52

THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

and the present status of the five-day week are significant,
this significance lies more in the future possibilities than in
the present importance of this work arrangement.
Companies that employ this work schedule represent a
number of industries and types of processing, but they are
generally of the non-continuous, as contrasted with the continuous-process
 type. Where the process has no fixed time
element, the five-day schedule appears to be susceptible of
wide application, but in continuous-process industries a five.
day week for employees must mean either the loss of one or
two days’ production each week or the employment of additional
 workers to provide a form of revolving shift. It is the
latter expedient that has enabled the Ford Motor Company
to apply the five-day principle even to the operation of coke
ovens, blast furnaces and open hearth steel works.
In general, it may be stated that the five-day week is more
prevalent in small than in large establishments, and that
most of the exponents of this schedule in the industrial field
are located in the northeastern section of the country, particularly
 in and around New York City. The Ford Motor
Company is an outstanding exception to both of these generalizations.


ProsLems INvoLvED Iv Five-Day Week OpERATION
The change from a five-and-one-half or a six-day to a fiveday
 weekly working schedule is likely to raise certain questions
 of administrative policy. Even if the shift to the
shorter schedule is accomplished without a reduction in total
number of working hours per week, the question of relative
efficiency and of quantity and quality of output in the longer
working day is raised, and also the question whether the rate
of pay for Saturday work, when necessary, shall be straight
time or overtime.
The first problem in a consideration of five-day week
operation is the disposition of hours formerly worked on
Saturday. These may be distributed over the five working
days in such manner that none of the former working time is
lost; part of the Saturday hours may be retained and allotted
among the other days and the remaining time dropped; or
all of the Saturday hours may be eliminated from the weekly