Back in the early 1990s, I was a middle manager at a major energy company during a time when businesses were exploring new ways of working. One hot topic was whether a 4-day workweek with 10-hour days was better than the traditional 5-day, 8-hour schedule. I managed a small products pipeline unit with 1,500 miles of pipelines stretching from Dallas to Chicago and about 30 employees. Our unit paralleled a crude oil pipeline unit, but unlike crude oil, our products pipeline required constant attention to avoid contamination between batches of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other special products.
One day, my field personnel approached me with a request to switch to a 4-day, 10-hour workweek. After consulting with Human Relations, I was given the green light to try it on a trial basis, but I had to keep it under wraps. I held an all-employee meeting and laid out three conditions:
- The employees had to create a work schedule and explain in writing how it would benefit the company.
- As a unionized group, they needed unanimous agreement.
- They couldn’t discuss the experiment outside our unit.
The result was a schedule that split the employees into two groups: one working Monday through Thursday and the other Tuesday through Friday. They would alternate shifts, giving each group a 2-day weekend followed by a 4-day weekend. Office personnel, like myself, stuck to the usual 5-day, 8-hour schedule. The proposal highlighted that with 2 hours of daily travel time, a 4-day workweek would result in 32 hours of actual work compared to 30 hours with a 5-day week. The results were impressive: overtime dropped by 50%, and requests for personal time off decreased by 30%. All this was reported to the Vice President of Human Relations.
Then came a funny encounter. About 10 weeks into the experiment, the very conservative Vice President of Crude Oil Transportation stopped me in the hallway. He had heard rumors about our new workweek and was concerned, as our units closely cooperated. He feared any change would cause problems. I agreed that our units worked closely together and asked if he had encountered any issues recently. He said no, and that he didn’t want any to start. That’s when I told him we’d been on the new schedule for 10 weeks without any problems. I left him stunned in the hallway as I headed to a meeting.
A side note: my experience with alternative workweeks has shown me that such changes aren’t always desirable, but in this case, it worked out quite well!
Accompanying Poem
In the '90s, change was in the air,
A pipeline crew with work to spare.
Four days of ten, they gave a try,
With travel time cut, productivity high.
From Dallas to Chicago, pipelines ran,
Thirty workers, each a dedicated man.
Gasoline, diesel, jet fuel too,
Needed constant care, a vigilant crew.
A schedule proposed, a trial begun,
Two groups split, the work was done.
Monday to Thursday, one team would stay,
Tuesday to Friday, the other made way.
Two-hour travels, now less a chore,
Four days of work, but they did more.
Overtime dropped, requests did too,
A win for the company, and the crew.
The VP of Crude, with concerns in tow,
Feared changes would bring a woe.
But ten weeks in, no issues found,
The new schedule worked, all around.
So here’s to change, when managed right,
It can bring success, and futures bright.
A lesson learned, from days gone by,
Sometimes new ways are worth a try.