Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    P&P 6.41, "Special Work Weeks":
    
    "From time to time, regular employees are assigned to a special
    work week in an effort to address a particular need within the Company.
    
    ...
    
    Examples of special work weeks are...
    
    	- 10 hours per day/4 days per week"
    
    
    As with most things, your exact schedule is a matter between you and
    your supervisor.  The only thing required by policy is that you work 40
    hours per week if you're a full-time employee, and that you do your job
    properly.  How those 40 hours are allocated is normally 5 days of 8
    hours each, but policy recognises that that doesn't always make sense.
    Employee morale is certainly a legitimate "need within the company" and
    I'm quite sure that we'll see more and more such accommodations as the
    workforce becomes increasingly female.
    
    						=maggie 

    
    If you're wage class 2, any hours over 8 hours a day is a mandatory
    over time pay.  No if's, ands, or buts.  However, on the other
    hand, if you're wage class 4, there shouldn't be any problems.
    
    In our plant we have flex time that varies for our 2 shifts.
    Day shift can flex between 6 and 8 a.m. and evening shift
    can flex between 2 - 4.  Generally, everyone is in by 3:30 or
    so.                    
    
    
                                 Shelly

    All of the data centers I've worked for have used, at one time
    or another, for some or for all, the 10-hour/4-day schedule.
    
    The only obstacles would be the authorization of overtime pay
    if you're a WC 2 (as .2 has already pointed out), and whether
    your job is one that can allow you to be out one day a week
    (management positions, for example, generally do not).
    
    Since your supervisor has already said it OK with him, then you
    obviously are not constrained by either of these obstacles.
    
    --- jerry

    Yup, I got confused and misread the pay provisions.  If you are
    wc2, then you must be paid time-and-a-half for the "extra" 2 hours
    per day.   If your boss can't hack that (and there are some serious
    restrictions on OT just now), then perhaps a reclass to wc4 would
    be in order since you're not trying to make the change for the money
    anyhow.
    
    						=maggie

    Hunting around in the files I found several discussions of flexible
    hours, mostly in the area of job-sharing and so forth (and I know
    you're not looking to decrease your hours, but it may give you
    some idea how to alter what hours you work).
    
    womannotes-v1
    164 - job sharing
    
    parenting
    48 - flexible work schedules for working parents
    528 - job-sharing - anyone out there?
    

    -Jody
    

    
    A lot of WC4 people are working 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.
    They voluntary to do it in the hope of future promotion.
    It will make you look bad if you are in WC4 and work only 4 days
    a week while others work five days a week.
    
    Jason

    Thank you all for your help. I should have put that I am wage class
    4, an Industry Marketing Manager, and the nature of our group is
    that there is a lot of travel so people have rather non-traditional
    hours anyway. 
    
    As I mentioned my manager, a family man with 4 daughters, supports
    my request and the reasons for it. Therfore I only needed to give
    him the precedent information, which was provided in .1's reference
    to the policy manual. I will get it and make a copy for him. 
    
    WOW!! A summer of wednesdays with my son! Thank you again. 

    
    re: .6
    
    This is a tangent, but when I read your note I remembered how glad 
    I am to work for a supervisor who reminds me, whenever necessary, 
    how important it is to NOT be a work-a-holic and to plan and 
    schedule my work based on a 40 hour week.
    
    CQ

    re:.0
    Please let us know how it turns out. There are a whole bunch of
    us in your cheering section!
    
    Kate
              

    	As someone who has worked 4 10-hour days for 3 and a half years
    	(until recently, when I switched temporarily to 3 12-hour days
    	per week,) I can say from experience that "Special Work Weeks"
    	are wonderful!!!
    
    	Now, all I have to do is to break the habit of going into the
    	office on my days off and I'll be all set.  :-)
    
    	Although I am Wage Class 4 as well, there are a huge number
    	of Wage Class 2 and Wage Class 3 folks that work 3- and 4-day 
    	work weeks in my group (due to the nature of our business,)
    	and it does work out very well for all of us!
    
    	Have a great time with your son this summer!!
    

    We do have to train people to not think of flextime as being strictly a
    woman's issue.  It was really common (in software engineering, anyhow)
    during the last big gasoline crunch - nearly everyone in my group with
    a long commute went on some kind of less-than-five-day schedule then.
    One of the men I work with now, who probably works even more hours than
    I do, normally arranges his time so that he is gone on Friday (today,
    forexample), since his family lives up in Vermont and he goes there
    most weekends.  One man I work with alternates child-tax-service weeks
    with his wife, soe very other week he works late hours and she leaves
    early (to taxi their kids to the dentist, flute lessons, ballet class,
    chors practice...).  Think of flextime as something that is good for
    HUMAN employees, not just FEMALE employees (though sometimes I think
    the boot nodes of this cluster take too many vacations...).
    
    /Charlotte

I sent the basenote to a guy in my group who works at work 4 days a week. He
says:

From:	ULTRA::SIMON        "The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine."
To:	ULTRA::ZURKO
CC:	
Subj:	RE: Maybe you can help? (even if you aren't a mom :-)

All I did was ask Ray [his manager] if I could do it. He checked with Marty
[the manager of the group he works closely with] and they both checked with
someone in personnel. Everyone thought it was a fine idea (especially me!). The
only concern I heard voiced was that I might be needed occasionally at a
meeting on Friday (which is the day I take off). This has happened once in the
last several months. Basically, they just want me to be flexible enough to be
around if I'm needed. If this woman has her manager's okay, then I'd say she's
90% there. As long as I get my work done, everyone's happy.

Feel free to forward this if you like, or to post it.

-Rich

    Thank you all for your support. This was the first note I ever put into
    a notesfile and I feel like I have all these FRIENDS out there in you!
    Wow! For an Only Child as I - a family, at last! 
    
    I have been doing the 4 10-hr days for 2 weeks now and it's great! What
    a difference, to know that I'll only be away for 2 days max instead of
    5. Thank you all again; I've only been with Digital 2+ years and altho
    there's SO MUCH about this Co that needs improving (tighening up, if
    you will, if we intend to compete effecively and therefore grow and stay 
    in business), this element of Digital is great RIGHT NOW!!!  

    
                          <** Moderator Response **>

�     Thank you all for your support. This was the first note I ever put into
�     a notesfile and I feel like I have all these FRIENDS out there in you!
�     Wow! For an Only Child as I - a family, at last! 
    
    I like to think it's what we do best, Laurie. :-)  It's certainly the
    main reason we're all here.
    
    
    ...and congrats to your boss for being supportive of your needs! It's
    the way we'll make DEC stronger.
    
    						in Sisterhood,
    						=maggie