This week, we were joined by two other lovely professors (though not as lovely as Paul and Jeff of course), that discussed an almost too-utopic-and-too-happy-to-be-real company called Zappos. We discussed different types of organizational cultures, and how one might work for a certain company but might not necessarily be successful for another. My classmate Judy Sin, discussed in her blog post how she believes that the government should decrease the working hours from 8 hours to something even less. Though that may be a good idea at first glance, there certainly are many repercussions to this move.
Let’s say that our government reduces our maximum hours per day of work down to 5-6 hours, for all companies across Canada. This is going to increase variable costs for many companies, and some smaller companies just won’t be able to handle it.
Many small companies employ a certain number employees and assign shifts in terms of days versus hours. Let’s say the store is opened exactly 8 hours everyday. These companies will then have to pay 2-3 hours of overtime or hire another employee and perhaps shortening shifts available for employees just to cut back on costs.
Overall, this will create unnecessary variable costs. I do agree with Judy that the mental health of employees greatly affect the productivity and efficiency of companies as a whole, but it all depends on the type company in the end.
Just like Zappos, companies that want to change their hours and build a unique company vibe can! However, I believe that it’s up to the company to decide how they want to shape their organizational culture, not the government.
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