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Hour Week (hour + week)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

An Evaluation of Flexible Workday Policies in Job Shops,

DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 2 2002
Kum-Khiong Yang
ABSTRACT Job shops have long faced pressures for improvement in a challenging and volatile environment. Today's trends of global competition and shortening of product life cycles suggest that both the challenges and the intensity of market volatility will only increase. Consequently, the study of tactics for maximizing the flexibility and responsiveness of a job shop is important. Indeed, there is a significant body of literature that has produced guidelines on when and how to deploy tactics such as alternate routings for jobs and transfers of cross-trained workers between machines. In this paper we consider a different tactic by adjusting the length of workdays. Hours in excess of a 40-hour week are exchanged for compensatory time off at time and a half, and the total amount of accrued compensatory time is limited to no more than 160 hours in accordance with pending legislation. We propose several simple flexible workday policies that are based on an input/output control approach and investigate their performance in a simulated job shop. We find significant gains in performance over a fixed schedule of eight hours per day. Our results also provide insights into the selection of policy parameters. [source]

The 35-hour workweek in France: Straightjacket or welfare improvement?

ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 55 2008
Marcello Estevão
SUMMARY The 35-hour week Workweek reduction laws may be beneficial if market interactions do not fully take into account the preferences reflected in declining secular trends in working hours. The most recent law in France shortened the workweek from 39 to 35 hours in 2000 for large firms, and in 2002 for small firms. Analysing differences between large and small firm employees before and after the law, we find that aggregate employment was unaffected but labour turnover increased, as firms shed workers who became more expensive. Survey responses indicate that the welfare impact of the law was different across groups of workers: women but not men may have benefited from coordination to a shorter workweek, and there is also evidence of negative welfare effects for managers, possibly due to the law's administrative burden. ,Marcello Estevão and Filipa Sá [source]

Effect of the 48-hour week on training in anaesthesia

ANAESTHESIA, Issue 8 2009
C. M. A. Booth
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

A prospective study of computer users: II.

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 4 2002
Postural risk factors for musculoskeletal symptoms, disorders
Abstract Background Despite widespread recommendations regarding posture during computer use, associations between specific postures and musculoskeletal health are not well characterized. Methods Six hundred and thirty-two newly hired computer users were followed prospectively to evaluate associations between posture and neck or shoulder (N/S) and hand or arm (H/A) musculoskeletal symptoms and musculoskeletal disorders. Participants' postures were measured at entry and they reported symptoms on weekly diaries. Participants reporting symptoms were examined for specific disorders. Multivariate Cox regression models were used to estimate associations between postural variables and risk of symptoms and disorders, controlling for confounding variables. Results Keying with an inner elbow angle,>,121°, greater downward head tilt, and presence of armrests on the participants chair were associated with lower risk of N/S symptoms or N/S disorders. Keying with elbow height below the height of the "J" key and the presence of a telephone shoulder rest were associated with a greater risk of N/S symptoms or N/S disorders. Horizontal location of the "J" key,>,12 cm from the edge of the desk was associated with a lower risk of H/A symptoms and H/A disorders. Use of a keyboard with the "J" key,>,3.5 cm above the table surface, key activation force,>,48 g, and radial wrist deviation of >,5° while using a mouse was associated with a greater risk of H/A symptoms or H/A disorders. The number of hours keying/week was associated with H/A symptoms and disorders. Conclusions The results suggest that the risk of musculoskeletal symptoms and musculoskeletal disorders may be reduced by encouraging specific seated postures. Am. J. Ind. Med. 41:236,249, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]