A faction of progressive Capitol Hill staff members are urging legislators to adopt a 32-hour work week when Congress is not in session, arguing that such a move would mitigate employee burnout and enhance staff retention.
The Congressional Progressive Staff Association (CPSA), an official congressional staff organization committed to promoting the interests of current and prospective progressive staff members, has drafted an open letter advocating for a shorter workweek. The letter, set to be dispatched later this week, argues that a reduced work week would "improve worker satisfaction, increase staff retention in Congress, and model a more sustainable approach to work on a national level." The proposed policy would mandate a 32-hour work week for Capitol Hill staff when Congress is not in session and a similar work week for district office employees when Congress is in session.
The CPSA letter acknowledges the demanding nature of staff roles on Capitol Hill, which often prompts employees to seek alternative positions sooner than they might in a more stable and sustainable work environment. "Given the cyclical nature of the schedule, we propose implementing a 32-hour workweek for D.C.-based staff during district work periods and a 32-hour workweek for district-based staff while in-session," the letter states. The CPSA believes that this approach, without a reduction in pay, would enable both D.C. and district staff to be fully available during more intensive periods when the Member is in town, while allowing for a more sustainable schedule when workloads are more manageable.
However, a 2023 Gallup study of 12,000 full-time employees revealed that workers on a four-day schedule reported higher levels of burnout than their five-day counterparts. This could be due to employees feeling pressured to accomplish the same amount of work in a shorter time frame, resulting in additional stress. According to a 2023 BBC report, reduced workweeks have also proven largely unsuccessful for customer-facing businesses, a category that the constituent-facing job of a congressional staffer could fall under.
In addition to advocating for a 32-hour work week, the CPSA has also expressed support for protests against the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses across the U.S. A May press release from the group declared that it "unequivocally stands alongside these nonviolent student protestors and their efforts to raise the alarm about the complicity of both their colleges and of the United States in the War on Gaza." Amid these protests, college campuses experienced a surge in antisemitic sentiment, with a 2024 online study from Brandeis University of 20,000 young adult Jews indicating that rates of hostility against Jews on U.S. campuses in 2023 were approximately twice that of 2016. According to FBI data, the number of reported antisemitic hate crime offenses soared to an all-time high in 2023, with the increase largely coinciding with the onset of the Israel-Hamas war.
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backed a 2022 initiative supported by the CPSA to allow staff in the House of Representatives to unionize, resulting in the House passing a resolution in May granting the request.
The CPSA letter concludes by stating, "We do not want a 32-hour workweek to just be another special benefit for Congressional staff: We hope that by adopting this policy, Members of Congress can help to advance the discussion around a more sustainable workweek as a national priority and model how it can work for private and public employers across the country and the world."
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