Anyone work a 9/80 schedule?

We're going to be starting a 9/80 schedule next week. I'm apprehensive, but I'm going to give it a shot. They said we can go back to the old way if it ends up not working for us. Anyone out there doing this now? Thoughts? Pros/cons?

What the hell is a 9/80 schedule?

Just googled it - in case others don't know, here it is:

"The 9/80 schedule allows employees who work a nine-hour day Monday through Thursday to take every other Friday off."

I work for a company that does the 9/80 thing, however it totally sucks, except for the every other Friday off.

We are rumored to be switching to a 4 - 10 work week with every Friday off, but that is just that a rumor.

There is a considerable amount of time in figuring out where time is applied when you work overtime or have to work on the "Off-Friday" and this has got to be costing us 10's of thousands of dollars in labor, just to sit around and figure this out, not to mention, bitch about it to everyone.

Tell them to go for the 4 - 10's instead, you'll thank me later. What's an extra hour a day anyways?

We have flex time where I work; our most common hours are 9 hours 4 days, then take a half-day on Friday.

I couldn't work 9 hours on a Friday, just to get the next one off; I'm too used to leaving around 3p on Fridays for the bar.

We work 8 hours on the "Working Friday". The previous 4 days are 9 hour days.

Mon-Thurs 9 hours
Friday 8 Hours

Mon-Thurs 9 Hours
Friday off

The math comes out to 80 hours. (Unless you worked overtime, etc.) BTW - We are paid bi-weekly.

Here's a good one. For 14 years I worked a 3 day work week.
13:20@day with 2 20 minute breaks@day. You got used to it. 4 days off ok at first but then I got a second job because I got bored. Money was good though.

yeah see this is exactly what I was thinking. We've been talking about this for some time now, and we keep coming across situations that are going to make this a real hemorrhoid for us all. We asked about 4/10's but as this is a city government office, we can't be closed three days a week. Our director has worked this before, and she likes it. But then again, she's single, no kids at home, and she's already working 10-12 hours a day anyway. My thinking is, this is going to suck and it will die a quick death.

Never heard of 9/80, I thought you'd found some kind of crazy gear oil or something

I've done the "four ten hour days" thing though, which is similar (I've also done 7 twelve hour days, but I won't get into that!).

Pros of not working Fridays:

- You've got Friday off, baby!
- One less day to commute, save some $
- You get to run errands during non-peak commute hours on Friday (which is awesome)
- You can make a real breakfast for a change
- You can get to a bar when happy hour starts, not when it's winding down
- Judge Judy is on at 11AM
- Mentally, you relax more and the Sunday Blues are greatly reduced

Cons:

- Ugh! Complete mental disconnect! By Monday you start thinking, "What was I doing back on Thursday...?"
- It's a TERRIBLE idea if you work in a team environment, because you're never around when the team needs to talk to you (which may only be one day a week, but the team can feel like you're "always gone" because you show up an hour before them...it can just put you out of "sync")
- You could end up taking a few work-related phone calls on Fridays (depending what you do for a living, sometimes your coworkers will just need to get ahold of you for _____.)
- If your house was normally empty on Fridays, you probably weren't heating/cooling it...but if you stay home one day a week you're heating/cooling your house 4 more days each month

Anyway, I've had employees on my team do the 4 tens, and I don't like it from a managerial position. At the same time, I've done the 4 tens myself and can tell you, it's awesome.

I work 12-hour shifts (6a-6p) on a 5/2/5/2 rotation. We work 5 of 7 days the first week then 2 of 7 the next and so on. Sounds better than it actually is.

Week 1: Work Mon/Tue/Fri/Sat/Sun
Week 2: Work Wed/Thu

We also rotate being on call for the shift opposite ours, which really sucks.

Today is as good as it gets. I'm off the next 3 and not on call.

Let me expand on the Con's above that were very accurate. As a Facilities standpoint. The 9/80 isn't very efficient as a lot of people end up working on the Friday off.

Yes I'm "on-call" every day and often take calls on my days off, but if I'm required to go in, I get paid 4 hours even if it takes only 20 min to fix.

4 - 10's would work better in our situation as no-one (Customers/Contractors, etc.) ever knows when we are working and which Friday, also if we forced everyone to take the Fridays (Every one) off we could run setbacks for HVAC and lighting, etc.

As a Gov't emp, you suck! J/K I used to work for the State of AZ, so I know what it is like. You could stagger the Fridays with Monday, so half the crew is there for the Monday and the other half is there for the Friday. The only real problem I see is most Holidays fall on a Monday and they would be screwed out of their day off, unless they took Tues instead.

Good luck!!!!

I did this working for the Canadian GVT for about 3 years. I loved it, but I took Mondays off instead of the Friday, because there was already too many people taking the Fridays.

If you break it between the beginning and the end of your shift, you barely notice it.

In the office that I worked in, everyone worked 8am - 4pm. People working "compressed hours" or the 9/80 as you call it, could come in either an hour before, or stay an hour later to get in the extra time.

Instead of doing that, I chose to start @ 7:30, and leave @ 4:30. Barely notice the difference in the shift, and you get an extra day off every second week.

And as was mentioned above, if the holiday fell on the Monday, I would then take the Tuesday off and have a 4 day week-end.

The only thing that screws with you when there is a holiday on your day off, is that if you DO take the Tuesday off, you're taking a day that you would normally be working 9 hours, but you are only getting paid for a normal shift, not an extended shift. SO that means that you are down and hour and you have to make it up somewhere else, so tack that on to an already extended day.

