Friday, November 14, 2008

Unpaid employee holidays

Someone called me tonight and offered me a cost-savings idea for the town:

unpaid employee holidays

The idea is simply to allow ee's to take days off without pay. I like the idea. I know I'd take advantage of it... not too often obviously, but most people have busy times and slow times.

I doubt (and hope*) there would (not) be too much savings here, but there may be some. So why not discuss it? Heck, if people took an additional six half days per year... that'd be three full days out of 250 workdays per year... or more than a 1% savings in the budget. And if the town's salary budget is $20 million... that's an annual savings of $200,000.

Alternatively, my company allows people to "buy" one week of vacation. In other words, if you make $52,000 / year... then you can buy five vacation days for $1,000. I take advantage of that option every year and love it.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this would impact the contractual agreement with a union. But I still think the idea has merit and should be considered.

Tim White

* If we have some people taking months off, one has to begin wondering if the town is overstaffed.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about going to a 4 day work week? Alternate the schedule by department so there's always coverage. It's better to get paid for 32 hours than -0- hours. The town side of the budget should save even more doing this.

Anonymous said...

It's funny how we always try to save money on the town side all the time. Isn't the BOE part of the town?

Anonymous said...

Isn't the BOE part of the town?

Yes, but they're elected and spend the money as they feel appropriate.

Also, getting teachers to take time off is inherently problematic. Though it would probably work for other school staff.

Anonymous said...

Time to go back to the 40 hour work week like the rest of us or get paid less because you work less.

Anonymous said...

This process needs a change. The BOE negotiates the contract and the TC has the authority to tax but can't negotiate. They (TC) also can't have a say in how to spend it? Who made up those rules?