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Most people are familiar with the regular 8-hours-per day, 5-days-a-week, 40-hour workweek. But did you know there are alternatives to this standard schedule? One of the most popular is the 9/80 work schedule. But is it right for your company and your employees?
In this article, the management and scheduling experts at Sling tell you everything you need to know to decide for yourself. We’ll also show you how to implement this unique work schedule in your business.
Key takeaways
- A 9/80 work schedule compresses 80 hours into nine workdays over two weeks (eight nine-hour days, one eight-hour day, and one day off).
- Benefits of the 9/80 schedule include improved work-life balance, fewer interruptions, reduced commuting, better task completion, improved rest, higher productivity, stronger recruitment appeal, and more flexibility.
- Challenges include a longer work day, changing the regular day off, early arrival or departure, problems with focus, staffing gaps, inactive customers and businesses, sick leave, and issues with overtime.
Table of contents
- What is a 9/80 work schedule?
- What are the benefits of a 9/80 work schedule?
- The strategic value of the 9/80 work schedule
- What are the challenges of a 9/80 work schedule?
- Address the challenges with a proactive approach
- How to get started on a 9/80 work schedule
What is a 9/80 work schedule?
A 9/80 work schedule consists of a total of eight nine-hour days, one eight-hour day, and one day off spread over a two-workweek period.
More specifically, a 9/80 work schedule has employees working 80 hours over nine days (hence the name: 9 days/80 hours) rather than the usual 10 days (assuming a five-day workweek). This makes it possible for you to give your employees an entire day off every other week.
In a typical 9/80 work schedule, your employees would work four nine-hour days (36 hours) followed by one eight-hour day. For payroll purposes, you apply the first half of the eight-hour workday to the first week and the second half to the following week.
All told, that adds up to 40 hours worked Monday through Friday of the first week, and 40 hours worked Monday through Thursday of the second week (all without overtime). You can then give employees the second Friday off completely without losing work hours.
Sample 9/80 work schedule
First week
Monday: 7-12 and 1-5 with an unpaid lunch break in-between (9 hours total)
Tuesday: Same
Wednesday: Same
Thursday: Same (for a total of 36 hours)
Friday: 8-12 (first week ends) + 1-5 (second week starts)
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Second week
Monday: 7-12 and 1-5 with an unpaid lunch break in between (9 hours total)
Tuesday: Same
Wednesday: Same
Thursday: Same (for a total of 40 hours including the four hours worked the previous Friday)
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Keep in mind that this is just one example of a 9/80 work schedule. As an alternative, you could have employees start at 8:00 a.m. and work until 6 p.m. That would still allow for the requisite nine hours in one day.
What are the benefits of a 9/80 work schedule?
At first glance, you may conclude that the 9/80 work schedule only benefits your employees. But look a little deeper and you’ll see that the 9/80 work schedule also benefits your business. Here’s how.
1) Work-life balance
You guarantee employees two extra days off each month. This gives them time to schedule appointments, conduct personal business, or take a vacation with family or friends. It can also mean fewer sick days, fewer no-call/no-shows, and fewer time-off requests for your business.
2) Fewer interruptions
Employees will have more time to resolve personal commitments, so they won’t have to interrupt work to get things done. That’s better for their engagement for the overall productivity of your business.
3) Less commuting
The extra two days off each month means your employees won’t have to sit in traffic, they won’t have to use gas, and they won’t have to put miles on their cars.
4) Improved task completion
The extra hour of work each day means that your employees have a better chance of completing tasks on the day they start them.
5) Better rest
The extra two days off each month gives your employees more time to recuperate from the busy workweek. They’ll be refreshed and ready to work on that following Monday.
6) Increased productivity
When you incorporate a 9/80 work schedule, you provide your team members with more control over their work schedule. As a result, your employees feel more energized because of the extra day off at the end of two weeks.
That increase in energy, then, leads to higher levels of productivity over the nine days your team is at work. And this productivity isn’t just task-specific.
Overall productivity improves when you implement this type of flexible schedule. The 9/80 schedule can also reduce long-term stress so that employees take less vacation or sick time to recover.
7) Higher incentive for potential employees
Recruiting new employees can be a difficult task in today’s fast-paced work environment. New hires often want the most fringe benefits they can get before committing to your business. A 9/80 work schedule makes your company more attractive to potential employees.
When you offer this type of schedule on their very first day, new hires can achieve a work/life balance that is more tailored to their unique situation right from the start. They don’t have to put in weeks, months, or even years before they can get more control over their schedule.
That’s an attractive incentive that can seriously improve your recruiting efforts.
8) More flexibility
One of the major concerns managers have when considering a 9/90 work schedule is shift coverage. They worry that they won’t be able to organize enough team members to cover the essential tasks during the extra day off.
But the 9/80 schedule actually makes it easier than you might think.
