Working hours (5.5 vs 5 day weeks)

I have always fundamentally rejected the concept of waking up in the morning to go to work six days a week. That just sounded wrong to me. But, like many people in this region, I did what I saw everyone do. I started the business with 6 day weeks. Of course everyone had a day 'half-off'. However, that day is ruined anyway. It's gone.

Two things made the switch to five days easy for me:

1. Government switch to Fri-Sat weekends, synchronizing with the banking sector and the most globally friendly weekend for business. Most of our clients ended up with Fri-Sat off. This means that half of Thursday was wasted (we are off while our clients are at work). It also meant that when we are working on a Saturday, none of our clients are. So, we are doing a lot less than what we are supposed to do.

2. Salik - yes, Salik was rather persuasive in cutting the costs of transportation. So, why would you go out to your office six times a week instead of five? Why pay for the toll when you really shouldn't?


There are great benefits too. The staff are rested and can be more productive. In fact, if you are so concerned about the 4-5 hours they usually put in on Thursdays, you can rest assured that most of them will work extra just to get the job done. They have their time, they are now more inclined to give you their all.

For the skeptics, you can even add an additional hour to the day (9 hours/day). Give them the option:
- Work the same hours (Sat-Thur) with thursday half-off
- Work Sun-Thur, but instead of 8 hour days, you get 9.

I guarantee you, the staff will pick the second option. You also get your 5 extra 'idle' hours that you so desperately need. The point is, you have to give them 2 full nights of rest.

I have seen it lift morale and we have had far less incidents in the past 2 weeks (since its implementation) than we normally have. It's been great for me.