I use to think that a 4-10 work week was considered flex hours, but I soon found out otherwise. Flex hours is demanding that employees be in the office, say 10 - 2, and then can decide where to put the other 4 work hours around that. A 4 day 10 hours a day work week is a consolidated work week. My employer just decided to move to 4-10 work week. Overall, I am very excited about this.

Starting July 14, I will be working Monday - Thursday from 7am - 5pm. I will have to adjust the time depending on whether or not I take a true lunch. And I also get the benefit that I can come in a bit early to leave a bit early. This will put me getting home a bit later then I usually do because traffic shouldn't be as bad, and then I will have Friday's off giving me a nice 3 day weekend. The only weeks this won't take effect is weeks shortened by a holiday. Which I am not too crazy about, but I will get to that in a minute.

The one thing I am not happy with is the fact every employee, whether they are on the 4-10 schedule or not are going to be required to clock in and out for the day and for lunch. This sucks. It was paid enough being a salaried exempt employee having to account for my time in ADP, but now I have to also punch in and out for the day. This sucks. Management is now micro-managing the entire department. We have to report on our time in ADP and clock in and out. We , as a company, are working to save and cut back operating cost. But this is adding cost, to collect, report and analyze the data. To me this is creating more work and responsibilities as well as a management headache as the system has no way modifying records or reporting clock in/out times. We are going to have to print a gaint report and find records for each person to calculate the hours in the office.

As I mentioned above, during a week shortened by a holiday, we are expected to work the remaining days as a normal 8 hour day. In my eyes, this is silly. We are breaking our work flow and normal schedule because of a holiday. What should happen, as part of the 4-10 schedule. If a holiday is on a Monday, and I get Fridays off, then I continue to work my 10 hour days on Tues, Wed, and Thurs and put in 30 hours for the week. This I will only be work 2 less hours during this week. Also, if it is a federal holiday and it falls on my Friday off, then I should be given the option to choose which day I want off the next week. I think this is only fair. For the most part though, this isn't a big deal, except for the time I forgot a holiday is coming up (because it isn't a set date, but instead the 3rd Monday of the month) and I have a trip planned using my scheduled day off (Friday). What the hell happens then ... can you really expect your employees to manage their personal time on the whim and have to change day to day routines and schedules?

Please don't get me wrong, I am grateful for my compressed work week. But the company is trying to have it's cake and eat it to. If they really wanted to implement it, then they should take the could with the bad, and treat our day off as a true weekend. During the 2 holiday for Thanksgiving in the US, employers don't ask that you work a Saturday to make up for it? Why should they now?

If you see things another way, please share your point of view!