March 14, 2002
Options abound for flextime scheduling
When most of us think of a job, we immediately think of 8 to 5, Monday through Friday. But these days there are many more options available, from job sharing to flextime, 4-10s to telecommuting. Workers — including many University employees — are finding new ways to meet their obligations.
Take Sue Bartroff, for example. Fifteen years ago she was a typical fiscal specialist working a normal schedule in the Zoology Department. Then, her son suffered a cataclysmic brain injury. Suddenly, Bartroff found her responsibilities as a worker conflicting mightily with her responsibilities as a parent. So when the faculty came to her and asked what they could do to help, Bartroff requested a change in her schedule so that she could have one day off each week. What was worked out was “4-10s,” four 10-hour days, giving Bartroff Mondays off to deal with her new challenges.
“That was the first time such a thing had been authorized in the department, and it required a vote of the faculty,” Bartroff says.
But it worked out so well that she has continued the schedule to this day, arriving at her office at 5 a.m. and leaving at 4, Tuesday through Friday.
“Those three hours in the morning when I can work without interruptions are the best of the day,” Bartroff says.
Bartroff’s story is fairly typical of UW staffers on flextime, according to Bruce Miller, a human resource analyst at the University — though the actual process is simpler today. “It’s usually a matter of an employee wanting to work a flexible schedule and approaching a supervisor with the idea,” he says.
In most cases, if the supervisor and the employee agree, all that’s required is a memo in the employee’s file stating the schedule that has been agreed to.
“It doesn’t need to be reported centrally,” Miller says. “The memo is there for documentation purposes, but HR does not keep a central record of each employee’s designated work schedule.”
The main sticking point is making sure that the needs of the department are being met with the alternative schedule. Irene Arden, for example, a counselor with Counseling and Career Services at UW Bothell, has worked a number of part-time schedules, including two 10-hour days and two 8-hour days plus one 4-hour.
But her schedule has been built around the needs of the students she serves — mostly adults returning to school and working at the same time. Right now she works 9 a.m.–7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 1–7:30 p.m. Thursday and 1-5 p.m. Friday. The evening hours, she says, are very popular with students. And the schedule pleases her because she’ll be able to open a private practice during the off-work hours.
That kind of balance between the needs of the employee and the needs of the office is crucial, says Patsy Wosepka. Wosepka currently does special projects for the Business School, but for many years was the director of the undergraduate program office there and had a number of employees on flexible schedules.
“The atmosphere we set up in our office was, ‘We’re going to be as flexible as we can for you, as long as you’re flexible in return,’” she says. “We had a really nice give and take. People felt they were being treated respectfully as independent individuals, so I never got ‘That isn’t part of my job,’ or ‘I only work till 5.’”
One caveat is that Wosepka was supervising mostly staff who are not eligible for overtime. Miller says that when an employee is eligible for overtime, then special care must be taken in formulating the schedule and in record keeping to maintain compliance with applicable regulations and/or labor contract provisions. HR consultants are always available, he says, to consult on this or any other question connected with flextime.
HR’s knowledge of flextime isn’t entirely theoretical, either. Two HR consultants, Amy Hawkins and Caroline Currin, have been sharing one full-time position for about a year and a half. Both women have young children and are committed to part-time work, but enjoy the challenge of the consultant job.
It was Hawkins who had the idea of job sharing first. She and another woman in a different HR division — both full timers — had babies at the same time and asked their department head if they could share one job and open the other up for a new hire. That worked out so well that when Hawkins heard there were openings for consultants, she approached that department head about a job share. Currin, meanwhile, asked about part-time work. The two were eventually hired to share a consultant’s job.
Hawkins works Monday, Tuesday and half of Wednesday, while Currin does the other half of Wednesday, along with Thursday and Friday. They have overlapping time on Wednesday for meetings and to exchange information.
Both women love the arrangement but say it requires extra effort on their part to make it work. “The type of work we do is fluid,” Hawkins says. “It’s relationship building. You’re continuing a process with a client. It’s not very often that I can talk to them once and it’s done. So the communication between Caroline and me has to be constant. We both need to be up to speed on everything’s that happened.”
That, Currin says, means a lot of calling and e-mailing to the party who’s not in the office at a given time. But both women are more than willing to pay that price.
“This allows me to give the time I want to give to my family and be very focused when I am at work,” Currin says.
Family was also the reason Robyn Eifertsen undertook a different kind of work arrangement — telecommuting. Eifertsen, a media relations representative in News & Information, had a baby in September and since her return from maternity leave has been working from home two days a week. She and her husband, doctoral candidate Dyne Eifertsen, juggle care of their son around his teaching schedule.
“It’s worked out pretty well,” Eifertsen says. “I’m able to do things like interviews and writing and still keep track of the baby.”
Eifertsen’s greatest difficulties, in fact, have had to do with home computer equipment that isn’t as speedy or versatile as what’s at the office. And there’s the psychological effect of not having colleagues to cheer you on. But on the whole she’s been pleased with the arrangement.
For employees interested in flextime arrangements, or supervisors who have been asked to allow it, there is a lot of help available. In addition to the HR consultants already mentioned, HR has a Web page on flexible and alternative work arrangements in general (http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/pol.proc/work.sched/flex.schedule.html) and another on telecommuting (http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/pol.proc/telework/). Randi Shapiro, manager of the Work/Life Office in HR, says her office is willing to advise employees interested in alternative schedules and has some useful printed information, such as sample proposals prepared by those seeking permission to work such schedules.
Flextime won’t work for every employee or every work area. Miller says employees should try to think of all the consequences before they propose alternative schedules. “Suppose, for example, a holiday falls on a day you’re scheduled to work 10 hours,” he says. “If you’re a full time employee you’ll receive your regular day’s pay (10 hours) but the holiday is only ‘worth’ 8 hours. The difference must normally be accounted for through use of paid leave or a schedule adjustment the week of the holiday. Is that going to be okay with you?”
And in the end, no employee can work an alternative schedule without the approval of his or her supervisor. It’s a favor many supervisors are surprisingly willing to grant. “I just believe in it,” says Bartroff’s supervisor Kathryn Hahn, who has had several employees work alternative schedules over the years. “I think that when people feel they have a little flexibility in their hours that they feel empowered somehow. They don’t feel like they’re chained to their jobs.”
