We are considering changing from a 5 day week to a 4 day week (32 hour week). Does anyone have experience in salary changes, benefits, duties etc.. If a person can do the work in 4 days that they did in 5 days with some adjustments of duties. i welcome your comments.
Thanks Carol
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I have some additional questions. What is the focus of changing from a 5 day to a 4 day work week? (You indicated it would be a reduction in hours not a 10-hour 4-day work week.) If the focus is cost containment then hourly employees would be paid by the hour and a cost savings would be realized there. Salaried employee would probably not be impacted since they are paid for their position and not by the hour. You may not need to adjust your benefits depending on how your benefits package is structured. If benefited employees are considered full time for 72 - 80 hours bi-weekly, no adjustment in benefits costs would be needed. If your benefits costs are currently "prorated" for those working less than 80 bi-weekly, the employees whose employment status changes will need to have their benefits cost adjusted as well. The same with vacation time, holiday time, etc. If you currently have a sliding scale for employment categories less than 80 hours bi-weekly you would need to adjust these benefits accordingly. I hope this helps some.
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Anonymous on
6/10/2009 10:26:22 AM
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Carol,
Our department basically has three individuals that are “clerical”. They include two support staff individuals and me, Secretary to the Executive Director. The two support staff individuals have been working 4-10 hour days for the past year, of which I was excluded from, because of my direct assistance needed to the E.D. The support staff, if asked, would say that this is the best thing that ever happened to them. However, many times it does not work for others in our office and I have bulleted those reasons:
· There have been many times when they are needed by one of the remaining professional staff in our department since they are the support on most of the projects and appeals, but they are out of the office.
· One support staff individual takes off Mondays and the other support staff individual takes off Fridays. This means that there are actually four (4) consecutive days that at least one of the support staff individuals is out of the office.
· When one of them are on vacation, it means that I am the only secretary in the office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday…making it difficult to cover the phones at lunch time, and I am required to take care of the mail pick-up and delivery and some other their other work that was not completed. If I am out of the office or on vacation that means there is no secretary and the professional staff must answer the phones, get the mail, etc.
Additionally, for them, as to vacation and personal time hours it is a benefit and a detriment. The benefit is that because they have that one day “off” it seems like they actually have more time out of the office. However, because they work 4-10 hours days, when they take a day of vacation, it must be 10 hours (not 8 hours). The detriment, they feel, is that they get “ripped off” because holiday pay is only 8 hours. So, for instance, the one who is off on Fridays, and it was the week of Memorial Day. She would only be paid that week for 38 hours, not 40 hours - - - 8 hours for Monday-Memorial Day, and 30 hours for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 0 for Friday because that is her day off. If they want to get a 40-hour pay, they must take 2 hours of Personal Time from their bank of 24 hours per year, otherwise their pay is short by two hours that week.
I guess it would work for ALL if your entire office or department worked the 4-day week.
Hope this helps.
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Anonymous on
6/10/2009 8:58:43 AM
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We had a 4 day work week years ago.
It was nice for awhile. Many of the group had Fridays off and a skeleton crew on Fridays. Most of the group worked Mondays. After awhile, people started calling in sick on Monday, so eventually we were down to a skeleton crew on Monday too, so after awhile Fridays and Mondays hardly anything got done. Eventually we couldn't keep up and becuase of a few bad apples, we had to go back to the 5 day routine. Too bad, because it was nice having a 3 day work weekend. If you can keep people from abusing their "sick leave" it can be a good thing. We also worked 10 hour days and kept to our 40 hour work week.
Julie S.
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Julie Minegar Stasi on
6/10/2009 8:04:40 AM
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My company has just requested a volunteer reduction to a 4 day work week. That is a 20% reduction in pay but we keep our full benefits because we are over the 32 Hour mark. The work load does not change but you have to adjust by department. Not everyone can be gone at the same time.
We also had to eliminate some staff so Admin help is very limited besides myself. As of right now, I will stay at 5 days per week.
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SGunderson on
6/10/2009 7:56:50 AM
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My municipality has not changed the working hours so far. However, other municipalities have changed to a 4 day work week, keeping 40 hours for the 4 days. Other companies have reduced employees hours; thereby, their salaries have been reduced depending upon how many hours were reducted. Responsibilities and duties have remained the same whether the hours/salary reduction has taken place.
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Anonymous on
6/10/2009 7:54:18 AM
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