Punching the clock | The urge to conserve is shaking up Maine workplaces, where 9-to-5 may one day no longer be the norm
It’s only 7 a.m. and Merrill Huhtala is hunched over his state-issued laptop, studying a spreadsheet.
Typically, this time of day finds him working his way through traffic lights between his Westbrook home and the Portland Park-and-Ride lot on Marginal Way, where Huhtala catches the GoMaine commuter van that will transport him 60 miles to his office at the Maine Department of Labor in Augusta.
But it’s a Friday, and for Huhtala, manager of the state’s Occupational Employment Statistics and Projections Research branch, that means a day to work from home thanks to a new effort in state government to encourage alternative work schedules. Later in the morning, he’ll step away from his desk to go across town for a doctor’s appointment. Had he been working at the Augusta office, he’d have taken a half day off; today, he’ll need less than an hour, and he’s made that up by getting an early start.
Over in Gardiner, Clare Tosto spends her Fridays paying bills in her pajamas, visiting friends, going to doctor or veterinary appointments, running errands or getting a start on getaways that just wouldn’t fit into two days. The grants and communication coordinator for the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority in Brunswick, Tosto is glad she switched to a four-day workweek.
“It’s worth it enough to me to have this one extra day so I’ll make adjustments,” Tosto says of her longer work days. “My hump day is Tuesday night. I just love it.”
Huhtala and Tosto are embracing the benefits of a pilot program launched in August by Gov. John Baldacci to combat climbing commuting costs. His executive order encouraged state supervisors to be creative in granting employee requests for telecommuting or alternative work weeks, while maintaining agency operations. Issued in conjunction with a $12.6 million short-term energy plan, the program seeks to grant 95% of all alternative work schedule requests from state employees through the end of 2008. At that time, the program will be reviewed to determine its impact on energy use, employee productivity, customer service and employee satisfaction and participation.
Maine state government isn’t alone in its consideration of alternative work schedules. This summer, Utah became the first state to mandate a four-day workweek for most of its state employees — a response to what one expert called a “perfect storm” of a struggling economy, soaring fuel costs and a growing green focus.
Tried-and-true gains
The four-day workweek is getting some attention from Maine’s private sector, as well.
Mike Cote, owner of Look’s Gourmet Food Co. in Whiting, about two hours Down East of Bangor, and his business partner, Cynthia Fisher, the company’s vice president of marketing and quality assurance, gave the four-day workweek a try back in the summer of 2007 when work was slow.
Production in the circa-1917 cannery where they make chowders, bisques and beans under the Bar Harbor Foods label is seasonal, following consumers’ preferences for the cool-weather fare in fall and winter. To cut costs, their high-pressure cookers, which run off steam boilers fueled by No. 2 oil, were turned off one day a week during the warmer months.
They ramped up again last fall to a five-day workweek. But after fuel costs skyrocketed this summer, they decided to return to the four-day workweek and stick to it. The company’s 13 production personnel and two managers are on the four-day schedule, working 10 hours days, usually from 6 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Meanwhile, two office staffers work the traditional five, eight-hour-a-day week.
Fisher says production and employee-related expenses are down 10% as a direct result of implementing the four-day production week. The majority of these savings are in fuel and electricity costs to run the 10,000 square-foot plant and its equipment. “It takes so much more energy to restart (the cookers) each day than it takes to just keep them on an extra two hours on those four days,” she explains of the boilers. “We didn’t realize it was innovative. We just did it because it makes sense.”
Employees, about half of whom commute 30 miles each way from Lubec, are happy, says Fisher. For the first time since Cote bought the business in 2003, there is a waiting list to work there, in part because of the alternative schedule. “People in town are talking about it. They wish their job was like that,” Fisher says. “As far as we’re concerned, this is our standard now. You just get more done once you have people up and going.
“And for them, it’s more of a lifestyle change, and I think we’re all ready for that. What if you have a child who doesn’t need daycare that fifth day? And you can’t go to the bank on Saturday or the doctor’s office, so there is also a quality of life factor here.”
But not everyone thinks four-day workweeks are an upgrade. Alan Parks, an insurance broker who owns Portland-based Integrated Benefit Solutions LLC, worries about customer service. He’s sticking to his schedule, which, like many small business owners, means always being available. While he sees the four-day workweek as feasible in some industries like manufacturing, he’s not sure how service industry businesses like his could cope.
Most of his clients are companies with 20-150 employees, a size often too small to have dedicated human resource personnel. As a result, Parks sees it as a “requirement” to give his home number out to his clients so he can field questions when needed.
“As it is, I get calls at 8 at night or on a Sunday afternoon. Not being available one day during the week would likely increase those calls,” he says. “It becomes a dollars-in, dollars-out question and every time you’re out, you’re losing money. I literally could not close my door for a day — I’d lose my customers.”
The impact of restructuring schedules on customers and business stakeholders needs to be central to any decision-making about alternative work schedules, explains Deb Neuman, director of the Target Technology Incubator at the University of Maine and host of the Bangor-based radio show “Back to Business.”
“You really have to consider what you are trying to accomplish: Are we trying to cut our bottom line, are we trying to save our employees money, are you still going to be able to provide the level of service the public expects? This is not a one-size-fits-all,” says Neuman. “It’s really up to each employer to look at what is going to work for their business. You really have to crunch the numbers: Where will we save money? Where will we lose money? And at the same time, what will be the impact to your employees?”
A comfortable fit
There are six employees in Tosto’s organization, a nonprofit formed to redevelop the Brunswick Naval Air Station, and she is the only one who took the offer back in May to work her 37.5 required hours in four days rather than five.
“Initially, everyone thought it was such a good idea. But getting home after 6 p.m. wasn’t workable for those with families with dinnertimes and getting to after-school sports games. It was absolutely perfect for me — I have nothing to rush home to, so to speak,” explains Tosto, who lives alone about 25 miles from her office.
She now comes in earlier and leaves later, and has been surprised at the impact on her productivity. But while her commute is less stressful because fewer cars and school buses are on the road, Tosto admits it’s been an adjustment. “Some mornings, boy, it would be nice to have that extra hour,” she says.
Regardless of whether public and private sectors make the schedule switch, Dana Connors, president of the Maine State Chamber, says the attention now being paid to the concept of alternative work schedules shows that employees are being proactive about the energy crisis in the country.
“Out of every problem comes an opportunity,” he says of the energy crisis. “This has been brought to us because of a very serious issue with serious implications and I can say universally, companies are responding very positively. The question is how to make a response that has the most impact.”
Samantha DePoy-Warren, a writer in Portland, can be reached at editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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