Is The 30-Hour Workweek Coming?

Economy Jamie Simon
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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, announced today that Amazon.com plans to launch a new program that will try a thirty-hour workweek for select employees.

Under this program, the plan is to make up technical teams composed of part-time workers. These employees, under the thirty-hour plan, will be salaried and be given the same benefits that forty hour weekly employees receive.

Although these employees, under existing norms, would be considered part-time workers, they will share in the same benefits and be treated as full-time workers. Under this plan, another notable difference would be that everyone, including managers, i.e. the entire team, would work the reduced hour schedule.

Mr. Bezos explains that the company wants to create an environment that is tailored to a reduced schedule while continuing to foster career growth and success in each challenge set forth. He went on to explain that, bearing Amazon’s workforce in mind and its diversity, he had come to a realization that there may be more productive and acceptable ways for a company to move ahead rather than stick to a ‘one size fits all model’.

The new pilot program will consist of only a few dozen people, with a schedule that runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will remain the possibility of flex hours. The salaries will begin at a lower rate than those paid to traditional forty hour workers. However, these employees will also be given the option to move into full-time positions if they choose to do so.

This announcement comes a year after Amazon faced criticism from The New York Times accusing the company of encouraging employees to work as much as eighty hours a week and to skip vacations. Amazon, however, did not say today whether this new thirty-hour workweek has anything to do with the earlier criticism.

Some feel that reduced hours could be an innovative way to attract talent.