Village workers rue return of 5-day workweek

But an empty Village Hall on Fridays didn’t sit well with residents.

Sit outside Wellington’s Village Hall on a Friday and you’ll invariably see someone walk up to the door and pull on it.

It’s locked, of course, because the village switched to a four-day workweek in 2010 to save money during the recession.

But in 2017, the door will open during business hours on Fridays.

The Village Council approved the switch back to the five-day workweek and Wellington will resume the five-day schedule Jan. 3. Wednesday will still have the extended hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. that village residents have grown accustomed to, but the other four days will be standard workdays of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

During the past six years, residents have been able to access all of Wellington’s services online, but an empty Village Hall didn’t look good to some residents. Assistant Manager Jim Barnes said some of the locals might have felt “shortchanged.”

“The desire is to provide that greater level of service and put it back to five days per week,” he said.

The change, which is an added cost of about $200,000, should appease the public, but many employees aren’t happy.

Several employees approached council members and asked them not to approve the change. The workers had gotten used to the old schedule and didn’t want to have to adjust.

A village employee who didn’t want to be named said some co-workers’ complaints include having to drive to work during rush hour and losing the ability to schedule doctors appointments or attend their kids’ events without taking paid time off.