Township of Wellesley eyeing a four-day work week for administrative staff

The Township of Wellesley could see its administrative staff shift to a four-day work week starting next month.

A township committee approved a one-year pilot project that would allow employees who work 35 hours per week to condense those hours into four days rather than five.

The shortened work weeks would begin July 4th, if it’s approved by full council next Tuesday.

In order to make this work, the township’s office would open half an hour earlier, making the hours 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Instead of a full hour of lunch, staff would get half an hour. Employees would also work an extra 45 minutes before the office opens to the public, or after it closes. This means they’d work an additional hour and 45 minutes each day.

“This way we can offer longer office hours with no additional tax burden because the cost will stay the same,” said the township’s chief administrative officer, Rik Louwagie.

The plan is to have cohorts that would rotate every four weeks. It would help determine the additional day off each staff member has, so there isn’t a discrepancy in the number of people available based on the day of the week.

“Group A would work Monday to Thursday. Group B would work Tuesday to Friday. So we would always have five-day coverage of some description,” Louwagie added.

Louwagie said he saw Zorra Township try a similar pilot in 2020. It was a success and Zorra decided to make the four-day work week permanent.

Out of the 20 eligible employees in Wellesley, 18 are opting for the four-day model, suggesting the idea of a compressed week is a hit.

“You’re not being disrupted. You have a longer work day to do stuff instead of at 4:30 having to drop your pen and go,” said Kaitlyn Werth, executive assistant to the CAO.

Aside from better productivity, the hope is that this will improve the staff’s carbon footprint since they will be travelling into the office one day less each week. They’ll also have the option to work from home, from the office, or a hybrid model. A better work-life balance is another goal of the pilot project.

“I’m very excited to just have that extra day at home to get caught up on things that you always get stuck doing on the weekend, like the laundry and all that,” said Werth.

Staff are confident they’ll get the shift in shifts. That way, the countdown to a long weekend can happen every week.