If you can’t just close the office at the end of every second week, you can split your team and give half of them the Friday off and the other half the Monday off. Everyone gets a three-day weekend and your office continues to run Monday through Friday.
These are just a few common benefits you’ll see after implementing a 9/80 work schedule. You’ll likely discover other benefits too the longer you work this way.
But is it too good to be true? Let’s investigate the other side of the 9/80-work-schedule coin.
The strategic value of the 9/80 work schedule
Implementing a 9/80 schedule is a strategic move that can significantly impact your business beyond just the working hours.
Done correctly, this type of schedule can become a core part of your company’s identity and values in three specific areas: recruitment and retention, autonomy and trust, and employee well-being.
Recruitment and retention
In today’s competitive job market, companies are searching for ways to stand out. Offering a 9/80 schedule can be the game-changer that sets you apart from the rest.
For a new hire, this type of schedule provides immediate access to a benefit that might take years to earn at a more traditional company. This can be the deciding factor for a top candidate choosing between two similar job offers.
For current employees, it can be a significant factor in their decision to stay. The gift of a three-day weekend every two weeks is a powerful motivator, leading to higher employee morale and reduced turnover.
Autonomy and trust
Implementing a 9/80 schedule requires a high degree of trust between management and employees. Your business is entrusting employees to manage their own time and workload to complete 80 hours in nine days.
This trust can be incredibly empowering for everyone on the team, fostering a sense of autonomy and ownership over their work.
It can also encourage employees to be more efficient with their time, to minimize distractions, and to take responsibility for their output.
In a workplace where trust is a core value like this, employees are more likely to feel valued and respected, which can lead to a more positive and collaborative work environment.
Employee well-being
The additional day off every other week provides a crucial opportunity for employees to disconnect, recharge, attend to personal matters, and maintain their well-being without feeling the pressure to rush.
This dedicated recovery time can prevent the mental and physical exhaustion that comes with a constant five-day-a-week grind.
This can lead to a healthier workforce, which translates to fewer sick days and a more resilient team.
What are the challenges of a 9/80 work schedule?
The challenges of a 9/80 work schedule often involve employee morale and payroll time tracking. Here are a few of the most common difficulties.
1) Longer workday
During the nine-hour days, employees may feel like they only have time to go home, eat dinner, and go to bed. That can wear on morale after a while.
2) Changing the regular day off
Sometimes, employees ask to switch the regular day off to better accommodate their schedules. This can make your time tracking much more difficult.
3) Early arrival or departure
Letting your employees adjust their arrival and departure times can lead to more than 40 hours worked the first week and less than 40 hours worked the second week, possibly resulting in overtime and a host of other problems.
4) Problems with focus
For your team members who thrive in a quiet work environment, the 9/80 schedule can cause problems. Too much fluctuation in activity can distract employees and cause them to lose focus and engagement.
It can also have a negative impact on freelancers and telecommuters who may be working when the rest of your office is not.
5) Staffing gaps
For smaller companies with fewer employees, the 9/80 schedule is less than ideal. Alternative schedules like the 9/80 mean there may not be enough team members to cover all the shifts so your business can stay open during the extra days off each month.
Even if you stagger the schedule so that some employees have Friday off and some employees have Monday off, you still may not have enough people to keep your business running efficiently.
6) Inactive customers and businesses
In some cases, your customers and other businesses may not be active during the extra hours of work that come with a 9/80 schedule.
This can lead to drops in productivity and even a loss in revenue if you can’t keep your team members on task in one way or another for the few hours when other businesses are closed and your customers are elsewhere.
7) Sick leave
You may have to restructure your sick leave policy if you incorporate a 9/80 work schedule. With this type of schedule, a day away from work due to illness equals nine hours instead of the typical eight.
Nine hours and eight hours don’t divide equally into the same numbers (unless you want to offer fractions of a workday or increase your sick leave to 72 hours) so you’re going to have to do a bit of reorganizing to make the new schedule work.
8) Issues with overtime
You may also encounter issues with overtime. If team members don’t strictly adhere to the unique work hours (e.g., they work an extra hour on Tuesday to complete a project), you may be paying more overtime wages than you planned.
That shouldn’t be a problem if it only happens once or twice a month for one or two employees. But if it happens more often and for more than a handful of team members, the extra expense is going to start cutting into your bottom line.
Don’t let these challenges dissuade you from implementing a 9/80 work schedule. You just need to reinforce teamwork and group cohesion during the long workweek and enforce the rules of the schedule so you don’t run into tracking and calculating issues.
Addressing the challenges proactively
While the benefits of a 9/80 work schedule are compelling, the challenges may seem daunting. Addressed proactively, though, they can be overcome.
If you implement the schedule despite the challenges and then try to forget about them, they can lead to the very issues that the schedule is designed to solve (e.g., decreased productivity and morale).
