Local

Town of Orange Park moves to four-day work weeks for certain employees

ORANGE PARK, Fla. — The Town of Orange Park will now allow some of its employees to work four days a week and have three-day weekends.

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“Really the goal is employee retention,” Sarah Campbell said.

Campbell, who is a Town Manager for Orange Park rolled this plan out a month ago just as a test and quickly realized this is what her employees wanted.

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“We need to do everything we can to give our employees a lot of flexibility in their work and home life balance. So it was something that we tried out, we gave it a shot for 30 days and most people really enjoyed it,” Campbell said.

Campbell says this only applies for employees who work inside of the town’s administrative office and not any other entity associated with town government.

“Police and fire employees have their own schedule, as do public works staffers, “Campbell said.

According to Campbell, the town has split its administrative teams, one blue and one green, by staggering their schedules.

They made sure enough staffers are at town hall daily, five days a week.

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“The Blue team works Monday through Thursday, and the Green team works Tuesday through Friday,” Campbell said.

Campbell also says this allows their town hall to extend hours for residents who need services.

“We will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day of the week,” Campbell said.

We spoke with several people in Orange Park today and everyone including Elaine Pappalardo thinks this is a great idea for the town.

“I think that’s a nice perk. When you have a lot of turn over it just cost you more, you lose good talent, and you spend a lot more time training new employees,” Campbell said.

Pappalardo says she isn’t sure if every job should move in this direction though, but Victoria Gibson, said otherwise.

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“It would help out families, and I think personally it would help out people,” Gibson said.