Down Fridays -- A thing of the past?

[Hoopty]

4/8/2008 - KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MISS. -- Col. Greg Touhill, 81st Training Wing commander, seeks to dispel rumors floating around Keesler regarding the compressed work schedule.

"There are rumors that we're going to get rid of CWS -- I'm not looking to eliminate CWS," he said. "I'm committed to doing things better, to looking at a more efficient way of doing business and to better support the Air Force in this time of war."

The primary change being considered is a minimally-manned working Friday where those who have to work, coordinate with their supervisors to get another day off.

"I like the concept of flex time," said Colonel Touhill. "It worked for us when I was at Randolph Air Force Base (Texas) and it's more intimate between the employee and the supervisor. It allows them to take the day off that best works for them and gives them better controls over their work schedules.

"CWS was implemented at Keesler in 1993 with the intent of saving the Air Force money by drastically reducing energy consumption. However, costs have begun to exceed savings," according to Colonel Touhill.

"I launched an audit of CWS and found not only are we not saving money, we're actually paying large amounts of overtime to people who have to come in to work on CWS Fridays anyway," he said. "In the aftermath of 9/11 and with the current war being fought, people are having to come in to work to support the war effort."

CWS has also proven to be unpopular outside of the base. Keesler is the only base in the Air Force to have every other Friday off.

"We're getting negative feedback regarding CWS from other bases," said Colonel Touhill.

"The rest of the Air Force is on a wartime footing; we need operational capabilities on Fridays to be able to keep in step and support the Air Force mission in this time of war.

"It's about delivering combat capability to our Air Force; being good stewards of the taxpayer's money," he added.

With Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century a high-profile initiative across the Air Force, this proposed change to the current CWS would fall directly under it.
"This is an AFSO21 initiative," said Colonel Touhill.

The colonel met with commanders, first sergeants and union representatives last week to discuss the proposed change.

"We want all of the facts before we make a decision," said Colonel Touhill. "We must also coordinate with Air Education and Training Command and negotiate with the contractors."

He said he expects to have an update on the process by mid-May.

"We haven't made any commitments on this," the colonel said. "I want our employees to know this is under study. Our objective is to meet our operational taskings while empowering them with more control over their own schedules.

"I think they and their supervisors are in the best positions to cover the mission and identify when they can take their earned time off. We don't always have to specify the date for them."

Bummer...

[CalibratorJ]

Bummer is right.....

I'm in the Army, and even though we did Army CTT on Down Friday mornings, they were awesome as a break from the doy to day metrology training routine. Sad if they go.....

[scottbp]

Why don't they just do what we do at the lab I work at (100% civilian with no contracts or any other affiliation with the government)- split everybody into 3 groups, where each group will work a normal 8 hour day for the first 2 weeks, then on the 3rd week, 10 hours a day for 4 days and get that Friday off. (If we're really lucky, that Friday will come before a holiday, e.g. Memorial Day or Labor Day and we get a 4 day weekend.)

We stagger the groups so that the first group is on the 10 hour schedule one week, the 2nd group does 10's on the 2nd week, and the 3rd on the 3rd week. That way the lab is always staffed at least 2/3 on Fridays. (That's when it usually hits the fan anyway, with customers bringing in truckloads of "rush" equipment).

The problem with that scenario is, we can't always schedule appointments on our Friday off, but management is somewhat flexible, they allow us to trade our scheduled Friday off for another day without having to take a vacation day (or a short paycheck for that week).

[PMEL_DEVIL-DOG]

So I guess the Air Force actually has to work, huh?

[USMCPMEL]

Yep I have seen a lot of benefits taken away due to people taking advantage of the system. I actually worked for Transcat ahile ago and they never let us get any overtime. You would come in to do an onsite and if you had 4o hours by Wednesday they sent you home? I kept coming in to work anyways and wrote down how many house I worked inside of 6 month I saved up enough time for a 3 week vacation. They did not like that but oh well.