Here are some tips to help you deal with the challenges before they become a bigger problem.
Communicate policies and procedures
One of the biggest hurdles is ensuring that everyone understands the schedule and its rules. This can be overcome by communicating as much as possible with your team about the longer workday, the variable day off, the early arrival or departure, and the potential for overtime.
One of the best ways to start communicating this information is to create a clear, well-documented policy and set of procedures.
Your policy should cover the standard hours worked, the split day, overtime rules, scheduling flexibility, and holiday and sick leave.
As you build your policy, ask and answer the following questions:
- What are the official start and end times for the nine-hour days?
- How is the eight-hour day structured, and which part falls into which pay period?
- What happens if an employee works more than the scheduled hours?
- What are the guidelines for employees who need to adjust their day off? Can they swap with a coworker?
- How will paid time off be calculated for both nine-hour and eight-hour days?
Communicating that information directly to your team members can help prevent confusion and frustration, ensuring a smooth transition and ongoing operation.
Harness the power of technology
Moving to a 9/80 schedule may require that you update your company’s technology stack to include a more robust scheduling and time-tracking system.
If that’s the case for your business, the system should be able to handle the bi-weekly schedule and accurately track the split Friday.
It should also be able to automate payroll calculations to prevent errors; facilitate tracking of paid time off (PTO) in hours, not just days, to accommodate the nine-hour day; and provide real-time visibility into who is working and who is off so that you can manage staffing gaps.
While updating your scheduling and time-tracking system may seem a bit daunting, the investment in technology can save countless hours of administrative work and ensure accuracy, making the 9/80 schedule far more manageable.
Manage staff and client relations
For customer-facing businesses, a 9/80 schedule requires careful planning to ensure continuous service. How, then, do you handle the Friday off every other week?
A staggered schedule, where half the team has off on the first Friday and the other half on the second, can be an effective solution. This ensures there’s always a team on hand to answer calls and assist clients.
In addition, communicating with clients and partners is essential. Informing them of the new schedule can set expectations and prevent misunderstandings.
For example, a simple email or a notice on the company’s website can let clients know about the change and assure them that business operations will remain uninterrupted.
As you manage staff and client relations, keep in mind that the 9/80 work schedule is more than a simple adjustment to hours; it’s a reflection of your company’s commitment to modern work principles.
When implemented thoughtfully, with a clear focus on communication, technology, and employee well-being, it can become a powerful driver of success, fostering a culture of trust, productivity, and balance.
How to get started on a 9/80 work schedule
The best way to get started on a 9/80 work schedule is to first examine your corporate, business, and functional level strategies to see if it’s the best solution.
The next step would be to create a test schedule using Sling to see if it fits in with the way you work.
Finally, you would want to discuss the change with your employees so that it’s not a surprise when they start working nine-hour days instead of eight.
Make scheduling easier with the right tools
Regardless of whether you choose the 9/80 work schedule or not, the best way to plan when your employees will work is with scheduling and time-tracking software like Sling.
Sling’s suite of tools — including scheduling, time clock, labor cost analysis and planning, employee messages, newsfeed, and tasks — makes creating even the most complex rotating shift or night shift as simple as point, click, and go.
For more free resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.
This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for specific advice.
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Frequently asked questions
How should I handle holidays under a 9/80 work schedule?
One of the most common ways to handle holidays under a 9/80 work schedule is to see what day the holiday falls on.
If the holiday falls on a regularly scheduled 9-hour workday, an employee is given 8 hours of holiday pay and can either use one hour of their own time off or work an extra hour on another day.
If the holiday falls on a scheduled day off, the company may offer a substitute day off or pay the employee for a regular workday (e.g., 8 hours).
Keep in mind that this is one way to handle holidays under a 9/80 work schedule. Your policy may be different.
Is the 9/80 schedule the same as a 4/10 schedule?
While both are considered compressed workweeks, the 9/80 schedule is not the same as the 4/10 schedule.
The 9/80 schedule compresses 80 hours into nine days over two weeks, which results in a long weekend every other week. A 4/10 schedule compresses 40 hours into four days over one week, which results in a long weekend every week.
How can I implement a 9/80 schedule?
Before implementing a 9/80 schedule, assess the feasibility to determine if the schedule aligns with your business needs, client demands, and employee roles.
As you do, and throughout the entire process of implementation, communicate clearly and involve your employees in the process so that everyone understands the benefits and the challenges.
Adjust your systems to ensure that payroll, time tracking, and HR policies are up to date and can correctly calculate hours, overtime, and paid time off (PTO).
Define coverage so that everyone is clear about when they work. In some cases, this may require that you create a plan to ensure adequate staffing if necessary on the Fridays when your main employees are off.
Finally, consider starting with a pilot program or trial period with a small team to identify and work out any kinks before you roll out the program to the entire company.
