The only restrictions are that attendance is mandatory on Wednesday, and the staff must cover positions among themselves. Many employees log on and read e-mail from home over their morning coffee, says Mulberger, and the staff is positive about the flexibility and trust that they are given. Soll's firm also provides flexible shifts to accommodate babysitting schedules. Solender grants his employees the freedom to make their own decisions about schedules and total number of hours worked. Solender's tradesmen temps are paid by the hour and may work as many hours as they wish.
More hours can sometimes be counterproductive.
Nash says it's been her experience that allowing part-time work and job sharing has resulted in a competitive hiring advantage. Far from seeing these concessions as an inconvenience, she describes them as reasonable accommodations that have already been proven to work in her organization and an immeasurable help to employees with family responsibilities. Hopkins recounts that her efforts to allow job-sharing have been thwarted by logistics. Although she once uncovered a good candidate who wanted to work half-time, Hopkins could not find another candidate to share the job. It can be tough to find the other half of the equation, she says, and she simply can't implement such an arrangement unless and until the right people come along.