CHAPTER IV
EXPERIENCE WITH FIVE-DAY WEEK
OPERATION

ENERAL satisfaction with the five-day week on the
part of managements operating on this work schedule
might be assumed from the fact that after trials of
from one to twenty years it is still in effect. But this argument
 alone is hardly convincing. While the introduction
of such a program is likely to be effected without appreciable
opposition on the part of the working force, areturn to a fiveand-one-half
 or a six-day schedule, after employees have
become accustomed to two free days a week, may well be
expected to meet with resistance of the workers. And in the
case of companies that have adopted the shorter schedule to
avoid conflict with strongly entrenched labor unions, a return
to the longer work schedule is practically out of the question.
Consequently, any conclusion as to whether or not employers
who have had experience with the operation and effects of the
five-day week are generally satisfied with it as a permanent
working schedule must rest upon more positive grounds than
its mere continuation.

FrFECT UPON PRODUCTION

Probably first in the mind of the practical operating executive
 is the question of the effect upon production of the
change to a five-day week. This is a difficult question to
answer definitely. Exceptin a few isolated instances, it probably
 may be properly assumed that whatever changes have
occurred in the volume of output since the change in working
schedule took effect have been influenced by a number of
causes and are not necessarily attributable solely to the
change to the five-day week schedule.
Less than half of the companies operating on a five-day
basis were willing to make any statement as to the effect
upon production. Most of the remaining companies claimed