Is a 4 or 5 day work week better

[steve schweitzer]

Hello Everyone, as I have posted I am in the process of moving our vintage auto repair and restoration shop and wanted some advice.

My question is what are your thoughts on 4 day vs 5 day work weeks? Basically 4 10 hour days instead of 5 8 hour days.

This 4 day model is not widely used in the car business. It is almost always 5 and usually 6 days.

I feel this can be a great tool to help hire and keep top notch people as pretty much everybody in this industry has personal project cars they are restoring and like the extra time off.

I also feel we can get greater productivity as keeping someone on task is easier if they less stops and starts. Less days but more hours worked per day I feel will get more done than in 5 days.

The shop would be open 5 days with the manager there to meet customers but the techs would only work 4.

I can also give then techs options to work the extra hours (overtime) when needed or wanted.

What are your thoughts on this plan?

Thanks for the replies

 

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[doster.zach]

The shop would be open 5 days with the manager there to meet customers but the techs would only work 4.

I love your idea of having your employees working 4 10-hour days, a great hiring edge for you, but you could probably just rotate the techs so that they rotated which days they worked.

Ex. with 5 techs, you would have 2 working each day and each would have a different day off during the week.

Not having a normal business schedule is a great way to see if you actually have a big value skew.

My favorite example is Chik-fil-a, they are closed every Sunday and still are the largest growing brand out there despite all competitors being open 1 more day a week.

 

[Itizn]

"This 4 day model is not widely used in the car business. It is almost always 5 and usually 6 days."

My thoughts are if you're company is a top tier provider for your market, it might be worth an experiment to see if only having a four day a week model will boost revenue.

One of my fav restaurants is only open four hours a day, and by hour three the best items on the menu are sold out. The place is always packed too.

Food for thought

 

[Private Witt]

I love this idea and when I was a teacher this idea was kicked around a lot like 15 years ago but always declined due to parent issues with who will watch the kids when they are at work.

I bet it will work great with your staff and their side projects and personal life. Is there a big difference with mechanics pulling 10 hour shift with getting tired or do those dudes turn wrenches all day no problem?

 

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[Ing]

Some thoughts, maybe helpful:

My friend Steve has a car shop. From taking all work and working 6 + days, he suddenly reduced to strictly 5 days 8-5, which was a big improvement. So I think, reducing time is not bad in general.
Work gets more effective.

He tried to work two shifts. 5-1 and 1-8. That didn’t work due to only 3 employees.

In my job I reduced fix work time to 3 days each about 4 hours.
( in my job I work like being na entrepreneur, money on a revenue shared base)
Through reducing the time, the revenue increased, as Of course I work more, but much more effective.
So I think, it will bring your business forward to reduce the fix presence time. Giving a revenue shares plus will boost it I think.