Posted on 08/23/2023 10:40:58 AM PDT by llevrok
FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. – San Juan County has announced that it is adopting a 32-hour work week for its employees.
The County lists fiscal health, staffing challenges and the well-being of islanders as the reasons for the change, citing a 10 to 15 percent job vacancy rate across many key departments.
They aim to hold wages and productivity constant while reducing the work week by eight hours for union workers.
County officials say it comes as an alternative to the “last resort” option of increasing taxes as the island struggles to remain a competitive employer.
The schedule change will take effect on October 1st.
County offices will stay open, though some departments may adjust their hours or close one day a week.
The Sheriff’s Office and its services will remain unimpacted along with emergency responses, according to the County.
San Juan is one of the first counties in the nation to make the switch to the 32-hour work week.
Coming to a neighborhood near you!
How exactly will they get folks to work that many more hours??
iswydt
Let’s be honest, I work in an office, most of the work that actually gets done and needs to get done, can be done in about 15 hours a week. The other time is just spent talking to co-workers and other non-productive stuff.
If the pay doesnt change, how is this an alternative to higher taxes? (If their lips are moving...)
How do you solve a staffing problem by reducing the number of hours your current staff works?
It’s like getting ripped off at the grocery store as the contents all become smaller due to inflation from stupid libtards overspending
Let's be even more honest and say that this is why work-from-home works.
Also interesting that they are short 15% of their workforce yet don’t have to do overtime to keep up?
And just what happens when there’s a natural disaster that demands all hands on deck response?
I agree. The last 5 years I worked (international sales), I worked from home (internet was really ramping up then allowing me to do so).
I was done with my work by about 1pm. Thank God for a Blackberry as I'd go out and run errands and every one thought I was in my "office".
Interesting that the pay won’t change, just the hours to earn it.
Actually this is pretty impressive. I would have to guess that the San Juan County (WA) employees are so efficient they are doing a 40 hour job in 32 or maybe even less. I wonder if the county administrator is going to be conducting seminars in other counties around the country as to how they can achieve that level of effectiveness.
What? Wait! I forgot, these are government employees and this is in reality just government jobs.
Never mind.
I agree. They aren’t going to be happy going from working 10 hours a month to 32 hours a week!
“And just what happens when there’s a natural disaster that demands all hands on deck response?”
You get what happened in Maui.
I look at this as a positive. Instead of 40 hours to make our lives miserable and filled with red tape etc, they have only 32 hours a week to do so. If as a result of a 32 hour work week, there is less bureacratic paper work, rules, and regulations I support it. Perhaps a 28 hour work week would even be better.
I suspect like in Office Space, these folks probably only do about 15 minutes of real work in a week.
LOL. And the rest of the time they spend trying to figure out how to make our lives miserable by saying they are doing things to help us!
Let me get this straight. They have a 10 to 15 percent shortage of personnel so they are going to reduce the hours of those who are employed with them to eight hours less a week. Is that right. If that is the case, they don’t need the 10 to 15 percent that they are short, and if they can keep productivity working 8 hours less a week then they don’t even need the employees they have. They can fire some and keep the others at 40 hours a week. What am I not getting. This is dumb, but then it is democrats.
If you don't have enough staff to cover the shifts, you cut services. My wife works as a police/fire/EMS dispatcher. They don't get to cut service hours, so each dispatcher was assigned 42 hours a week when one left after a pregnancy problem. When the 3 women who were all pregnant at the same time left for 90 days maternity leave, the remaining dispatchers worked 48 hours per week each to cover 7/24. Only 2 returned, so the supervisor is filling in while the rest of the staff works 4 x 10 shifts. The city has had no success replacing the dispatcher who didn't return from the 90 day maternity leave AND my wife plans to retire at the end of this year. It takes 15 weeks to train a replacement once you have a hire that can complete the training and perform the job.
The more simple answer to your question is cutting back to 32 hour weeks means people come to work M->Th and not on Friday. Less service provided to the taxpayer in this instance, but fewer shifts to staff. Honestly, they should get paid for 32 hours of labor not 40.
A four day work-week is offered as a benefit to encourage people to join the county workforce.
This is a small rural county where most people work in bigger nearby cities. This change may encourage workers to move to the county and do these jobs.
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