The Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays both fell on Thursdays this year. That meant that City Center would be open Mon-Wed, closed THursday, and open Friday for two consecutive weeks at the slowest time of the year for citizen use of our City Center services.
I determined that we would be money and morale ahead to close City Center on the respective Fridays following the respective holidays. We stayed open for busines Mon-Wed both weeks. Employees had to consume their own paid vacation time if they wanted to take the Friday off. Otherwise, they could come in and do filing, cleaning, or some other odd job that can not get done during the regular work day when their first priority is citizen service.
It was good for morale because employees could have two consective four day weekends. It was good for the City financially because we could keep the City Center building systems on “holiday” mode which meant that we consumed less electricity, natural gas, etc. And, we could also get some projects completed in the building that might normally only been possible in the evening or on a weekend (on overtime pay).
As for citizens, we’ll have to wait and see. This is our slowest time of the year for citizen service. I’ve got my ears open to hear any concerns from citizens. Citizen comment will be influential to me when this situation presents itself again.
