In today's class, we discussed about reduced load work (RLW) option. I think this topic is really interesting. I am not sure whether people in China start to talk about this, but this could be an emerging topic in the US.
RLW could bring some advantages: 1) work-life balance, 2) lower turnover rate of talents, but the feasibility is questionable: 1) Is it feasible given the nature of the job? 2) Will workload be reduced or will pay just be reduced? 3) Will employees face "flexibility stigma"?
We then talked about how organizations implement RLW right now. Several strategies are provided: 1) job sharing, 2) improving the flow of recurring processes, 3) cultivate strong peers, and 4) cross-training (Kossek & Ollier-Malaterre, 2020). However, these strategies can backfire. For example, for the job sharing, if your colleague don't want to work in some time, you may have to work alone and work overtime to finish the job. Therefore, it is worthwhile to look at who are good candidates for job sharing. For cross-training, the cost for organizations could be very expensive. Why organizations are willing to devote the time and money to do cross training? Another question we need to think about how can normal employees benefit from RLW. Why organizations should care about them too?
Finally, we discussed in groups to think about in what context RLW can be applied straightforward: nurses, HR practitioners, some other shifting job positions. The next question we discussed is how to apply RLW in some hard job context (e.g., consulting, lawyers, doctors). Solutions are below: Supplement with AI, culture changing of an organization, prioritize quality of work rather than quantity of work. For the AI part, some of us are skeptical, mostly because people have a natural tendency to go beyond. For me, I think the key point is how to manage expectations (both organization and individuals). For the culture changing solution, right now some companies start to do these things. For example, one US law firm managed their clients' expectations by telling their clients that they value working mother's career advancement and their work-life balance , which set up some boundaries to some extent.
Another topic we discussed in the class is the performance appraisal of RWL. We did not come to any conclusions. Right now, in most companies, if you ask for RWL option, it usually means you are "opt out" from the normal career advancement procedure.
