avoid miscommunications and disorderly work schedules, everyone involved in the system needs to be familiar with it.
The 9/80 schedule will increase employee motivation and productivity at work while granting everyone an extra day off. Such an alternative work schedule can be advantageous to both businesses and employees with proper implementation.
The focus of the article was what a 9/80 schedule is. Please leave a comment if you’d like to know what a 9/80 schedule is. I appreciate your reading. Have a good day.
