Nemeth Bonnette Brouwer Employment Blog

Is your team in full summer vibe mode? Is it positively or negatively impacting productivity at work? For some employers, the adoption of a summer hours schedule is an antidote to the more laid-back atmosphere that can affect all of us in the summer – especially those that live in the Midwest or other parts of the country where warm weather is limited to a few months. Interestingly, the concept of summer hours is not new and didn’t evolve from the myriad work schedules that now exist post-pandemic.

For decades, what were once known as the Big 3 automakers had a standard two-week shutdown around the 4^th of July to retool their manufacturing plants. The shutdown required workers to use their vacation time for some of the two-week period and generally applied to both union and non-union workers. One aim of the shutdown was to have employees use the majority of their vacation time then so as to be more available during peak manufacturing and selling periods. Perhaps not what one would think of as ‘summer hours,’ but a variation of them, to be sure.

For traditional and flexible offices, summer hours in 2025 have new meaning. With more employees called back to work, summer hours can be four days in the office instead of five, or three days instead of four, with two days of remote work. Other employers simply compress five days of work, regardless of hybrid, remote or in-office worker status – into four days with full five-day pay, commonly referred to as “Summer Fridays.”  Other businesses close early on Fridays, or on the day preceding summer holidays.

What works for one employer may be disastrous for another. So much depends on the type of work being done. Is it customer-facing or customer service? Customers may not care that it’s summer; they want five-day access to the customer service assistance they have become accustomed to. Is it billable hours work where a mandatory threshold has been set, regardless of season? How does a compressed summer work week operate in that situation? For a soft-serve ice cream shop, resorts and resort services, and other businesses that depend on a busy summer, summer hours could mean an extended work week and longer hours for employees.

Best practices for setting summer hours

Companies that operate with a strong corporate culture, and that are high-functioning and efficient, generally achieve that status in part due to HR policies and procedures that clearly define workplace rules and guidelines. When a company adopts summer hours, a ‘best practices’ approach requires a defined policy explaining:

• Who is covered by the summer hours policy and who is not?
• Specific dates for the policy’s duration.
• Will pay or time-off benefit accruals be impacted? If so, explain how.
• Can some employees opt out of summer hours and continue their regular schedule?
• Will the office be accessible during traditional hours? Or just during summer hours?
• Are there disciplinary consequences for those who take advantage of a summer hours schedule by working fewer than the required hours?

While summer hours policies generally follow the standards set by the traditional workday policies, the most successful adoption of summer hours requires policies that consider the many nuances of a summer schedule. Now, is it beach time yet?!