Flex-Time Programs Begin To Take Hold Flexible Work Hours Help Improve Morale, Productivity

Preston Johnson, a manager at The Dow Chemical Co., spent a recent Friday playing with his two young children and attending to household finances.

He wasn’t on vacation and he wasn’t playing hooky.

Johnson was taking advantage of a creative new work schedule Dow and other companies are rushing to adopt - one designed to give workers more free time.

The idea is that employees work nine-hour days from Monday through Thursday, an eight-hour day on Friday and then get a free day on the following Friday. On a rotating basis, employees receive two Friday’s off each month.

“It gives me more of an opportunity to spend time with my small children without affecting my ability to be productive in my job,” Johnson said.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1993 only 4 percent of employees at medium and large companies worked hours other than 9-to-5. The trend, however, seems to be gathering steam.

“This new type of schedule is sweeping like wildfire in popularity,” said Barney Olmsted, co-director of New Ways to Work, a research and advocacy group in San Francisco.

Starting this month, more than half Dow’s employees joined the pilot. Dow intends to evaluate the results after a year and decide whether to extend the program, known-as 9-80 for the nine-hour days and 80 hours worked every two weeks.

“People have told us they need more flexibility in balancing work and family,” said Dow spokeswoman, Catherine Maxey. “This is designed to help employees achieve that balance.”

Dow hopes employees will use the extra time to schedule doctor’s appointments, pick up dry cleaning and get haircuts.

“When a company like this makes a change it will have an impact,” said Arlene Johnson, vice president of the Families and Work Institute in New York, a research and consulting group. She cautioned, however, that companies should not substitute one rigid schedule for another, or mandate flexibility.

At Dow, in cases where the new hours are a hardship - usually because of child-care or car-pool arrangements - the previous schedule may be maintained, Maxey said.

“But saying you are not a morning person is not a legitimate reason not to be on the new schedule,” she said.

For many companies, the option arose from the need to comply with The Clean Air Act of 1990, which requires companies to reduce solo driving among their employees. From there, however, it has evolved.

Now, companies are experimenting with a variety of scheduling options.

Bechtel Group, Inc., the construction giant, implemented 9-80 hours in January 1991 and they now cover three-quarters of all company employees. Shell Oil Co. began a 9-80 arrangement about 1-1/2 years ago.

Hewlett-Packard Co. is in the process of giving employees a variety of scheduling options. Some are even experimenting with a six- or seven-hour day over six days, said Jerry Cashman, work options program manager.