European Remedy to Layoffs: Give Employees More Time Off

Economic downturns have a way of forcing small business owners to make impossible choices: Your business or your employees? Your bottom line or the company culture you've worked so hard to build? Something has to give, and as family-oriented as many small businesses are, most will opt for layoffs rather than risk the chance that they might have to shut their doors. But are layoffs really the only option? In tough economic times, why not do as the Europeans do? Cut back on your hours or give employees more time off.

An op-ed article in the New York Times explores Europe's solution of turning to shorter workweeks and mandatory time off to control labor costs. In France, it isn't unusual for businesses to operate on a 35-hour workweek, which more are adopting to avoid layoffs and survive the global financial crisis. Germans, too, argue that keeping more workers on the job is the best way to stimulate the economy in a recession, so many are opting for kurzabeit (short week), cutting workers' hours rather than cutting them loose.

Of course, as guest bloggers point out, European workers have a social safety net that employees in the United States don't have—universal health care—so they don't risk losing that due to cutbacks. Also, as one blogger argues, job-sharing has the potential to reduce workers' morale, along with their incomes. And then there's the fact that Europeans are used to taking more vacation time than their U.S. counterparts. Would employees here even know how to handle the free time? What do you think? Is this a viable solution? Check out the article, and weigh in on the debate!