Some 500 U.S. business and industrial firms have been experimenting with a four-day work weekan inventive concept that reconciles the work ethic with the leisure culture. For ten weeks during the summer, the Chicago-based Zenith Life Insurance Co. tried a four-day, 35-hour routine, with half of its 33 employees working Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the other half Tuesday through Friday. Now Zenith has pronounced the plan a startling success and made the arrangement permanent. Recruiting is easier, absenteeism reduced, overtime pay decreased and employee morale vastly improved.
The four-day plan has yielded unusual payoffs in other areas. For...
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