• A new study on work-life balance says flexible schedules and shorter work weeks can lead to more productive, healthy and loyal workers.

• The report released Friday by the International Labour Organization says giving workers flexibility in terms of where and when they work can be win-win for both employees and businesses.

• The United Nations agency says flexible work schedules can improve workers’ job satisfaction, performance and commitment to an organization – reducing recruitment costs and increasing productivity.

• Meanwhile, the study found that employers who enforce strict work arrangements or schedules such as a 9-to-5 office workweek, could see productivity and job performance drop, and turnover and absenteeism increase.

• “Better work-life balance is associated with a multitude of benefits for employees,” the report said, noting that the benefits include improved psychological and physical health of employees, increased job satisfaction and greater feelings of job security.

• A survey by recruitment firm Robert Half conducted in late November asked nearly 800 LinkedIn users about what topped their work goals for new year.

• The No. 1 response was work-life balance, with 39 per cent of respondents saying it topped their work wish list, followed by 28 per cent who said remote work options were the most important.

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These studies hardly ever take into account that some jobs just can’t accommodate the flexible scheduling championed by the study.

Always reminds me of somebody I heard talking about how much time they thought people should have off. They were really adamant about not overworking people and included not making people work hours that would disrupt their circadian rhythm for better sleep and everything which is admirable. But at the end they justified by saying what they thought people should be able to do with their time off. This person said they should be able to go out to eat in a nice restaurant with friends and family.

Who would have served them in the restaurant though? According to them nobody should have to work that kind of shift, including the restaurant staff

Want your father to have a doctor see him when they have a heart attack on Christmas? What about the fire department when your house is on fire during Thanksgiving? Of course for the jobs where it’s possible we should be flexible and reduce hours if possible, but headlines like this gloss over that and in my experience the articles do too.

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Middle management just flooded the office with a flop sweat

Wait... You mean every single job doesn't HAVE to be done exactly the same way everywhere? Mind. Blowing.

Jobs that can't be flexible should pay the most to accommodate for that, and the rest of the jobs should be open and flexed. The way things are now is fucked, out dated and wrong.

Oh I absolutely agree, just when I hear “flexibility” I think “holidays off” and a place like a hospital just can’t do that. Even if you cut hours by half and doubled or even tripled staff some of them would have to work on Christmas, a portion of whom would likely rather be celebrating.

I really don’t care about the downvotes I got, my only real point is that there will never be a perfect system where everybody gets what they want until we can automate literally everything.

Edit: actually tbh I had two points. The anecdote about “who would be working the restaurant?” Was just a slight warning about people not getting carried away with sentiment. There will still be overnight jobs. There will still be manual labor. Customer service jobs will always suck because of the customers. Et cetera

Edit 2: spelling on first edit, “restaurant” is hard

If walmart is open on Christmas their employees should be making at least a middle class wage. Not lower class. People should get paid based on what they sacrifice. And low wage people sacrifice alot, and they deserve so much more than they get.

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Again, agreed. Are Walmarts open for nonessential stuff too that day? Despite there being one in the next town over from me they’re not very popular where I am. We have the density to support several and I think we do but I’ve been to once of them one and had to use google maps to get there.

Edit: “one” to “once”

I was using Walmart as an example of a business people don't respect. It applys to most service work

I used to work events. I’ve been asked to work every holiday, not every year, but at some point I was asked to work every one. That was kinda wild.

But this is sort of a good example. It was unfair of them to beg me to work on the 4th of July and make it seem like I was letting them down because I was told that was one of the days I’d never even be asked to work. But I also almost never got New Year’s Eve off and had to work a really long shift.

But thing is we were an events company that did weddings, corporate events, concerts/shows and more. We always had multiple of all three that night. I was told when I “signed up” to not expect to have NYE off. Ever. That didn’t mean it couldn’t happen (and it happen more than once) but it was not something to be counted on.

Btw I’m not surprised by how many assholes there out there. My boss would tell them it cost the same amount of money for me to leave and come back after setting up a “concealed” confetti cannon for a midnight pop-off as it was to stay and 99.9% of the time they made me stay on site for no reason. Complete waste of time.

Admittedly a lot of jobs don’t have something so dramatic but there’s always something. Tax season. Flu season. End of the quarter. Going back to school. People repairing damage from storms such as linemen restoring power, snow plows making roads passable, aid workers responding to a catastrophe or contractors of all sorts fixing damage to various aspect of residential and commercial buildings.

Just something I think people should keep in mind as they think of how actual policy would/should work.

I see you have met my boss!

It might vary by area and region and the workload.

Usually the only day we get off in the Walmart warehouse I work in is Xmas day. But this year, we got Thanksgiving off and overnights didn’t have to work New Year’s Eve and mornings didn’t have to work New Years Day.

…We still don’t get paid for those holidays, so fat lot of good being forced not to be paid did me. We used to get 10 hours of holiday pay for all the major holidays, but that all changed about… 7ish years ago now.

Walmart as a company fucking blows, but it’s basically all I have right now.

Working five days a week means having only two days for other stuff, including resting. People have to make a tight schedule within those two days.

Having worked five days/a week for ten years, the reason I can keep going is that I only work at the maximum concentration and effort no more than three hours a day. For the rest of the working hours, I am in energy-saving mode.

I'm on a 4x10 schedule and it's amazing.

But it does kill your evening plans though.

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>If your employer puts out schedules weeks ahead of time then flex scheduling isn't too bad, but most work places only do one week in advance.

What? Flexible work hours means you choose for yourself when you're going to come in for work. It doesn't mean your employer chooses your time willy-nilly.

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"The first 15min I just space out"

"Space out?"

"Yeah, I just stare at my screen, but it looks like I'm working..."

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Mine too!