That part always annoyed the shit out of me.

YES! That's one of the things we're talking about (whining, actually). It just seems too freaking complicated, and the net result is less coverage for a shift, more frequently. And then you have to do that stupid effing tap-dance when you take a day off (Is this an 8-hour day off, or a 9-hour day off. And where am I going to find that extra hour I owe The Man now?) Then there's time lost with the family...

The only real pro is that Friday off. Am I wrong here?

What ever the hell it is its not to benefit th employee. Im a bit bitter right now but in my experience anything an employer does and claims it to be for the employee is BULLSHIT.

Sorry, didt even read the whole thread but I just had SHITTY day at work and the Admin. are a bunch of good for nothing suite and tie mother fuckers.

Once again, sorry. Rant over. God I feel better

Glad you have a place to vent.

Take care!

I wish I could work a 9/80... I've always thought that sounded great.

It's usually government-related companies that do that... Raytheon and the like.

I work about 10 hours a day, Monday through Friday right now. I like my job and it pays well, but it can be a grind.

Geez, I wish I could do something like that. As it is, I work from 8:30am to 7pm 5 days a week.

I work for the Fed, we have several options. A flex schedule where you have to cover core hours (10:00 - 3:00) You could work ten five hour days if you wanted but you'd have to supplement to get your 80 hours for the pay period by either using vacation, comp, or credit time. Some people work a fixed 9/80 some work the 4/10, or if you are on the MEO (mine emergency operations) team as I am, you usually work what is called first 40, meaning as soon as you work 40 hours in a work week (Sat. - Sat), you are either done for the week or on overtime. You always have to total 80 hours though. When I am on flex schedule I try to work 10 - 12 hour days to gain credit time, though you can only have a max of 24 hours credit time and you only have so long to use it before you loose it. Overtime is either straight time pay or comp vacation time for me. I am constantly maxxed out on credit time (taking tomorrow off) and have a crap load of comp time. I haven't used actual sick or vacation time in 2 years.......

I've heard many complain that they get screwed on their holidays when on the 9/80 and 4/10 schedules.

I would settle for nearly any schedule posted in this thread.. Try working 10 to 12 hour days 5 days a week, and 8 hours nearly every Saturday, and being on call the rest of the time with absolutely 0 compensation beyond your benefits and monthly compensation.. Yeah, it sucks.

Working for the state, you have the option of three work schedules...

Regular: 5/8/40
Alternate 1: 9/8/40
Alternate 2: 4/10

I have a 4/10 schedule with every Monday off... So it's always a three day weekend... The kicker is, if any holiday lands on my day off (Monday's), I'm allocated 8hrs of holiday credit hours...

Needless to say the icing on the cake is that every year I get an extra two weeks of holiday credit hours on top of my 4 weeks of vacation time...

The cherry on top, though, is our rollover vacation/holiday credit hours... We can accummulate up to 650 hours EACH!!! I've got over five months of vacation in the bank alone... Add that to another two months in holiday credit hours... Hot damn!!!

Of course there's always a downside... State employees DON'T GET PAID SHIT compared to the engineers in the private sector... I guess the vacation times and great medical benefits balance that out...

- Air B :p

I work it and like it.

Tomorrow is my off Friday

BTW - do a little planning to help maximize consecutive days off with holidays... Tomorrow is the Friday you want to take off this year to do that

I did work the 9/80 back when I work the the Oil company. It took getting used to, but I liked it. I took off the Friday. My current job we work 9hrs M-Th and 5hrs on Friday. This I really like a lot better. But since the 'OIL FIELD'(24/7/365) is one of our biggest clients, I do take phone calls Friday thru Sunday. And yes I do charge the client for the "off hour" calls.
Oh did I mention I do love having Friday afternoons off, especially during hunting season...

my 2 cents...

Yeah unfortunately, I have next Friday off. We're actually starting on Monday, so I get the first week. We'll check it out, and if it sucks, it goes bye bye, that simple.

On the 2nd week of my 3 week vacation. My work mates all pretty much hate me by now after they have been working 16+ hour days for 2 weeks straight trying to get out a huge project. Before the vacation I was putting in 12 hour days - 6 days a week. So 9 hour days and every other Friday off sounds like Heaven to me.

it has it's advantages; three day weekends are pretty cool, but I could take it or leave it; not sure if I'm gonna do it this year or not...where's my Pepsi?

"I'm not crazy! Iiiiiinstitution!"

9/80

Here's this next week's schedule. (Pro to the 9/80)

Off Monday the 18th (Three day weekend), work for 3 days, off Friday (3 Day weekend), then back to the Grind of a 5 day workweek, etc. until the following week with 4 Days. and a 3-day weekend.

Did you guys end up with this schedule Rift? If so, how's it going?

That's not 5/2...it's 4/3!! Everyone knows the week begins on Sunday!

the US govment pays your whole shift so you don't have to make up that hour. I can't say for the rest of the US gov'ment, but where I work, you have your choice between five 8 hour days, a 5-4-9 (what this thread is about), or 4-10's and you can determine which day you want off. One guy works a 4-10 and takes monday's off since fridays are usually slower days. Another takes fridays off.

I'm currently trying to work myself into the 5-4-9 work schedule working 6-3:30. I'm not doing so well though.