It may seem as if the average workday has lengthened considerably since the 1980 film "Nine to Five." Many industries are downsizing and workplace tasks have become more complicated in number and form, placing a greater burden on fewer employees.

"These days, so many workers are putting in hours on Saturday or stretching the workday past dinner a few times a week that it's hard to define 'regular' anymore," noted an April article entitled "Longer Hours the New 'Regular' Workday" in The Boston Globe (article no longer available online). Earlier this year, marketing research firm Baxter Strategies Inc. found that 13 percent of all full-timers in the United States regularly work more than five days a week and that almost 4 percent of full-time workers put in seven-day weeks. And Barbara Schneider, Ph.D. at Michigan State University, while a panelist at a Capital Hill briefing in May, pointed out that 86 percent of employees work late and 80 percent take work home.

Yet a growing number of companies are actually taking steps to reduce workloads — or at least are considering more flexible patterns of working.

Workplace Flexibility 2010, a research, outreach and consensus-building enterprise located at Georgetown University Law Center, defines "workplace flexibility" as the ability to have flexibility: in the scheduling of full-time workers; in the number of hours worked; with multiple points for entry, exit or re-entry into the workforce; and the ability to address unexpected and ongoing personal and family needs.

First consider the number of couples working longer hours and, consequently, having less time to spend with their children (compared with, say, the number of working couples in 1970). Now couples with children work on average 91 hours per week, according to Workplace Flexibility 2010's report Meeting the Needs of Today's Families: The Role of Workplace Flexibility. Conflicting work schedules further complicate family life.

There is also leave to take care of a parent, or working from home to keep an eye on a sick child.

U.S. workers increasingly are "giving up on traditional employment in favor of alternative arrangements, with 20 million workers telecommuting and 10.3 million working as independent contractors," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a May 4 report entitled Work, Entrepreneurship, and Opportunity in 21st Century America. According to The Bureau of National Affairs, citing government estimates from the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, those 10.3 million independent contractors make up 7.4 percent of the U.S. workforce.

A new productivity survey by consultancy Hudson finds that while only 23 percent of U.S. employees work from home or are given that option, the majority of the workforce (59 percent) believes that telecommuting at least part time is the ideal work situation.

There remains quite a bit of resistance to telecommuting on employers' parts, though, some of which outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger traces to "a century of workplace habits that involve going into the office and having a supervisor who sits over our shoulder and makes sure we work." Managers seem to think there is loss of control if workers put in time without going to and from the company workplace. Calling that kind of monitoring outdated, Challenger recently explained to The Christian Science Monitor that companies now measure performance much more objectively, with performance-based pay and "metrics-based" measurements of performance.

While telecommuting or remote work clearly is not feasible for all jobs, the growing number of telecommuting Americans working at home, typically a day or two a week, are spurring a shift that could eventually turn the United States into what Challenger calls a "telecommuter nation." Twenty-six million Americans work from home at least one day a month, and 22 million at least once a week, according to the International Telework Association and Council.

Telecommuting is the flexibility factor most noted on the radar. A larger issue is proximate.

Studies are showing that older workers are actually the ones forcing employers to become more flexible.

Consider the increasing number of people working into older age. According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), approximately 65 percent of America's so-called baby boomers anticipate working at least part time in retirement. And in a Cornell Employment and Family Careers Institute study, 35 percent of workers age 54+ stated that being able to partially retire would be ideal compared to only 19 percent who would prefer to fully retire.

Rather than retiring, many in this age group are making different kinds of plans late in their careers. Many are seeking "retirement jobs," jobs that allow them to earn money but have some flexibility in time, place or duties, notes a recent Boston Globe article. (Home Depot is a pretty good example of this.)

According to a recently released 2006 global survey on the future of retirement by HSBC, only 30 percent of employers now offer older workers opportunities to work fewer hours. While more than 93 percent of employers feel older workers are as productive as younger ones and 99 percent they are as reliable, the HSBS survey findings showed only 49 percent are willing to give them the reduced schedules they request or require.

Comments to the IMT blog have shown that capable people of "traditional retirement age" are ready, willing and able to continue working. And indeed, a recent report by The Center on Aging and Work/Workplace Flexibility and Families and Work Institute found that "older workers are more likely to continue working when they have more control over their hours, workplace flexibility, job autonomy and learning opportunities."

Yet many companies "still push older workers out the door, saying they cost more than younger workers," The Boston Globe said.

Experts say this will change as businesses suffer from labor shortages and need workers with experience. (Of note: slightly more than half — 51 percent — of the respondents believe the aging workforce is not an urgent issue.)

This is not unlike the aforementioned telecommuting trend.

As competition for talent heats up, employers will be forced to consider alternative retention tactics such as permitting telecommuting, according to Peg Buchenroth, managing director, compensations and benefits, Hudson Highland Group.

People want to work to live, keeping time outside of work available for, well, life outside of work. And older workers want to continue working. These are all good things. So it is no wonder that companies such as Texas Instruments, Eli Lilly, Best Buy and International Business Machines, among a small number of others, are taking steps to reduce workloads and increase workplace flexibility without losing productivity. Even General Electric under former CEO Jack Welch was well-known for its "work-out" approach to stamping out bureaucracy.

If only we could all work four to six hours a day.

Sources

Longer Hours the New 'Regular' Workday
by Teresa M. McAleavy
The Record (via The Boston Globe), April 30, 2006
*No longer available online*

For Many, Five Day Work Week is a Myth
Baxter Strategies, Inc., Jan. 23, 2006

Consensus sought for achieving workplace flexibility
by Kathy Gurchiek
HR News (via SHRM Online), May 5, 2006

Workplace Flexibility 2010

'Entrepreneurial' Workforce is Growing
The Bureau of National Affairs, May 9, 2006

Work, Entrepreneurship, and Opportunity in 21st Century America
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, May 2006

U.S. workers want greater flexibility
Management Issues News, July 20, 2006

Gas Prices Fuel Telecommuting
by Marilyn Gardner
The Christian Science Monitor, May 8, 2006

Old pros are leading the charge for flexible schedules
By Cindy Krischer Goodman,
Mcclatchy Newspapers (via The Boston Globe), July 30, 2006

Older Workers are More Likely to Stay on the Job When They Have Control Over Hours, Workplace Flexibility, Job Autonomy and Learning Opportunities
The Center on Aging and Work/Workplace Flexibility and Families and Work Institute, Dec. 12, 2005

Workers believe telecommuting at least part-time is ideal, Hudson survey finds
CCH HR Management, Aug. 3, 2006

Taking Back the Weekend (Subs. Req'd.)
Sue Shellenbarger
The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2006