Rethinking the 40-hour Workweek and the Just-in-Time Scheduling Model Retailers Love
These two together are toxic and lead to burnout. Why are we still working like this?
Last October, almost a year ago, a creator on TikTok went viral for talking about the
9-5 workday. As a recent college graduate, she'd landed a full-time 9-5 job that required her to be in the office eight hours a day. On top of that, she commuted over an hour each way.
She recorded and posted a video discussing how tired she was and had no time for anything besides work. She was exhausted and perplexed by how people lived their lives like this.
When I first saw this video, I nodded along thinking, "Yep, that's how it is girl, you're just tired all the time." Then, I caught myself. Just because that's what I lived with my whole life doesn't mean it should stay that way.
Just because I hustled, commuted, worked long hours, and said yes to everything doesn't mean she should too. Maybe I'm the idiot here.
A few years ago, I began to question work.
Why was I working so hard? Could I sustain it? Did I even want to? If I got promoted to the next level, then what? I just keep working until my body quits on me? That didn't sound like a good idea.
So, I studied, practiced, and learned how to write online and write books, and I became a ghostwriter. Today, I work for myself and I get the opportunity to question everything.
The forty-hour workweek is good for companies, not people.
Just-in-time scheduling is good for retail companies, not people.
40-hour workweek
Our typical workweek began to take shape as early as 1866. Over the next seventy-five years, it evolved, and we eventually landed here where working eight hours a day/forty hours a week is considered the norm.
Yes, working eight hours a day is much better than working twelve hours a day, I'll give you that, but this workweek that has become a part of who we are was signed into law in 1940.
1940 - that's 84 years ago. Some things have changed.
A quick snapshot:
1940: 24% of the workforce was women.
1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus.
1960: Ruby Bridges became the first student to integrate into a school in New Orleans.
1964: The Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination based on race, religion, color, or national origin in public places, schools, and employment. However, discrimination based on sex was not initially included in the proposed bill and was only added as an amendment in Title VII in an attempt to prevent its passage.
1974: Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Women could finally apply for a credit card or a loan independently, without a male co-signer.
1981: First woman on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O'Connor.
1986: Supreme Court Case Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson - Sexual harassment is actually a thing and is job discrimination.
1993: Family Medical Leave Act
You see where I'm going with this. The world is a very different place now than when the forty-hour workweek was created. The forty-hour workweek was designed for white men with wives at home. It was not meant for everyone to work eight hours a day while trying to commute, raise their kids, clean their house, cook meals, get fresh air, pay their bills, and live a fulfilling life.
Working with just-in-time scheduling compounds the stress of the forty-hour workweek.
Just-in-Time Schedule Model
Just-in-time scheduling has become standard in retail and hospitality. This is why, in retail, you run with such lean floor coverage. You increase coverage as traffic increases and cut when you're slower - ideally.
But if you've ever worked in a model like this you understand burnout on a deep level.
“Just-in-time scheduling cuts labor costs in the short run since businesses only have to pay for the workers they need at the moment. But they shift these costs onto workers by destabilizing work schedules and pay.” - Brookings.edu
Progress is being made here:
In 2015, many retailers including Gap, eliminated call-in shifts.
The Schedules that Work Act was introduced by representatives Warren and DeLauro, would bring many reforms to the federal level. The bill covers workers in retail, food services, cleaning, hospitality, and warehousing. A key provision requires employers to pay workers for scheduling changes made with fewer than 14 days' notice.
Today, most laws surrounding just-in-time scheduling are left up to each state.
I worked most of my retail career in California, so I worked with excellent labor laws; however, other people in most states aren't as lucky.
So, are we really still all in on the whole 40-hour workweek thing?
About a decade ago, writer David Cain returned to work after a seventh-month backpacking trip and made some observations about our typical work week.
"But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.
We've been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don't have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing." - excerpt - Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed by David Cain
Looking back at the last eighty-four years we can see the trajectory. We see how we got here. In 2024, we all need to ask, "Now what?"
Because the college grad with the viral TikTok wasn't wrong. There's something wrong with the 9-5. But those who have grown up in it or made money doing it may not even see it. It has become a part of us, so questioning it feels like an attack on us.
But it's not.
We need to listen to Gen Z. We need to listen to Gen Alpha. Because these two generations are - and will continue - to define a new way to work, it doesn't matter that you don't agree with it or think it won't work. It doesn't matter that you think they're crybabies.
You will simply be left behind, clinging to the corporate money in your bank account, and your commute, and your suit, complaining that no one wants to work anymore.
Kit Campoy is an author and retail expert with two decades of experience leading retail teams. She thrived on building relationships with customers and motivating sales teams. Now, as a ghostwriter, she leverages this people-centric approach to craft compelling content that resonates and ignites brand loyalty.
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Brilliant overview and historical perspective! We are SO far behind in creating an innovative worker-based system!
“A key provision requires employers to pay workers for scheduling changes made with fewer than 14 days' notice.” I learned something new every day!