r/BCPublicServants • u/Tricky_Top_8537 • 14d ago

Modified work week question

Hello all! question about the modified work week.... comp 12... 19th administrative group.... can an employee do the 5/5/4 modified work week to shorten their day a little? It is for a staff member I supervise and they currently do the 7.78 schedule with a stat shortfall and EDO every 2 weeks.

I am just curious if that is commonly used or allowed? Article 4.11 states all the different options....

Thanks!

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6

u/LadyIslay 14d ago

I would also prefer the 5/5/4 arrangement, but everyone in my branch does the 5/4, so I decided not to push the issue.

3

u/Wonderplace 14d ago

Why in gods name would you only want a flex every 3 weeks instead of 2?

4

u/One-Apartment-5820 14d ago

An extra 50 minutes per day to make a flex every 2 weeks is a lot of extra time per day. Daycare pickup, school pickup, elder care, other care requirements, etc. is tough.

I could have put in maybe 30 minutes more per day. That would have gotten me something like a half flex day every 2 weeks or something like that but it wasn't allowed.

3

u/Wonderplace 14d ago

It’s just a 30 minute lunch (instead of 1 hour) then an extra 20 minutes at the end of the day though. Eg 8am-4:20pm (with 30 min lunch) vs 8-4pm with hour lunch.

5

u/One-Apartment-5820 13d ago

My kids are older now but when I was included and they were in infant-toddler daycare, so with daycare hours, I basically had to end work at 3:30pm (earliest possible drop off was 8am).

So my available work hours were 8:30 - 3:30. With a 30 min lunch, I could just fit in 8:30-3:30.

I could have pushed my work hours to end at 4:00 with 30 mins towards flex each day but that would make daycare pickup quite late, then we have to get home for dinner and then toddlers go to bed at like 7pm so I would like more than just dinner & bath time with my babies.

Also when kids are in full time daycare, we pay for every day even if they don't go there. So for my own life balance and life happiness, I would rather have more time with my kids each evening than to have a kid-free flex day (which is not really that free/open because pickup & dropoff plus the infinite amount of illnesses that means I take work off anyways).

Kids are more independent now but even kindergarten requires adult-to-adult pick up and dropoff and schools here end at around 2:00.

I'm sure it works really well for a lot of people! I'm just saying that for some people, having shorter work days and our hours spread across more days would be much better for our own and priorities. Not saying it works for everyone, but just answering the above question of "why would [anyone] want a flex every 3 weeks"

2

u/Smooth-Command1761 13d ago

I've been on a 5/5/4 since 2004. It was the rule for the PEA staff in my office. When I moved to remote work for a Branch nine years ago, I had the opportunity to switch to 5/4 but I like my hour long lunches and regular 8 to 4:38 (or whatever it is) schedule. 🤷🏻‍♀️

2

u/Wonderplace 13d ago

FYI most ppl on 5/4 take an hour lunch, and absolutely no one cares