Peachtree

City, considering every option available to help ease

traffic in town, is looking into something that could

have other benefits for employees and citizens - a

four-day work week.

Mayor Pro

Tempore Annie McMenamin mentioned at the Nov. 4 City

Council meeting, after discussion of the traffic impact

ordinance, that the city should consider the pros and

cons of having its employees work four 10-hour shifts per

week where applicable. The city has already been studying

just such a move.

According

to assistant city manager Joe Morton, city staff has

researched other municipalities and industries across the

state to see where it may be implemented and how popular

it is. Four-day work weeks are apparently much more

popular in government than in the private sector,

according to city research, Morton said.

A possible

benefit to citizens from changing the schedule in this

way would be extended operating hours at City Hall. Since

employees would be on duty for 10 hours at a time instead

of eight, City Hall could open one hour earlier and close

one hour later, giving local residents more flexibility

when they need to go there, Morton said.

Studies

also must determine which jobs can benefit from the plan

and which cannot. As Councilman Robert Brooks mentioned

in the meeting, some positions, such as city clerk, may

not allow anyone other than the actual person in that

position to perform those duties.

Brooks also

pointed out that, according to an employee survey

conducted in relation to the traffic studies, only 40 out

of 225 city employees commute from Coweta County to work,

so the effect of a four-day work week on traffic in the

Ga. Highway 54 West corridor could be minimal.

Since a

good deal of information has been acquired from other

areas already using the four-day week, the next step for

the city is to meet with the directors of the various

departments to see which positions could feasibly use the

plan.

City

employees have not yet been officially surveyed on the

four-day work week, Morton said, but unofficially the

move already has some support among employees, many of

whom would gladly trade an extra two hours per day at

work for a third day tacked onto the weekend. "I

know I'd like it," Morton said.

One obvious

group of employees that would not be affected is the

city's firefighting corps, which typically works 24-hour

shifts every third day.