CEBU CITY – A compressed four-day work week will definitely help cushion the impact of soaring petroleum prices.

However, it is not applicable to all.

This was the stand of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) which is closely coordinating with local government units in addressing the ill-effects of the fuel crisis from the conflict in the Middle East.

“The four-day work week is really good also. It promotes work-life balance and shows efficiency as well. But it really depends on the industry. Some industries can implement it, but some cannot,” CCCI president Regan King said in a press conference on Friday, March 13.

King pointed out that a shorter work week may be easy to adopt by knowledge-based sectors but will not be feasible for industries that rely heavily on continuous customer service and on-site operations.

Bryan Yap, chief executive officer of Republiq Group and an advocate of artificial intelligence and digital transformation, said the success of a four-day work week depends on widespread adoption across the economy.

“I think the four-day work week is great. But the only way for that to happen is if everybody goes on a four-day work week,” he said.

Implementing a compressed work week will be challenging for industries involved in customer demand such as malls and retail businesses.

“It’s very hard for others to go on a four-day work week when their customers are running on Saturday, especially malls and retail. They can never go on a four-day work week,” Yap said.

Yap compared the current situation to the pandemic.

“During the pandemic, retail workers could not go on work-from-home arrangements. If everyone did, everything would shut down,” he said.

The shorter work week is also not feasible for the hospitality sector.

Shannen Keisha Tan, CCCI board secretary and president of Mezzo Hotel, said it is important for service-oriented industries to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.

“There will be implications in terms of the service delivery that we have. There are times that we have to overcompensate, especially when the demand is at its peak,” Tan said, adding that a five-day work week remains necessary for many hotel operations, particularly for back-office functions.

Tan admitted that the four-day work week is “very ideal” as a measure to conserve energy but it is not always feasible in hospitality operations.

“There is no problem with the implementation of a four-day work week provided that service delivery is not affected. Once it is affected, it will create a domino effect in terms of the economic contribution that we will have,” she said.

For the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) sector, shorter working days will not be a problem.

Darwin John Moises said the industry was able to develop flexible work systems following the pandemic.

“In the IT-BPM industry, we have already been trained during the pandemic to be adaptive to flexible work schedules,” Moises said.

Companies now operate under hybrid work setups, allowing employees flexibility in both the time and location of their work, Moises said.

“A lot of the work force is already hybrid. The industry is already adaptive to that,” he said.

Bernard Vonn Sia, vice president for sales and corporate communications of Cebu Bionic Builder Supply Inc., said the fuel crisis will hurt the trade sector the most.

“The trade sector is the most affected. We have to make sure suppliers are still supplying us,” Sia said.

Because of the current situation, the trade sector is prioritizing lean logistics and ensuring that supplies remain available even as costs rise while operating in a “belt-tightening mode,” said Sia.