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How does this work in practice? Say you’re a small business who wants a receptionist on the front desk 9-5, Mon-Fri. The working week changes to Mon-Thu, so you

by jl6 5y ago

How does this work in practice? Say you’re a small business who wants a receptionist on the front desk 9-5, Mon-Fri. The working week changes to Mon-Thu, so you pay 4/5 of the receptionist’s salary, and the government scheme pays 1/5. But you still need someone on the front desk on Friday, because you can’t control which days your customers want to do business with you. But it’s tough to hire 1/5 of a person, and if you can it will come with some job-sharing inefficiencies attached to it. So you just have to swallow these inefficiencies? Conversely, large employers can easily cope with these arrangements because of their scale and because they already have all the HR expertise and machinery required to juggle varied working patterns across larger teams. So small business loses?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
amanaplanacanal 5y ago
You were closed on Sunday and Monday before the change, now you just add Friday as a closed day too.
- notahacker 5y ago
  That doesn't really mesh with the "no productivity hit" arguments though. For all that knowledge workers resent the idea that being there at certain times has much impact on their output, in many vocations that's the plain and simple truth
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - arsenace 5y ago
    > That doesn't really mesh with the "no productivity hit" arguments though Sure it does. Any customers who call on Friday will quickly learn you are closed, in future they'll call mon-thurs instead. The no-productivity-hit claim is based on the fact that both businesses and customers are adaptable and quickly change their behavior to match new norms.
    - bryan_w 5y ago
      But the widget that would have been ordered, made, and delivered on Friday will now get delivered on Wednesday due to the backlog that built up
      - antisthenes 5y ago
        The widget's production and delivery has nothing to do with the receptionist, though. Most likely the widget is being ordered online, and, since everyone knows the factory is closed on Friday, it'll be made and shipped on Monday, and delivered on Tuesday/ Wednesday, regardless of whether it was ordered Thursday or Friday. If the factory has encountered a backlog, the mechanism for worker overtime or a 2nd shift still exists.
- pessimizer 5y ago
  Or stay open seven days a week, with one day of overlap for two workers.
  - homarp 5y ago
    or decide that working week-end counts more that 3 days and there is no overlap needed. You can rotate for the week-end shift too.
dhx 5y ago
This is already a dilemma businesses face with reception desks. If you have only one receptionist, what happens when they take lunch or a bathroom break, and what happens if they call in sick for the day? There are a number of options for front desks (whether it be an office, hotel, museum, shop or otherwise): 1. Single worker on a 10-4 Mon-Fri schedule (reduced hours across all days) and the front desk is unstaffed at lunch and during bathroom breaks. Customers have to attend during reduced hours. 2. Two or more workers with overlapping hours most of the week, but occasionally they are by themselves. There is always at least one worker at the front desk (whilst others are taking lunch or not working that day). 3. On one day of the week, another person sits at the front desk (and performs another role the other 3 days of the week they're working). 4. The business no longer has a staffed front desk. If someone is visiting you in an office, you collect them from the lobby/waiting area.
- kodah 5y ago
  I can imagine that good will may sustain options 1-3 temporarily, but I also imagine (in the specific case of assistants and receptionists) that high tech firms will seek to remedy these problems through automation which yields option 4 long term (Cortana, Alexa, Google Assistant). It seems like we're on a course to reach a point where we replace more jobs than we add, or that the education ceiling to do the job that it's replaced with is too high (eg: it's technically advanced).
jimbob45 5y ago
Small businesses typically have exceptions carved out (i.e. rules don't apply to companies under 50 employees). Once the companies get larger, you just strategically set-up the work schedules such that people only show up four days a week but all shifts are covered.
- majewsky 5y ago
  > Small businesses typically have exceptions carved out (i.e. rules don't apply to companies under 50 employees). Even if the rules don't apply to them, that means that as an employee, I can choose a small company and have to work five days, or choose a large company and have to work only four days for the same pay. This will make it even tougher for small businesses to hire workers.

by jl6 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

amanaplanacanal 5y ago

You were closed on Sunday and Monday before the change, now you just add Friday as a closed day too.

notahacker 5y ago
That doesn't really mesh with the "no productivity hit" arguments though. For all that knowledge workers resent the idea that being there at certain times has much impact on their output, in many vocations that's the plain and simple truth
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- arsenace 5y ago
  > That doesn't really mesh with the "no productivity hit" arguments though Sure it does. Any customers who call on Friday will quickly learn you are closed, in future they'll call mon-thurs instead. The no-productivity-hit claim is based on the fact that both businesses and customers are adaptable and quickly change their behavior to match new norms.
  - bryan_w 5y ago
    But the widget that would have been ordered, made, and delivered on Friday will now get delivered on Wednesday due to the backlog that built up
    - antisthenes 5y ago
      The widget's production and delivery has nothing to do with the receptionist, though. Most likely the widget is being ordered online, and, since everyone knows the factory is closed on Friday, it'll be made and shipped on Monday, and delivered on Tuesday/ Wednesday, regardless of whether it was ordered Thursday or Friday. If the factory has encountered a backlog, the mechanism for worker overtime or a 2nd shift still exists.
pessimizer 5y ago
Or stay open seven days a week, with one day of overlap for two workers.
- homarp 5y ago
  or decide that working week-end counts more that 3 days and there is no overlap needed. You can rotate for the week-end shift too.

dhx 5y ago

This is already a dilemma businesses face with reception desks. If you have only one receptionist, what happens when they take lunch or a bathroom break, and what happens if they call in sick for the day? There are a number of options for front desks (whether it be an office, hotel, museum, shop or otherwise): 1. Single worker on a 10-4 Mon-Fri schedule (reduced hours across all days) and the front desk is unstaffed at lunch and during bathroom breaks. Customers have to attend during reduced hours. 2. Two or more workers with overlapping hours most of the week, but occasionally they are by themselves. There is always at least one worker at the front desk (whilst others are taking lunch or not working that day). 3. On one day of the week, another person sits at the front desk (and performs another role the other 3 days of the week they're working). 4. The business no longer has a staffed front desk. If someone is visiting you in an office, you collect them from the lobby/waiting area.

kodah 5y ago
I can imagine that good will may sustain options 1-3 temporarily, but I also imagine (in the specific case of assistants and receptionists) that high tech firms will seek to remedy these problems through automation which yields option 4 long term (Cortana, Alexa, Google Assistant). It seems like we're on a course to reach a point where we replace more jobs than we add, or that the education ceiling to do the job that it's replaced with is too high (eg: it's technically advanced).

jimbob45 5y ago

Small businesses typically have exceptions carved out (i.e. rules don't apply to companies under 50 employees). Once the companies get larger, you just strategically set-up the work schedules such that people only show up four days a week but all shifts are covered.

majewsky 5y ago
> Small businesses typically have exceptions carved out (i.e. rules don't apply to companies under 50 employees). Even if the rules don't apply to them, that means that as an employee, I can choose a small company and have to work five days, or choose a large company and have to work only four days for the same pay. This will make it even tougher for small businesses to hire workers.