From Policy to Practice: Unraveling Individual Uptake of Compressed Work Schedules

Abstract

Compressed work schedules, like full-time 4-day weeks, are widely advocated as promising work–life flexibility policies and attractive alternatives to female part-time work. Yet, individual characteristics and implementation factors associated with policy use are understudied. Drawing from the literature on work–life flexibility policies and nonstandard work schedules, this study investigates which individual characteristics and implementation factors are associated with policy use. Our quantitative results reveal that employees with longer daily working hours are significantly more inclined to use the policy and view it as a source of increased autonomy. Our qualitative findings elucidate that overworking employees often use the policy to regulate their chronic overtime via additional days off. Moreover, our findings indicate limited policy use as an alternative to part-time work and reveal that women transitioning from part-time roles may face increased work–life conflict when using the policy. These findings highlight that the policy should not be advocated as a one-size-fits-all solution and provide several implications for research and practice.