It is much easier to plan an eight hour schedule for two employees than for one, and there is no limit to the number of different ways in which the sixteen hours of work may be divided, subdivided, and arranged to please the individual housewife.  With two employees, it is no longer necessary for the housewife to remain at home while one is off duty, even for an hour, for one relieves the other without any cessation of work.  Even on the seventh day, “the day of rest,” the housewife can always arrange to have her work done without doing it herself, in spite of the absence of one of her employees.

When a schedule is finally agreed upon, however, it must be rigidly enforced, for it is more important to keep to the hours specified when there are two employees than when there is only one.  Although the housewife may be tempted to claim the privilege of changing her hours very often to please herself, since she is the employer, if she value her peace of mind, she will refrain from doing it.  Only when the inevitable, the unforeseen, occurs should she make a change in her regular schedule.  When one employee is off duty all day, the other employee can remain on duty the entire day; naturally this plan necessitates more than eight hours of work on that day, probably two or three more hours, but if on the day after or the day before, the employee be allowed to work two or three hours less than eight hours, the average of eight hours a day and six days a week is maintained.

Another example of what the housewife can do when one of her employees is off duty the entire day, is to make her other employee follow schedule No. 1.  This enables her to keep to eight hours a day and at the same time the housewife does none of the housework herself.

SCHEDULE NO.  V

With two employees it is a wise plan to arrange a schedule that makes the work of one employee commence the moment the work of the other ceases.  This tends to promote punctuality without requiring special supervision on the part of the housewife.

The following schedule is admirably adapted to the every day life of the average family with two employees: 

First Employee

From 7 A.M. to 11 A.M. 4 hours
From 12 M. to 4 P.M. 4 hours
-------
8 hours

Second Employee

From 11 A.M. to 3 P.M. 4 hours
From 4 P.M. to 8 P.M. 4 hours
-------
8 hours

All the washing, ironing, and mending of the family were done by the two employees, and they also took care of the children when necessary.  Besides being good cooks, they were both excellent waitresses; in consequence it made no difference which one was on duty at meal time.

One employee only was in charge of breakfast; she came at seven o’clock in the morning, and worked steadily until eleven o’clock, when the second employee arrived.  She then went out for her lunch, returning at twelve, and remaining on duty until four o’clock in the afternoon.  She was then free for the remainder of the day.