Public employee absentee rate declined when City shifted to 4-day work week

The City of El Paso announced this year all city departments were moving to a conventional five day work week in an attempt to become more accessible to residents.

Since 2009, the City had been operating on a four day work week, meaning certain city employees would work four days a week, ten hours a day.

“I work six days a week, so having the City opened on Friday, it’s a great thing. It means I won’t have to leave work early on a Thursday to get some personal work done,” a local taxpayer said.

While most residents seemed to support the initiative, ABC-7 was curious to see how this would sit with current employees. Given that many of them were on a schedule that allowed for a three day weekend, we were surprised to learn most employees seemed to agree with the move.

“You get used to a four day work week schedule and a three day weekend, but ultimately, we are here to serve the public,” said city employee Rafa Arrellano.

Historically, when the city shifts to a five day work week, the absentee rate goes up. Through an open records request, ABC-7 learned that when the City is open five days a week, the average number of sick leave hours for a year was 507,000. When the City shifted to a four day work week, the average yearly number of sick leave hours dropped to 448,000.

ABC-7 reached out to the City’s Human Resources office for perspective on how these numbers stack up with its plan to move to a five day work week.

Claudia Lujan, the City’s assistant director for human resources, told ABC-7 that as long as the City is open “the core business hours of eight to five, Monday through Friday, employees in some departments will remain on the flexible four-ten schedule.”

Originally, the City moved to a four day work week to save on utility costs. That was back when city government was headquartered in the old City Hall building. Now that the City moved to the old El Paso Times building, the change to a five day work week revolves around customer service.

“Some departments were already opened on Friday, and within the building, you can have some departments open, but not every office is occupied,” Lujan said, “So that could also impact the utilities. We are heating and cooling the building, and yet, not all departments are open,” Lujan said.

Lujan told ABC-7 surveys and measurements of foot traffic were conducted before the City decided to return to the five day work week. “The amount of business we were getting prior to eight o’ clock in the morning, and then five an six in the afternoon – that helped us realize we were probably not meeting the needs of the public on Fridays,” she said.

One benefit of the City returning to a five day work week might actually be an increase in foot traffic for business around the city hall area.

Paola Herrera, the manager of Healthy Bites, a restaurant that caters to city hall employees, told ABC-7 she noticed a decline in business in 2009. She is excited about the prospect of 400 new friday customers.

“Our delivery girl is always going back and forth between the three city buildings, so this could be a good thing,” Herrera said.