What Is a 9/80 Work Schedule?

A 9/80 work schedule lets employees work their full 80 hours over nine days instead of ten, giving them every other Friday off.

It’s growing in popularity, and the idea is pretty simple: instead of working 10 regular days over two weeks, employees work slightly longer hours and get one of those Fridays off. Same total hours, same pay. Just a little different in terms of where the hours land.

And people seem to love it. It’s not a four-day workweek that risks upending everything. It’s a small shift—but one that gives your talent a real, predictable three-day weekend every other week. A chance to breathe. To plan. To balance work with life.

The 9/80 model has become especially popular with knowledge workers, office-based roles, and teams that don’t need constant coverage. And for companies, it hits a sweet spot: flexible enough to attract talent, but structured enough to keep business running smoothly.

The best part might be its simplicity. Everyone knows the schedule. No complicated tracking common to other flexible work models. No guessing who’s working when. Just a little tweak to the calendar that changes the week’s feel.

How the 9/80 schedule works

The 9/80 schedule follows a simple two-week pattern that reshuffles traditional work hours. The 80 hours an employee would traditionally work over 10 days is squeezed into nine days. The numbers work out to one full day off every two weeks.

Here’s how a typical 9/80 works:

Week 1:

• Monday–Thursday. 9 hours per day (36 total hours)
• Friday. 8 hours (first 4 hours counted for Week 1, remaining 4 hours counted for Week 2)

Week 2:

• Monday–Thursday. 9 hours per day (36 total hours)
• Friday. Day off

Employees still work 80 hours biweekly and have a three-day weekend every other week. The key lies in how the eight hours on Friday are split between the two work weeks per payroll and compliance.

Most companies take care of tracking the Friday split and don’t have employees track it themselves. Payroll systems typically automate hour allocation. This makes it easier on employees while keeping accurate time records.

Some companies allow teams to stagger their off Fridays for better coverage.

Benefits of the 9/80 schedule

The advantages of a 9/80 schedule apply to both employers and employees and different industries and geographic regions. Organizations that use it typically see improvements in multiple areas of workforce management.

• Improves work-life balance. The 9/80 schedule “brings 26 three-day weekends a year,” says Miriam Groom, a nationally renowned Industrial & Organizational Therapist and HR Strategist. “Extended weekends boost employee satisfaction and retention by providing extra time with family or for personal activities,” she adds.
• Helps employees tackle their most important work when their brain is actually ready for it. “Focused nine-hour workdays can increase output,” Groom says, as longer workdays can minimize the time lost to daily startup routines and transitions. Many employees report accomplishing more during extended work sessions without the typical mid-afternoon energy dips.
• Supports employee retention and job satisfaction. Flexible scheduling ranks consistently high in employee satisfaction surveys as a valued benefit. “Having regular three-day weekends significantly contributes to fostering a healthy work-life balance, which in turn greatly enhances overall mental well-being and personal satisfaction,” reports Groom.
• Works with your team’s reality—whether they’re in Tokyo, Toronto, or anywhere in between. Teams spread across different regions can better coordinate when some members have staggered schedules. The more extended workdays have more overlap hours for international collaboration.
• Saves on commuting costs and helps the planet—win-win. One less commute day every two weeks saves employees money on gas, parking, and public transportation. Organizations with sustainability goals benefit from the reduced carbon footprint of their workforce.

What to know when your team spans continents

The 9/80 schedule presents unique opportunities and challenges for organizations with distributed workforces. Global teams can leverage the flexibility while navigating coordination complexities.

• Enhanced cross-region collaboration opportunities. Teams can create better overlap windows by having different regions work extended hours during complementary time periods.
• Complex scheduling coordination requirements. Project managers must track which team members have Friday off to avoid scheduling conflicts and keep project momentum.
• Variable legal compliance across jurisdictions. Local labor laws and overtime regulations differ a lot between countries, making nine-hour days legally complex or costly in some regions.
• Need for centralized schedule visibility. Organizations need shared systems to track staggered 9/80 schedules across multiple locations and ensure their teams are aware.
• Cultural adaptation considerations. Work culture expectations around daily hours and weekend patterns vary globally, requiring sensitivity to local norms and preferences.

