You're a Jersey City Municipal Employee; How Does a 4 Day Work Week Sound?

You are a municipal employee employed by Jersey City.  Would you like to work four days a week rather than five?  Well, that option was floated in a tweet this morning by Mayor Steve Fulop.

The Mayor says employees of the city will be given the choice to work four days instead of five, should they choose to do so.  The Mayor tweeted that the traditional five day work week was “antiquated.”  The four day work week would be accomplished by staggering employee shift schedules.

Fulop tweeted, “We’ve learned during #COVID19 many things about our work force + city.  One big change going forward is that we’re giving the option to our 3000 municipal employees to go to a 4-day work week permanently.”

The Mayor says the 5-day work week, 8 hour shift per day, “isn’t optimal for anyone.  We can deliver BETTER services for our residents by staggering shifts + improve quality of life for employees.”

An additional benefit mentioned by the Mayor is it will “help w/plans for child care when schools structure in the fall.”  Superintendent of Schools Franklin Walker has already announced that Jersey City students are going to have the option of taking five days of remote, virtual learning at home and five days of classroom instruction, shifting back and forth.  However, if parents feel more comfortable, their children will be permitted to receive instruction only via remote learning as a result of the pandemic.

This new, municipal, 4-day a week work schedule option is the latest, innovation announced by Mayor Fulop in recent days.  He previously said the City is exploring the option of reducing the number of times per week street sweepers will clean, from four to two.

It will be interesting to see how many municipal employees take advantage of the 4-day work week.