A Point of View large variety of studies that flextime reduces absenteeism and tardiness rates, turnover, and the need for overtime work. Most of these studies also report a direct relation- ship between flextime and improved productivity as em- ployees arrange to work during their hours of maximum

when energy and desire. Employee morale also typically rises

flextime (Or ing more pleasant (since rush-hour peaks can be avoided) it gives workers control Over at least one critical

aspect of their work itself, the time of its performance. Flextime is not, certainly, an unmixed blessing

finish each day. They must crease, since work places will have to stay open longer. point within a stipulated band of time (7 to 10 A . M . is Supervisory problems may also be created, since the

later time span of Similar length (3 to 6 P.M., for exam- many as thee hours (assuming a 7 A . M . starting option

of hours per week (or month). Within these limits, how- longer supervisory workday, the hiring of super- ever, they are free to fashion whatever personal schedules visors, or the of work without super-

vision. None of these alternatives is necessarily an attrac- they desire.

In an era Of widespread worker many employees appear to that if a job is not as flextime makes private lives less harried and commut- worth doing it is not worth doing “flexitime,” as it is sometimes also known) may well be an idea whose time has come.

As its name implies, this concept gives em-

begin at some ployees Some discretion as to when they will start and for organizations. With its advent, utility bills will in-

common) and are expected to stop at Some point within a traditional eight-hour workday will be expanded by as

PIe). They are also Obligated to a specified number and a 6 P.M. quitting one). This will presumably require a

The idea, no longer exactly in its infancy, was by a West German research

tive one from the viewpoint of the employer. And,the very advantages of flextime in reducing the need for

thoughout Western Europe-Particularly in may cause an added problem for the unionized organiza- land, where an estimated 40 percent of the labor force tion, For while an estimated 7 percent of all union mem-

first tion in 1967. Within a relatively few years, it had spread overtime and increasing the intensity of the work pace

was Operating under such an by the bers are now on flextime, most unions have not been mid-1970s; and in France, the Scandanavian nations, and enthusiastic about the precisely because of West Germany itself, where, in all of these countries, it these advantages. so emp~oyers dealing with unions may

well have to deal with objections from that quarter. appeared that the figure was over 25 percent. On balance, however, the advantages of flextime

on in the United States, but its use here now is rapidly would appear to outweigh the drawbacks. Relatively few

Exxon, the Social Security Administration, American tem after adopting it, and the number of satisfied users, Airlines, NCR, and Control Data currently offer it on an as suggested by the figures cited above, is increasing. Official basis to their do hundreds Of Flextime is not for everyone, needless to say. (Assembly smaller organizations, many of them in the financial and line work, for example, which requires all employees to insurance sectors. According to the U.S. Bureau of La- be present simultaneously, cannot make use of it.) But bor Statistics, over 13 percent of all men and almost 10 handsome dividends may well await employers who are percent of all women were on flextime last year. What willing to give the concept a thorough was a relative novelty in this country as recently as a half- dozen years ago has now become more or less com- monplace.

That this kind of discretionary scheduling bene- fits the organizations adopting it is no longer much in A point of view is written by members of the N P R Editorial doubt. There is now substantial evidence from a rather Advisory Board.

It has taken somewhat longer for flextime to catch

growing. Such major as Motors 7 employers have expressed disappointment with the sys-

Arthur A. Sloane