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Traffic congestion like this on Interstate 59 is common around Houston. Mayor Bill White’s Flexible Workplace Initiative hopes to get 10 vehicles per lane off the roads every 15 minutes during peak hours. Photo by Leslie Denton-Roach.

By Dave Schafer

Like many city employees, Janie Canino has family who count on her to take them to the doctor. Those doctors keep office hours that often conflict with her work schedule.

For years, those conflicts weren’t an issue because Finance & Administration, where Canino works, let employees work a flex schedule. Canino worked 40 hours in four days instead of five.

That gave her one day a week to take her elderly parents to their appointments.

“I didn’t feel like I was neglecting my job, and I didn’t feel like I was neglecting my parents,” Canino said.

But when the F&A business office went from 14 employees to eight last year, Canino switched back to a traditional workweek. Now, when she needs to take her parents to the doctors, she uses personal days and the occasional flex day.

That may soon change.

With his Flexible Workplace Initiative, Mayor Bill White is urging employers, including the city, to explore flex schedules to combat rush-hour congestion.

“We want to change the way Houston works,” said Kathleen Kelly, who’s overseeing the initiative. “We want to lead the charge on flexible scheduling.

“The focus won’t be on when you get to work, but when and where you work.”

Happier employee = more productive employee
In May 2004, more than 27 million full-time workers in the United States, comprising 27.5 percent of the workforce, had flexible schedules, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. One in ten full-time employees were enrolled in a formal, employer-sponsored flextime program.

A flexible schedule gives city employees greater control over their work/family balance, said Lonnie Vara, Human Resources director.

Flextime comes in many forms: four 10-hour days per week; 80 hours over nine days in two weeks; “four nines and a four,” when an employee works nine-hour shifts four days a week and takes off a half-day; and remote work, also called telework or telecommuting, when an employee works from home. This option requires a particular type of job and a self-motivated worker.

Because the employee can work from home, he should be more productive, Vara reasons. “People want this benefit, so they will work harder to keep it.”

Canino agrees.

“Flextime worked in my department because everybody wanted to make it work, so they worked hard to make it work,” she said.

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