A four-day work week for funeral service professionals?

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If you have been involved in leadership for any length of time you will find that any decision that you make, even if you think it is the greatest decision in the world, will not be taken as beneficial to all parties.  Someone down the line of employment will wish the decision had been in the other direction.

I think of this when I remember decisions that I made that included team-wide financial bonuses for reaching certain numbers of death calls per year.  For instance, I operated with individual employee financial bonuses (in addition to salaries) of $1,000 for our business reaching 250 calls, $2,000 for reaching 275 calls and up to $6,000 per employee for reaching 325 annual calls.

I was somewhat taken aback in the years when we did 325 calls that some on the staff thought they had worked too hard and said that they would rather have time off than a financial incentive.  You see, my parents had instilled a work ethic in me where I saw work, and the financial benefits from it, as one of the imperatives of the job and you took time off when you were not busy. . . . .In my rural area I assimilated the thought to the farmer who had to “cut hay when the sun was shining” — because you cannot cut it when it is raining or wet.

In any regards, that is just an example of differing people having different attitudes about how life should be lived.  In my world, my profession paid for my life and leisure activities. . . . . I think some people look at it just the opposite, their life and leisure are supported by their profession. . . .i.e. what comes first in your life? — Your profession or your activities.

Whichever it is — that is okay.  It’s just a matter of how we look at life that differs.

So, we are all not wired to work 40 or 60 hours per week if we can live our lives, and be more balanced as a human being if we can work less. . . . The question is, “Can we bring enough income in if we don’t work that 40-hour week?”

Here’s a recent article about the country of Iceland that in 2019 adopted the 4-day work week working 35-36  hours per week instead of the traditional 40 hours per week.  And, Iceland did it without a drop in weekly income.

Here’s what the article goes on to say about the experience so far:

“Initial fears, similar to those observed during similar debates in other countries such as Germany, focused mainly on a potential collapse in productivity or the complexity of wage compensation. However, the Icelandic experience has swept away these fears. Reports, particularly those analysed by think tanks such as Autonomy, show that productivity has not only been maintained, but has even improved in some cases.

 

How can this be explained? The answer lies largely in the significant improvement in workers’ well-being. The reduction in working time has resulted in a significant drop in stress levels and fewer cases of burnout. Employees report a greater ability to reconcile their professional imperatives with their personal lives. This reality directly echoes the priorities expressed by Generation Z, a large proportion of whom (around 81% according to certain studies) are convinced that shorter working hours are synonymous with greater efficiency, and plebiscite mental health as an essential criterion.”

So, I’m a Baby Boomer and my self-health is maintained partly by being productive through my work.  Why else would I spend hours writing a blog at age 67 when I could be on the golf course or at the coffee shop?  However, as the younger generations are telling us, that is not always the case with them.  They seem to be healthier with a more work-life balance that allows them more time to enjoy non-working hours.

I think the Death Care profession needs to take a real hard look at this dilemma.  Funeral service is a very rewarding career, emotionally, if you have the time to enjoy those rewards.  Young people seem to want to go into funeral service but then leave prematuraly because they don’t seem to think they have the down-time to enjoy the positive self-images they have built up.

Funeral business leaders need to acknowledge this among today’s young professionals.  If we are going to acquire and retain the best and brightest for our profession we need to come up with the ability to offer 4-day work weeks to our professional personnel.

The challenge will be doing it in a world where revenues per case are stressed.  It’s pretty simple that Death Care businesses need to use the technology available to us to hasten this advance.  How can we alter what we are doing to use less human hours per death? . . . . Online arrangements, use of non-professional staff where applicable, shorter office hours, and possible job-share duties come to mind.

Maybe we need to forego weekly schedules and look at 6 or 8-week block schedules as a way that might help us do this.

I don’t have the answers but I do believe that some funeral businesses will go to a 4-day, 36-hour week for professional employees on a regular basis.  And when that happens, the rest of us will probably have to follow suit or be left with those professional employees who are not our number one choices.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily:  It’s tough for me to come to grips with this situation because I always just worked until the job was finished.  That’s not always the way of the world any more though.

Just last week I had the opportunity to be on the University of Minnesota campus for a reunion.  I planned my visit to arrive early for two reasons —- First, I wanted to avoid heavy traffic and Secondly, to give myself some time to visit my old office and say hello to some of the administrative staff that I worked with.

I arrived at the McNamara Alumni Building where my office had been on the 6th floor.  My first surprise was that the elevators did not work without a pass-key, an obvious security feature that didn’t surprise me so much.  I pulled out my cell phone and rang the “Office Receptionist Desk” but was greeted with a message that told me the phone was disconnected.  Finally, I phoned the cell of Head of the Administration in that office and he answered.  He proceded to tell me that they all work from home now most of the time and there was no one who I wanted to say “Hello” to that was in the office . . . and he was at home as well.

I was absolutely stunned because in my day – only four years ago – I spent all kinds of time in that office and relied on the knowledge of the administrative assistants many times during the day to get my work accomplished.  In essence, I learned last week that a lot of the employment rules had changed in a short period of time.

And, I think you are going to see that in funeral service. . . So be ready.

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