How Can We Convince Management to Adopt a 2-Day Weekend for Better Work-Life Balance?

Dear Seniors, I strongly recommend a 2-day weekend off (Sat & Sun). However, the organization I work with is a business consulting firm that operates from 9:30 to 6:30, six days a week. We experience a high level of attrition due to the lack of work-life balance. Many employees appear stressed and burnt out. The organization has maintained this schedule since its inception. Seniors, can you please advise me on how to subtly yet effectively convey this to the management and initiate this change within our organization? I am confident that this change will significantly benefit the organization in numerous ways.

Regards,
Shilpa
HR

We have implemented an alternative Saturday Off policy and increased the daily working time to compensate for that off Saturday. From my personal experience, I would say this is a very good policy. We have reduced our employee leave ratio, stress levels, and also increased employee satisfaction after this. You can inform the management and go for it.

Regards,
Kinjal

Alternative Holiday Schedule Proposal

In the interest of stress and strain relief, I suggest that instead of having two consecutive holidays on Saturday and Sunday, it would be better to have holidays on Thursday and Sunday.

Regards,
D. Gurumurthy
HR/IR Consultant

I understand your concern. We should work smart and not just hard. However, we need to understand the hard facts of your company culture also. You have said that "We have a lot of attrition due to the simple fact of no work-life balance. A lot of employees look stressed and fizzled out."

Evidence for Conclusion

What is the evidence for this conclusion? Have you done an analysis of the exit interviews? How many employees, percentage-wise, mentioned that they were leaving the company because of the improper work-life balance? Whether to go for a five-day week or a six-day week is an age-old controversy. Finally, it reflects the process of your MD. Merely asking opinions of seniors in forums like these will not help.

Ok...

Regards,
DVD

Thanks, but what if we are already working 9 hours a day? Would increasing that be really difficult since it's already from 9:30 to 6:30?

Thanks for your response. However, having Thursday and Sunday off would defeat the purpose, as employees may want to go out for weekend outings, etc.

Thank you for your response. Yes, I did an informal survey, which strongly suggests the level of dissatisfaction among employees due to this. In fact, several candidates refuse job offers because of the 6-day workweek. We are in business advisory, and many of our clients are international. Sometimes, they even express surprise when they learn about the working conditions of Indian employees.

You can give 2nd and 4th Saturdays as weekly offs. A weekly off in the middle of the week disturbs work continuity. Anyways, find out the reason for the stress your people are facing. Just by giving a Saturday off might possibly reduce or be of some help, but it is not the solution to your concern. Conduct activities at work to make the work interesting.

In addition to the useful input by Dinesh, you can also conduct an employee satisfaction survey to confirm the "no work-life balance" issue. Also, if your company is customer-centric, the decision to work or not to work on weekends is directly linked to the readiness to service your clients even on weekends. So, do your analysis first before pushing for a change.

Regards,
Autumn Jane

In today's scenario, this is not possible. Even in the Indian Subcontinent, where the economy is in a strict struggle condition, we can't have a two-day work off for the sake of work-life balance. Please rethink your argument.

Regards,
Abhay Raj
National Head-HR & Legal
RH Group, Mumbai

Firstly, you have to understand the values of your organization. Does your management believe in the value of Human Resources? If yes, do you have the strategies in place?

Secondly, do you have a root-cause analysis of attrition? Sometimes, the issue is different, and the interpretation is different. How many employees left and joined the company where there is a 5-day week? Does it really improve their work-life balance? And if yes, at what cost to the business? Every organization has its own objectives to run the business. I have examples where employees left the organization, which has a 5-day week, and joined a company that has a 6-day week. The reasons can be anything.

In informal feedback, existing employees may say that they are stressed out, and in any organization, this is an issue. But why not work towards better time management and in a smarter way?

Please find enclosed the good article on Time Management that elaborates on these issues. The crux is all the work-life balance issues are related to poor time management.

Regards,
Vinod Bidwaik

Work-Life Balance and Employee Well-being

Work-life balance, managing time, and employees under stress are prevailing issues in today's industry. All employees need to be comfortable with their work—a basic desire for everyone. Work distribution, team-building, and work-sharing benefit greatly, and companionship enables team members to be free for their personal commitments. After all, everyone is earning for the betterment of life.

Apart from this, get-togethers and picnics with families and friends among employees relieve them from stress. We ensure that our employees are entertained and allowed the freedom to participate in welfare ventures organized by our company.

Skill Development and Employee Retention

Work-sharing and team participation also require employees to acquire multiple skills so that the organization's work is never hampered. I know this will take time, but employee welfare doesn't mean extra holidays or manipulation of working hours. It is something that organizations provide as an added benefit for retaining their employees, leading to ever-smiling faces while at work.

My advice is: Please be with your employees and spend quality time understanding their perspectives.

Thanks,

Bijay

If you have done the survey and found out that work-life balance is the major factor for people leaving your organization, then I would suggest you introduce any of the two days in a month as a "Lights out" day wherein everybody from the office should leave at a particular time (you can decide in consultation with your top management – be it 5:00 pm or 5:30 pm). I am sure your employees would appreciate this initiative along with your management too.

In fact, by introducing this, you are satisfying both the management by helping them save electricity, whatever the cost may be, and creating a work-life balance for your employees.

Hope this will help.

The problem with your employees seems to be monotony combined with a work-life imbalance. Accordingly, to me, the worthwhile solutions seem to be as follows:

1. Make it either a 5-day workweek or keep the 2nd and 4th Saturday off, as per the requirement of your organization.
2. Organize activities like sports, picnics, etc., involving your employees after working hours, except in the case of a picnic. You may also organize a birthday bash for all employees born in a particular month on a specific day towards the end of the month and so on. This should not be a one-time event but a regular activity.

I am sure this will relieve you of the problem to a great extent.

Regards,
S.K. Johri