The conventional wisdom in most HR and Management circles is that employees are not at their best on Mondays and Fridays. Supposedly recovering from the weekend on Monday and looking forward to the weekend on Friday. Most executives think the middle of the week is the most productive. Productivity is one issue, but safety is another. A new study has shown that Wednesday is the most unsafe day of the week. This study took a look at government workers in Georgia and found that there are more accidents reported on Wednesday than on any other day of the week. Fridays had the fewest reports. So the "weekend distraction" did not seem to have any effect on working safely.
What are the possible reasons? Well the study suggests that the reason Friday appears to be the safest is that fewer workers may be on the job as a result of flextime. Fewer workers equals fewer accident reports. Perhaps that is the same reason Monday is not the highest day of the week. And it is likely that with flextime you will have the MOST employees on the job on Wednesday and hence have a higher likelihood of an accident report.
Beyond flextime, what might be some other reasons? Is there midweek fatigue? Is there too much work trying to be shoved into too little time and thus people get distracted? Possibly, but I think in this study it is tied to the flextime schedule.
How about all of you. Anyone notice an accident trend in your workplace?
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