How to set up a 9/80 schedule for your team

Making a 9/80 schedule work takes some upfront planning—but it’s worth getting right.

Pick times when your whole team can actually work together

Choose a window of time when everyone needs to be available, no matter which version of the 9/80 schedule they’re on. Most companies choose 4-6 hours during their busiest part of the day when meetings and collaboration happen most naturally. This way, people can still enjoy their flexible schedules while ensuring remote teams can work together when needed.

Tell everyone when they need to be available—and when they don’t

Set explicit rules about response times, meeting participation, and project deadlines under the new schedule. “Use emails, meetings, and FAQs to explain the benefits, like an extra day off every other week,” advises Groom. Employees need to understand how their responsibilities change when working longer days and taking alternating Fridays off.

Make sure your payroll can handle the different hour patterns

Set up your payroll software, so those split Fridays don’t mess up anyone’s paycheck.

Many standard systems aren’t designed for compressed schedules and require customization or manual oversight. Work with IT and payroll teams early to ensure accurate time tracking and compliance with wage and hour regulations.

Test out the schedule with specific departments or locations

Start with volunteer departments or teams that have compatible work styles before rolling out company-wide. “During this time, collect feedback through surveys to gain insight into employee needs, preferences, and any concerns they may have,” suggests Groom. This approach allows you to identify potential issues and refine processes without disrupting the entire organization.

Keep everyone in the loop so work doesn’t fall through the cracks

Use project management platforms and communication tools that keep distributed work visible to all team members. These systems become especially important when some employees are off while others are working longer hours. Work keeps moving forward even when your team’s on different schedules.

FAQs

Got questions about how this actually works? Here’s what most people want to know.

Is a 9/80 schedule considered full-time?

Yes, employees on a 9/80 schedule keep full-time status since they work the standard 80 hours over two weeks. All benefits, salary calculations, and employment classifications stay the same as traditional full-time positions. The only difference is how those hours are distributed across the days.

How does it affect overtime calculations?

Overtime calculations can become complex since employees work more than eight hours on most days. In the U.S., federal law requires overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a single week, but some states have daily overtime requirements that kick in after eight hours. Employers need to anticipate local regulations and may need to pay daily overtime premiums even when weekly totals stay within normal ranges.

Can part-time employees use a 9/80 model?

The 9/80 schedule typically doesn’t work for part-time employees since it’s designed around the standard 80-hour biweekly requirement. Part-time workers would need a modified version that compresses their specific hour commitment across fewer days. Some companies create custom arrangements for part-time staff, but these aren’t technically 9/80 schedules.

What happens if the scheduled day off lands on a holiday?

Most companies treat this as an extra benefit, giving employees both the holiday and their scheduled 9/80 day off. Some organizations require employees to take the holiday on a different day or adjust their schedule for that pay period. Company policy typically determines how these situations are handled, so it’s important to clarify expectations upfront.

Are there countries where the 9/80 schedule is not allowed?

Yes, some countries have strict daily working hour limits that make nine-hour days legally problematic or expensive. For instance, several European nations have regulations that trigger overtime penalties for any work beyond eight hours per day. Employers should consult local labor law experts before implementing 9/80 schedules in international locations to avoid compliance issues.

Offload the headaches and focus on your people

You want to offer something great—like a 9/80 schedule—giving your team more flexibility, more balance. And you want to be able to do it across different countries and laws without the international red tap and endless compliance paperwork. What you’re striving for is more flexibility and less bureaucratic headache.

Pebl handles all the stuff you’d rather not deal with: employment, payroll, and compliance—all wrapped into our Employer of Record (EOR) service. And this reaches your team wherever it is.

Instead of drowning in tax codes and legal jargon, you get to focus on your people, your culture, and making work better. We’ll cover the messy stuff.

Want to make managing a global team actually manageable? You know where to find us.

This information does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or tax advice and is for general informational purposes only. The intent of this document is solely to provide general and preliminary information for private use. Do not rely on it as an alternative to legal, financial, taxation, or accountancy advice from an appropriately qualified professional. The content in this guide is provided “as is,” and no representations are made that the content is error-free.

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