Health Department goes back to 5-day week
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 4, 2015 1:50 AM
Starting Monday, the Wayne County Health Department will be open five days a week.
The new schedule will actually be similar to its old schedule, pre-2008, the year most county offices began operating on the four-day work week.
In recent years, the county commissioners began to look at moving back to the more traditional schedule.
The switch to the four-day work week took place in August 2008, as a cost savings measure recommended by the commission and then-County Manager Lee Smith. Offices still operated on a 40-hour week but converted to four 10-hour days.
In June 2014, the Veterans Service Office went back to the five-day schedule. County Manager George Wood was tasked with re-examining the option.
The Wayne County Board of Health approved a proposal in August to gradually transition back to the five-day-week schedule for workers. Health Director Davin Madden rolled out the "Integrated Work Week Proposal" he planned to submit to Wood and the commission.
He said the move would actually expand hours of service for the community, from 40 to 48 hours.
New hours of operation will be Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. until 6 p.m., and Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Staff members will still work 40 hours, he said, while the department runs two congruent schedules. Employees will be classified under one of three designations, permanent four-day, permanent five-day or rotating.
The third designation, he explained at the time, would allow the department "to maintain staff consistency and operational effectiveness by operating the distinct schedules at all times."
Madden said he is excited about being able to offer the public more access to Health Department services, although there will be challenges.
"It's not going to be an easy transition for us because there are a lot of moving parts we have to monitor, but I think we have given it enough consideration and planning," he said. "It wasn't like we had a lot of extra hours in the week laying around to make that happen."
Much careful planning went into the move, he said, while trying to respect and also benefit employees, especially those who had been hired with the understanding that they would only work a four-day week.
"They have given their time and their loyalty to the Health Department," he said. "We knew we could make that happen."
Madden praised the staff and employees for their dedication to public health during the schedule switch back to a full week.
"I tip my hat to the executive leadership team of the Health Department. They helped me flesh out these ideas and see if we can make this work," he said. "Also to the Board of Health, they gave me as a health director the flexibility to examine this policy. I think it's definitely a workable solution."
The move will essentially involve the entire Health Department, with the exception of a few programs that are considered "non-essential," the health director said, services that operate by appointment only and will not be available on Friday.
Social services, which is housed in the same county office building but operates separately, is not affected by the schedule change, officials said.