“People love it, we’re getting better productivity out of folks, and they get to have that extra day off.”
Terry Lynne
Mayor
Farmers Branch
.…on why his city adopted a four-day work week for city employees, via NBC DFW.
Mayor Terry Lynne
Three-day weekends are awesome. But you usually have to wait months before Labor Day or Presidents Day arrives.
Not in Farmers Branch. Yesterday, the city officially launched a four-day work for city employees. The move followed earlier approval by the city council, and a few months of schedule-testing by various city departments.
“We have a lot of happy employees, which is the goal,” Mayor Lynne told NBC DFW. “We want them to be happy and we want our residents to be happy also. It’s actually an enhancement to our services to residents, because city hall will be open longer and residents really shouldn’t see any change.”
City employees will still be putting in 40 hours a week, though. To get their extra day off, they’re now working 10-hour days four days a week.
“Farmer’s Branch is a very innovative city, so we’re trying something new,” Lynne told NBC DFW.
As Jeff Brady, Farmers Branch director of communications, acknowledges in an opinion piece in the Dallas Morning News, “We’re not the first. Keller adopted a four-day week last year. Rowlett did the same. Many Texas school districts have done so, as well.”
But, he writes, “Is it nontraditional? Absolutely. Will more employers, including other Texas cities, make the move? No doubt.”
You can watch NBC DFW’s report by going here.
For more of who said what about all things North Texas, check out Every Last Word.
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