Many municipal workers in Farmers Branch will be starting their weekends a day early this week as the city transitions to a four-day work schedule.
Work days are being extended, and employees will be given either Monday or Friday off. The new schedule will not apply to first responders like firefighters and police officers, according to City Manager Ben Williamson.
“What will happen is Monday morning it will be business as usual except instead of city hall opening at 8 a.m., we’ll open at 7:30 a.m. We’ve always been open until 6 p.m. except for Fridays. Now we’re extending those hours for Friday as well,” Williamson said, according to Fox 4 KDFW.
“Our employees work four days a week in most cases. We’re always on call if something happens. The city doesn’t stop. But our residents now have more flexible hours to come to city hall for those services,” he added.
The city experimented with a four-day workweek earlier in the year, putting parks, public works, and fire department administration staff on the schedule. The move is part of the city’s efforts to make its jobs more competitive.
“Because a lot of our employees could work in the private center, or in nonprofits, or in other government agencies. We’re competing against everyone,” Williamson told CBS News Texas.
The scheduling changes went into effect on Monday.
“They’re super excited about it. It’s been the thing that’s been most talked about. We went to a job fair and our HR director was there. And that was the No. 1 reason. People were saying, ‘Wait, you have a four-day work week?’” Williamson said, according to Fox 4 KDFW.
Farmers Branch joins other Texas cities, such as Keller and Rowlett, that have already tested and transitioned to a four-day workweek.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia announced in March that he plans to test out a four-day workweek for Dallas police officers in order to boost morale by giving officers a better work-life balance, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The Dallas Police Department (DPD) is currently suffering a serious police shortage. A City analysis advised that an ideal staffing level for a city of Dallas’ size is around 4,000 officers. DPD currently has about 3,100 officers.