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February 25, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Thoughts on a 4x10 schedule
Dear Bob ...
How do you feel about compressed work weeks? As an employee I love working 4x10s. But as an IT manager it's a real headache. I work as an IT supervisor for a large, 24x7 service organization. Its staff work compressed work weeks, 4x10s starting on various days of the week.
Most of my IT staff prefers to work 4x10s as well. This practice was well established before I got here and even though it's stressed that having an RDO (regular day off) during the week (Friday or Monday) is a privilege, not a right, it's become blasphemous for managers to expect them to come in on their RDO for whatever reason, even if it's just for a one hour meeting to tackle a problem.
So if I have a project team that needs to meet, I'm pretty much restricted to meeting only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I've seen time and again where we I've had to put off meeting with customers, or working an issue for up to 5 days until I have my entire IT staff available. On Fridays and Mondays I'm basically at half staff. We're swamped with work and with severe cash problems we can't get our open positions filled, let alone get new positions created.
I've been slowly pushing my own IT team to see the benefits (from the customer's perspective) of working 5x8s as opposed to 4x10s, but it's hard going. Especially when I get flak from other IT supervisors who think it's such a great perk for their folks that they'd never think of "doing that to them".
I'm retired military and I feel my perspective must be too jaded because I try to satisfy the needs of the department first, then the work units, then the individual. And that rubs some folks the wrong way.
What's your thought on something like this where budgets are getting very tight and we're constantly expected to "do more with less", yet folks aren't willing to give an inch?
- Frustrated
Dear Frustrated ...
It (of course!) depends on a number of specifics.
A point to get out first: Times are tight, which likely means everyone has more work without getting more pay or support. A minor perk like a 4x10 work week is worth preserving under these circumstances. You need everything you can get in the way of providing a great work environment in order to prevent defections.
Other thoughts:
One big advantage to the 4x10 work week is that employees get two hours a day when their ability to focus on a single task is much improved. This isn't an advantage to be sneezed at.
On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of having everyone scheduled either Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday. As you point out, you end up staffed only 50% Mondays and Fridays.
While the employees wouldn't like this as much, a switch to weekends plus a rotating third day off would fix the coverage problem without causing undue hardship. Employees would get a three-day weekend two weeks out of five. The remaining weeks they'd be off Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Employees on project teams would have identical rotations, so that while you couldn't get them all together on Friday (perhaps), you'd have four days a week when the whole team can meet.
That's one approach I'd think everyone could at least live with.
From your description, I don't think your issue is the 4x10 work week. It sounds to me that your IT organization suffers from CWS - Clock Watchers Syndrome. I am sympathetic to employees who would prefer to not drive in to work for a one-hour meeting. Teleconferencing in would seem to be an adequate solution to many of these situations. I'm less sympathetic to IT professionals who worry about getting paid for every minute of work, and who spend more time worrying about time off than about getting the job done.
CWS wouldn't go away if you switched everyone to 5x8 schedules. It would just look different: They'd be unwilling to work an extra half-hour if that's what it took to finish something.
So I'd say you should focus less on changing the work week and more on changing attitudes. To answer the question employees will likely ask you as you try to get some traction on this subject ("What's In It For Me?") the answer is, employees who do only their jobs and nothing more will get a paycheck and nothing more. Employees who go an extra mile or two - and only employees who go an extra mile or two - will get opportunities in the future.
- Bob
Posted by Bob Lewis on February 25, 2008 10:23 AM
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I've been called into teleconferences on my days off, on sick days, and on various other days when I wasn't in the office. Iv'e done conference calls on a commuter train.
I kept a conference call scheduled when going through a family emergency since I knew it was important and almost impossible to get everyone together at the same time.
To me that's all part of being a professional. I may work 8 hours a day but sometimes things come up that need to be addressed. Unless it is truly a hardship I will gladly dial into a meeting.
Now, if they expect me to drive into the office for a meeting where half the people are on teleconference anyway that's being more than a bit excessive. Or if it is a routine meeting that has no time-sensitive agenda. Those are things that can be skipped.
I honestly think the 10x4 schedule can work if everyone is on the same page. And that page is set by management. If you don't like the days they let you have as your 'off day choices' then you really need to think about your attitude. And the very real possibility that 10x4 can go away very, very, very quickly.
Posted by: MrsPost at February 25, 2008 12:17 PMThe other option is to re-design your projects processes so that missing one or two team members isn't critical.
What does this mean? Well, among other things:
* routinely posting meeting minutes in a shared location
* better use of online discussion forums and archives so that employees can catch up on anything they've missed when they return to work
* better "chunking" of projects so that each task has fewer staff dependencies
Then, you supplement that with a clear instruction -- "There's no requirement for you to attend meetings on your day off. But if you don't, and a decision is made in your absence, you don't get to complain about it."
Posted by: Stephen Bounds at February 26, 2008 07:49 PM
First of all, does Frustrated have any openings? I"d love to work 4x10. 5x8 would be okay too. I put in 5x11, plus time at home on conference calls and e-mails, plus on call weekends. Do I mind? Not a lot, it just kinda comes with the territory.
A rotating schedule such as Bob suggests has advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is that while Frustrated now has his whole staff on site three days a week, with a rotating schedule he might never have his whole staff. Yes, you can schedule project teams with a common day off but still the whole team needs to be together from time to time.
One place I worked had a 4x10 work week with a rotating schedule: we rotated our day off through Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, reserving Tuesday as the one day a week when everybody had to be in. We rotated every month, not every week, so people could get accustomed to their schedule.
One thing I learned from this is that I personally found Wednesday to be the best day to have off: Every day is either "logical Monday" or "logical Friday". Either you were off yesterday or you would be off tomorrow. Also, for some reason I got more done on my Wednesdays off than I did when I had three-day weekends.
Posted by: Conrad Macina at February 27, 2008 10:42 AMI work 4-10s as does everyone else in the office. WE have no problem scheduling team meetings. That manager sounds like he wants _everyone_ there for _every_ mtg. That's not management--that's lecturing. A change in mgmt style, getting input in small groups and passing it to other small groups keeps you in the loop, keeps things moving where they need to go, and keeps staff from wasting time in pointless staff meetings.
Posted by: MikeM at February 27, 2008 11:06 AM'Then, you supplement that with a clear instruction -- "There's no requirement for you to attend meetings on your day off. But if you don't, and a decision is made in your absence, you don't get to complain about it."'
Then it is not really a day off, is it? There was something like that in "Animal Farm" about "voluntary" extra labour.
If buy-in is not too important for you, I suppose you can say something like that.
Another schedule option which is used widely in Minnesota state offices is to have eight 9hour days, one 8hour "flex" day, and one fullday off, for every 2 week period. These days off have to be fixed days, but can be set up on any day of the week. Usually it is Friday or Monday. We also have some IT positions doing a 4x10 schedule. All depends on the person's position and supervisor, but we mostly have a choice to take this option and it is a good compromise.
Posted by: CatherineM at February 28, 2008 02:16 PM|
Three books. Three ways to change the world, your life, or at least Bob Lewis' bank account. Leading IT: The Toughest Job in the World distills the world of IT leadership into eight learnable skills and gives you concrete, practical techniques for each one of them. Bare Bones Project Management: What you can't not do makes project management manageable, even for first-time project managers with no formal training in the discipline. ManagementSpeak: What managers say/What they mean … well, it won't help your career, and won't make you a better manager. Mostly, it will make you chuckle, guffaw, and maybe even chortle. Make friends - it's the perfect gift for anyone who has ever suffered through one of those meetings. Order your copies today! |
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