MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Since the summer of 2020, the city of Morgantown has conducted a test of a 4-day workweek, and initial reports indicate it has been a success.
The original plan, introduced by then-City Manager Paul Brake, called for city employees to work 10-hour days Monday-Thursday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. from July 6, 2020, through June 30, 2021. The plan opened city offices earlier and kept them open later to accommodate people who could not get away during a normal day.
Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli said there was no feedback about the program until the fall of 2022, when a gravel truck lost part of a load at Powell and East Brockway Avenues (Route 7). Members of the public expressed concern about off-hour coverage and safety.
“In the entire first year after it was implemented, we did not have one comment about the 4-day work week,” Muzzarelli said. “No comments in-person, at council meetings, or on Facebook.”
Recruitment and retention were one of the program’s selling points, according to then-City Manager Paul Brake. Offering a flexible weekly schedule gives the city a way to compete with private sector compensation in a tight labor market.
“As the government or public sector, we can’t necessarily compete with salaries, but when it comes to benefits and time, we do have a little more flexibility as to what we can provide,” Muzzarelli said.
Lowering utility costs was another selling point of the program. But, due to the pandemic and the drastic changes that came with it, those numbers are not clear. Jim Kotcon, with the Morgantown Green Team, described utility savings during the pandemic as “substantial.”
“Less of the public was coming into our building, and we still had some people remote from COVID,” Muzzarelli said. “I think there are a couple factors going into that, but I don’t have a quantifiable number for utilities, but the Green Team showed our decrease in utilities.”
Muzzarelli said key workers in the city like police, firefighters, the Morgantown Parking Authority, and others have work schedules that do change throughout the year. Changes are made in the street department to increase the availability of workers to handle snow and ice removal.
“Most of our street department works a four-day work week during the summer and a five-day work week during the winter — typically, from October to April,” Muzzarelli explained.”We also have some of our public works employees that work more of a weekend schedule.”
Muzzarelli said it is not standard practice for residents to report emergency road situations directly to city offices. Response to these situations is greatly improved when residents make the report through emergency channels and officials can route the request to the proper agency.
“Normally, people would not contact city offices or public works directly to address a fallen tree in the road,” Muzzarelli explained. “Normally, with a tree or gravel, the normal process would be to notify MECCA 911 or through the non-emergency number.”