Following the completion of three pilot projects on a 9-day 80-hour (9/80) work schedule, Laboratory management has decided that, due to current business needs, this workplace option will not be offered at this time. The current Laboratory procedures on flexible hours and telecommuting will continue to offer employees the opportunity to adjust their work schedules based upon specific personal or business considerations (RPM Section 2.23).

Associate Laboratory Director for Operations and Chief Operating Officer David McGraw said, however, that the 9/80 option could be reconsidered at some future date and will be reviewed at least annually.

Pilot programs for non-represented employees were conducted in three units – The Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Environment, Health and Safety, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. Based on an assessment of both performance and attendance, McGraw said the difference between employees exercising the 9/80 options and those on regular time were minimal.

The critical factor for him, Director Steve Chu, and Deputy Director Graham Fleming was the lack of depth within affected units, McGraw said. “We are in a competition to bring work to this lab,” he said, “and to compete effectively, we need good people and efficient programs. With many of our people being absent on workdays – especially Mondays and Fridays in the 9/80 system – we found that processes were somewhat slowed or delayed. We just don’t have the necessary depth of work coverage to be able to offer an expanded 9/80 program at this time.

“I was a real believer (in the 9/80 option) in the beginning,” McGraw added. “But I became convinced as a result of our review that, given the complexity of administering the program and the business needs of the laboratory in tight budgetary times, the change would not have been in the best interests of the Laboratory.”

He committed to exploring other alternatives that contribute to work-life balance for employees. In a memo to supervisors and managers on Wednesday, he encouraged them to consider application of current flextime and telecommuting options for employees who need flexibility in their work hours. He also noted that this fall, Operations will be conducting a work climate survey, the results of which could warrant a revisiting of the 9/80 option.

(This consideration is only relevant to non-represented employees. Represented employees are subject to the stipulations of their union contract).

Pilot participants who followed experimental schedules will be converted to regular schedules within 90 days, to accommodate special arrangements for employees who need to make them, and to provide sufficient time for division management to reschedule work coverage.