Workers love four-day work week
Posted on Sunday, September 14, 2008
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Todd Finklea with Fayetteville’s Parks & Recreation Division fills up a string trimmer with gasoline Thursday as he and other city workers mow in Walker Park. Division officials are experimenting with a work week of four 10-hour days in order to save time and money.
Fayetteville Parks & Recreation Division maintenance workers enjoy working four days a week instead of five, and they are more productive, officials said.
Rising fuels prices have prompted workers and managers to take a fresh look at allowing workers to stay at home one more day each week to save time and gas money.
Workers who mow Fayetteville's parks and recreation areas asked their supervisors about working four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days after reading in the newspaper that schools were considering this as a way to save money.
"We did it because of the gas crunch and for the morale of our guys," Byron Humphrey, Parks & Recreation maintenance superintendent, said.
In August, the 12 workers in the department's grounds crew began working four 10-hours days each week. Some of the workers take off Friday, and others take off Monday so workers are available each day, Humphrey said. These workers take care of the city's parks, athletic fields, city-owned properties and parking lots -almost 70 properties, he said.
Humphrey said it's too soon to say if this new system is saving the city any money, but he can already tell that it's saving time because workers are more productive.
City mowing crews spend a lot of time preparing to go to and from each job site, plus they spend a lot of time driving. By working one less day, it cuts down on the unproductive setup and travel times, he explained.
He said it used to take seven working days to mow each of the properties one time. Now workers are getting it done in four days.
Not all of the parks department's maintenance workers work a four-day schedule. The five workers who prepare the city's baseball and soft ball fields work five days a week because they are needed every day during the summer to get fields ready for games. The forestry service crews work traditional work schedules, too, he said.
Humphrey said one of the initial concerns was whether workers could stand the summer heat for longer hours. That's been hard to evaluate because this summer was so mild, but overall, it has not been a problem, he said.
He expects to continue this schedule until the crew finishes putting up the lights on the Fayetteville Square. They will then go back to traditional schedules until sometime next spring when the days start getting longer again, he said.
"So far, it has proved we are getting more grass mowed," Connie Edmondston, the city's Parks & Recreation director. "With the economy like it is, we are looking at ways we can be more effective."
"The crews are very happy. They like doing it," she said. "It seems to be working very well for us. "Mayor Dan Coody said it is too early to tell if this new work schedule will save the city money, but he's willing to give it a try. "If it's more efficient and better for the taxpayers, I'm all for it," Coody said. More common in the future ? Officials said they can foresee this trend of working longer hours for fewer days becoming more common, but no one inter viewed said they expect this spread through city and other public services, especially not ones requiring public contact.
"People still expect people in city hall to be there from 8 to 5," Coody said.
Cops love it, too.
Most of the Fayetteville Police Department have been working 10-hour days since 2001, Police Chief Greg Tabor said. The 73 police officers who patrol the city's streets work the 10-hours days.
"They love it," Tabor said.
Detectives, dispatchers and administrative staff still work eight-hour shifts, he said. It did not make sense to give the detectives one additional day off each week because they are often needed to testify in court, and the department did not want to pay overtime, he explained. The police department did not make the change to save gas money, however. It was done to beef up patrols during peak times for catching drunk driver and underage drinkers. "It gives us an overlap from 9 p.m. until 2 a. m.," Tabor said. "Back then we were thinking about underage drinking patrols and DWI arrests."
Not new at AHTD The four-day work week may be new for some workers, but the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has been doing it for more than 20 years. "The four-day work week is really catching fire because of gas pr ices," Randy Ort, public affairs officer for the department, said. "That's not exactly why we did it. "The transportation department began working the longer four-day schedules during the months with longer daylight hours so their crews could be more efficient. They still work traditional schedules during late fall and winter when daylight saving time is not in effect, he explained. "The idea at the time was to enhance efficiency," Ort said. "A lot of times those crews are out on the road, and it takes a lot of time to set up and tear down work zones. "It's been ver y effective, and that's why we kept doing it. "Ort explained that it's not an agencywide policy. The maintenance crews that work on roads and associates who work in shops and equipment repair generally work four-day weeks as daylight allows. The workers in the administrative offices and those who oversee road construction projects still work five-day schedules, he said. It's hard to find workers that don't like working four days instead of five, but he said the U. S. "culture is still based on a five-day work week. " "People expect state government to be there five days a week," Ort said.
Works for Beaver Most of the electricians and maintenance workers at the Beaver Water District work flexible schedules that include four-day work weeks, Alan Fortenberry, chief executive officer for the district, said. Some of the water district's lab staff work fourday weeks. The employees and mangers in the district's administrative offices still work five days a week, he said. Water treatment plant operators work three 12-hour days one week and three 12-hour days plus one eight-hour shift the next week, he said. The district provides wholesale treated water to Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville. The managers and supervisors must approve the schedules of the workers who utilize flexible schedules, but Fortenberry said what really matters is that the work gets done correctly in a timely manner. Workers who are staying longer for fewer days can be more productive because they spend less time gearing up in the morning and winding down at the end of the day. Because they work fewer days, they spend more time getting things done, he said. "It benefits the district," he said. "If it was not good for the district, I would not be for it. But it's good for us. "The workers like it, too. ' It's a morale booster," he said. "They really like that ability to have an extra day off. "Flexible schedules help attract good workers, and the younger generation especially likes it, he said. "It seems like anymore its almost what you have to do with people," Fortenberry said. "The newer generation really likes that kind of flexibility... To get the employees you need, you have to be willing to think outside the box."
Springdale not ready Springdale officials have considered a four-day work week for some workers but aren't ready to switch yet.
Wyman Morgan, Springdale's administration and financial services director, said Mayor Jerre Van Hoose and he have discussed the possibility of a four-day work week but so far have not implemented it for any city workers.
Most Springdale city workers do not have a long commute so there would be little savings in fuel costs, he said. The city's largest work force is its police and fire departments, and they do not want to change their schedules, he said.
Morgan said he and the mayor believe the concept may be worth considering for public works workers, such as in the street depar tment, because it could reduce travel time to job sites and allow workers to be more productive because they are in the field longer.
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