Our only "option" was what 10-hour shift we wanted to work.
That... sucks. And what if you were a person who already finds it difficult to work an 8-hour day?
That doesn't actually matter to TPTB. I think if I had a medical issue, like chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia, they'd let me work at home or otherwise accomodate me. Otherwise, it's time to cowboy up.
My office used to offer the option of the four ten-hour workdays during the summer. Did not work quite the way they expected - people would come in early and require time and copious coffee to get going. Then their brains would pretty much shut off at the usual quitting time. It ended up with people actually working fewer hours.
I strongly suspect that this is going to happen here.
Seriously, I know people who have voluntarily gone to 4x10 schedules, either to save a day's commuting gas or for life balance reasons, but it really shouldn't be something they decide for you. That part sucks.
It's very uncool. They're acting like "Look! Big favor!" but it's not like they *asked* us if we wanted it.
The DH's work is on a 9/80 schedule - 9 hours for 8 days out of every 10, and then every other Friday off/8 hours work Friday. It works, sort of... until they realize that they actually need people on the Friday's off. Then they have to pay OT. They are thinking of going back to a standard work week because it's costing them too much.
I think that our production schedule for the journals, and the fact that our authors and printing companies and webhost all work 5-day weeks, are going to end up putting us back in a 5-day week by the time summer is over.
We start 4 10-hour days next week. I'm still the only employee who's not thrilled about it, because I don't want to get up earlier and I don't like having my evenings truncated.
Do any of these people have children in daycare? Because much as I'd love a 4-day work week, I just couldn't do this. Add in commute time, and the daycare just isn't open long enough for me to work a 10-hour day.
The people with kids young enough to be in daycare also have spouses who can shoulder the burden (which is REALLY UNCOOL), and/or TPTB are allowing the people with young kids to "work from home" for a certain amount of time if the whole daycare thing would be an undue burden.
Which, yet again, SHAFTS the people who have chosen not to spawn.
And for all my complaining, I think that the first Friday where I don't have to get up for work (while The Boy does) is going to be fantastic.
And then the following Monday will suck again.