Published: July 15, 2008 04:43 pm            

Beshear encourages flex-time schedules

FRANKFORT — Jeremy Foster used to spend $45 a week on gas driving to his job with the Secretary of State Office in Frankfort from his residence in Lexington.

Now he spends $10 a week, but it’s not because he bought a hybrid car or found some revolutionary device to increase his vehicle’s efficiency.

Foster, 32, is Supervisor of Microfilm and Imaging for Secretary of State Trey Grayson, and he works four days a week on “flex-time” and carpools to work with three others in Grayson’s office who also live in Lexington. He works from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with half an hour for lunch three days a week and from 7:30 to 5 with 30 minutes for lunch on the fourth day.

“The biggest thing is saving money,” Foster said of the arrangement Grayson’s office implemented during the last two weeks of June. “But I’ve also found that the hour between 4:30 and 5:30 is one of our most productive hours of the day.”

That’s because there are fewer people and fewer interruptions. And he gets more time at home to do yard work or plan weekend trips or take classes.

Soon others in state government will be able to take advantage of flex-time.

On Tuesday, Gov. Steve Beshear announced he’s ordering cabinet secretaries and managers to make flex-time an “aggressive priority,” for employees who both volunteer for the arrangement and whose job duties can fit into such schedules. He emphasized that service to the public will not diminish and not all employees’ duties lend themselves to such arrangements.

Beshear said on his staff alone employees travel to work daily from Louisville, Lexington, northern Kentucky and Gallatin County. There are 6,000 commuters among state employees, Beshear said, and 55 percent of them live at least two counties away.

“The primary purpose is to help our state employees save money,” Beshear said. It’s not to save money in the state budget, although Beshear said he expects there to be some minor savings.

The administration has also established a secure “CarpoolKY!” Web site where employees can sign up for car pooling with other state employees who live nearby.

Combined, the moves should save employees money on gas, reduce overall drive time, reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions and reduce highway traffic.

The authority for such flexible scheduling for state employees already exists, but few employees have taken advantage of it because few supervisors and managers have made it a priority, Beshear said. He wants that to change.

“We’re going to make it a priority for our cabinet secretaries and managers,” Beshear said. Deputy Personnel Cabinet Secretary Tim Longmeyer said less than 2 percent of state employees now work flex-time schedules but he hopes Beshear’s push for more will lead to as many as 10 to 15 percent of state employees working fewer days each week while working longer hours.

Kristin Shattuck, 25, executive assistant to Grayson, says there are benefits to the public as well as employees.

“It really is working out better for our office,” Shattuck said. “If you’re from western Kentucky, we essentially closed down before at 3:30 your time,” referring to the time difference between Frankfort which is in the Eastern time zone while west of Louisville the rest of the state is in the Central time zone, one hour behind Frankfort. Now, there’s someone in the office answering phones until 4:30 p.m. Central time.

Like Foster, Shattuck has found the change has increased her productivity.

“Knowing you don’t have one day to get your work done tends to make you more productive the other days,” she said.

Shattuck said it was a “big adjustment when the alarm clock went off at 4:45 in the morning,” but that, too, has a positive side now that she shares a commute with some of her fellow workers.

“I’m not much of a morning person,” Shattuck said. “But now I’m more awake when I get to work because of all the conversation during the commute to work.”

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.

        

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