Need to visit Columbus City Hall on a Friday? You’ll find yourself out of luck, as most municipal services operate on a four-day workweek. The compressed schedule has been in place since 2021, and while it means longer days for city employees, it also gives them Fridays for appointments, family obligations and other work, said Mayor Stephen Jones.
When and why did the city switch to a four-day workweek? Has it helped the city save money? How does it affect city services? Does the mayor intend to keep the policy in place?
When and why did they switch to a four-day workweek?
The city has periodically shifted between a four-day and five-day workweek for municipal employees. In July 2008, the city initially transitioned general city employees – excluding emergency responders – to a four-day workweek featuring 10-hour shifts from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
In July 2010, The Dispatch reported the city council debated and voted to transition municipal departments back to a traditional five-day schedule following concerns raised regarding “underperforming” public works crews and their productivity during hot summer months.
Then, in April 2020, Jones, Ward 5 councilman at the time, proposed every department should switch to a five-day schedule. In July that same year, the council unanimously voted for most city departments to work a five-day, 40-hour week under then-Mayor Robert Smith.
Later, under then-Mayor Keith Gaskin, the city returned to a four-day workweek in December 2021 after a vote from the city council. This included public works but excluded Trotter Convention Center and emergency responders.
“As I was working on the budget, every single department asked for this to come back,” Gaskin told The Dispatch at the time. “… The city will also save money, because it will cut down on electric bills and fuel and those kinds of things.”
So, has the city saved money?
Jones said while there isn’t any way to quantify the exact savings of the four-day workweek, he does believe that overall it has contributed to greater employee satisfaction, which in turn helps create “some amount of savings,” he said.
“Initially when they did it, it was a time when gas went up, which our gas is up high now, so it could be saving us money,” he said. “I think (public works) was the main department that it may have been saving money.”
How does it affect city services?
City employees, not including police officers, firefighters and the convention center, work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a one-hour lunch break, bringing them to a total of four 10-hour work days, called a “compressed schedule” or “4-by-10.”
“It’s an early start,” Jones said. “But, I know in the summertime, though, getting there really early helps for the work because of the heat.”
Prior to 2021, Jones said that there were several complaints about the inability to file building permits on Fridays, among other things. But he said this is no longer an issue, due to the city working diligently to become “paperless and fully online.” He said he hasn’t heard complaints from citizens regarding accessibility to city services due to the shorter workweek since coming into office.
“The building department is online now,” he said. “Even for employment applications, we’re all online now.”
The real win: Employee satisfaction
A Brigham Young University study conducted in Utah by Rex Facer and Lori Wadsworth examined the outcome of Spanish Fork City’s transition to a schedule in which most employees work four 10-hour days a week, similar to the schedule used by Columbus city employees.
It found that even though four-day workweek employees work the same number of hours per week as their traditional workweek counterparts, they reported being more satisfied with their jobs, compensation and benefits, and were less likely to look for employment elsewhere in the next year. The study also showed that 60% of four-day workweek employees reported higher productivity as a result of the new schedule.
Jones feels these results are reflected in Columbus’ own city employees, and he said that he’s heard from multiple employees that the four-day workweek works better for their work-life balance.
“You have people taking off less because they can do stuff on Friday,” Jones said. “They can make their appointments on Friday and be able to do those. And then a lot of them, you know, especially with public works, a lot of them have other jobs that they do, whether it’s cutting grass and different things like that, so they can do that Friday, Saturday.”
Jones, who previously advocated for a five-day workweek as a councilman, said he does not intend to make any changes to the structure during his tenure.
“When I was a councilman at the end of that term before Keith (Gaskin) took over, I was one of the ones advocating to go back to five days,” he said. “(When he made the change,) I didn’t oppose it because most of the employees do love it. It’s not something I have any plans on addressing (as mayor.)”
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