Tomorrow is my YouDay. Since the government hasn't officially declared it a statutory holiday as per my recommendation, I am taking it off using one of my earned holidays as per my personal YouDay policy.
Having Friday off, along with the recent news that the State of Utah is moving 20% of government employees to a four-day, ten-hour-per-day workweek, has me thinking about the concept of a shorter workweek a bit more.
I also speak of this from experience. My very first post-undergrad job was with the Saskatchewan Publishers Group, an organization that utilizes a four-day workweek for all employees - from the Executive Director on down to the temporary summer student.
(I admit that having this perk in my first job spoiled me quite a bit and was probably the best perk in a job that had many. I always thought that the various perks we got at the SPG were related to the fact that, as a cultural non-profit, they couldn't afford to pay their employees what they would make in similar positions in government or larger non-profits or corporations or whatever. But I soon realised that the SPG was very generous - even by cultural non-profit standards. Some day, I'll do a full-on post about employee perks and benefits and delve into this subject a bit more.
And to be fair, I should list the best perks/benefits of my two other "real" jobs. At the Writers Guild of Alberta, the best perk/benefit was having almost total autonomy as the sole employee of the Calgary office which was followed closely by having an office on the edge of downtown with a fantastic view of the Calgary skyline. At Southeast Regional Library, one of the best perks is getting the library's discount on any book we order for ourselves.)
So, anyhow, back to the topic at hand, one thought I have about the innovative scheduling is that libraries are sort of missing the boat when compared to the other two female-dominated professions that we often get linked to. Nurses have almost complete flexibility in their scheduling - Shea has a choice of working a 2/5, 3/5, 4/5 or full-time position. She can choose to only work days, only work nights, job share a position, to work casual on 1-2 floors and only come in when she chooses, etc. Teachers, partly due to the legacy of the agricultural roots of the school year, get the whole summer off plus generous holidays at other times of year. I know they don't get the flexibility in their time off but I'd say that 10-12 weeks of holidays per year is a fair trade! Librarians (at least public librarians - some academic librarians get some of the same extended holidays as teachers) don't really get these advantages in most workplaces. Instead, most public librarians have a fairly typical 9-5, seven or seven and a half hour workday with four weeks of holidays and not much else in terms of choice or variety in when and how they work.
There are dozens (okay, sixteen on this link) reasons why the four-day work week is a great idea. From the reduction in pollution from less commuting (maybe high gas prices have a positive after all?) to the increased amount of family time to the fact that it may even increase productivity (!), the four day work week is an idea whose time has come.
I mean, if it's good enough for the best show on television, isn't it good enough for you too?
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Thursday, July 17
In Praise of The Four Day Work Week
by
Jason
on Thu 17 Jul 2008 11:39 PM CST
Monday, July 14
Some Good Job Hunt Resources
by
Jason
on Mon 14 Jul 2008 09:07 PM CST
My job hunt has begun again in earnest - I've applied for a couple positions and heard of a couple more that I intend to apply for soon and/or that may becoming up this fall.
I've had a few resources bookmarked for reference awaiting this moment so I thought I'd share them: How To Answer 23 of the Most Common Interview Questions 6 Mistakes That Blew Up Your Job Interview 5 Key Steps to Acing Your First Job Interview In other news, I was out in one of our branches today for the launch of our Summer Reading Performer's tour. You'd be watching a video clip of it right now if YouTube was willing to talk to my computer. Unfortunately, it isn't right now. Maybe tomorrow. Tuesday, July 8
Jason's 360 Review
by
Jason
on Tue 08 Jul 2008 08:38 PM CST
One of the tools that HR departments use these days is the 360 Review where, instead of the traditional performance review by your superior, feedback about your performance is solicited from everyone you work with - colleagues, co-workers, people you supervise, etc.
We don't do 360 reviews at Southeast Regional Library but after talking to my colleague in Estevan who had done something similar with his staff and after discussing it with our Personnel Manager, I decided to do one on my own as I thought this process might be useful, especially as I am coming to the end of my first position as a professional librarian and the feedback would help me as I moved forward in my career. In my previous jobs, I had anywhere from 2-6 co-workers in the entire organization and my supervision was limited to the occasional summer student and various contractors so there wasn't much point in doing one in that setting. But now, with the quantum leap of having a dozen co-workers at our regional headquarters alone, colleagues at our two city libraries and supervisory responsibility for nearly 50 branch librarians (over 100 people if you count my indirect supervision of library assistants), I had a large enough sample group to make it worthwhile. I set up a slightly modified version of the SurveyMonkey template for 360 reviews and sent the link out to approximately 60 people within our organization. More than 50% of people who received the survey filled it out. I have to be honest - I mostly got the sort of feedback I expected, both positive and negative and there were no stunning revelations. Still, I think it was a useful process in a number of ways and I'm glad I did it. Here is a summary of my results (which may only be an active link as long as the SurveyMonkey subscription I'm using lasts - I think until fall 2008). I've made it so only the results of the non-open-ended questions are displayed. I tend to be a fairly open person but I'm not brave enough to share all the negatives that were raised (and even some of the positives were either backhanded compliments or digressed to complaints about other aspects of our organization not related to my performance.) 1. How often do you have contact with Jason? A third of respondents said they were in contact with me, either by phone, e-mail or in person, "more than once per week" with "a couple times per month" and "once per week" coming in as close seconds. 2. Rate Jason in the Following Areas (/5) Communication Skills - 3.77 Follow-up Skills - 3.42 Quality of Work - 3.68 Manages Requests in a Timely Fashion - 3.32 Ability to Respond to Change - 3.67 Availability to You - 3.61 Responsive to Requests For Support & Guidance - 3.68 Job Knowledge - 3.61 3. Employee's Key Strengths (I just picked a representative sample)  His ability to listen and understand even if he doesn't agree with you.
His willingness to help when needed.Empathy for the librarians' workload
Great sense of humor
Excellent leadership qualitiesIs great with dealing with people and finding solutions to a problem. He is organized and has a great knowledge of his job.Listening skills are very good. This is critical and often undervalued. A very good listener
he treated me as an individual, not just as one of the
librarians-recognizes that all librarians have their own strengths and
weaknesses and builds on the strengths.
believes that some rules have a grey area to them in certain
situations. Really listens to concerns--I saw results of a consultation with Jason in a change of an administrative procedure.
Knowledgeable about changes in available technology - CAP training was really useful.
Changes in procedures were well-thought-out and instructions were clear before implementation was required.Jason's door is always open. He is
quick to handle any questions or problems I bring to him. I really like
his creative approach to handling the branches.1) Ability to adapt to the situation at the working level without compromising the main rules.
2) Strong interpersonal skills -relating to those under his supervision well.
3) Follows through when things are not resolved immediately-you can count on him getting to it when he can.4. Employee Weaknesses (again, a representative sample  ) none. I am very happy with Jason's supervisory role5. Other Comments? (yet again, a representative sample) Patient, attentive listening and interpersonal skills will pay off big time in the years ahead. This is a leadership habit. Jason is great to work with. Fun to have around and always looking for ways to improve, both himself and his workplace. Mr Hammond is one of the nicest and
considerate co-workers that I have ever had. I wish to work with him in
the future if it is possible.6. Your Name I specifically asked for (constructive) criticism when I sent out the link and also said that people could reply anonymously as well. Still, approximately one third of respondents signed their names which was nice as it helped give a clearer understanding of why certain people might see certain strengths and weaknesses. |
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