Workers Shift Priorities for Family’s Sake : Relationships: Some employees in Orange County are finding that four-day weeks can help them focus more on home life and give them a feeling of control and flexibility.

Work schedules can dramatically influence non-work relationships, determining everything from which meal a family can share to the possibility or impossibility of a couple getting away for a two-day holiday.

Sometimes changes in work schedules are unwelcome, such as when they are accompanied by a pay cut; sometimes changes are welcome, as when they remove time pressures at home.

As a number of Orange County employers experiment with variations in the workweek and gauge the impact on costs and efficiency, their employees are sorting out the impact on their personal lives and family ties.

One of the most common variations being tried is the four-day workweek.

While it is not a match for every situation, it is a change that can give people a feeling of control and flexibility, according to Ann Coil, a career consultant in Orange. “They can use the day to focus on personal development or their family.”

This ability to concentrate on personal concerns often improves a person’s attitude about work, she says. “When employees have more time to spend with their families, they don’t feel like work is taking such a toll and feel less guilty about taking time away from the family when they are at work,” Coil says.

When Curt Sibley’s department at work recently started four-day workweeks, he welcomed the change.

“Having an extra day off each week was something I had wanted for years,” says the 31-year-old electronic engineer. “I realized that I’d have more free time for myself and my wife, and that was really appealing to me.”

Sibley might have Friday’s off, but he still works full weeks, putting in 10-hour days Monday through Thursday at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in Huntington Beach. At the end of this “short” week, he gets a three-day weekend.

“Although initially the 10-hour days were long ones, I’ve gotten used to the change and it now feels like all pluses to me,” he says.

Curt’s wife, Jami Sibley, 31, agrees.

“He does have to get up very early in the morning on the days he’s working and he tends to be more tired during the week, but the longer days are well worth having Friday off.”

Changes in both the Sibleys’ work schedules have altered the dynamics of their relationship.

Jami works two part-time jobs--one in sales and one in a medical billing office--which means she can often arrange to have Fridays off as well.

“Some Fridays we spend together, and at other times I work and Curt has the house to himself,” says Jami.

Until the beginning of this year, Jami worked Monday through Friday as the manager of a dance studio from 1 to 11 p.m., while Curt worked from early in the morning until late afternoon each weekday. This meant they only had time with each other on Saturday night and Saturday and Sunday during the day.

That has all changed, though, and they now see each other much more, including eating together just about every night.

“Having more free time and a slower paced schedule has alleviated a lot of stress for me,” says Curt. “Jami and I don’t have to try as hard now to find time together and that is really a relief.”

In retrospect, Jami says that their former schedule was bound to eventually cause problems for their nearly two-year marriage. “We were always experiencing a sense of deprivation over not having any time together, which was unhealthy,” she says. “Something would have eventually given in, and I think it would have been our relationship.”

Working less has been really good for their marriage, the Sibleys say.

“The extra time we’ve had has enabled us to get to know each other better,” says Jami. “There are things we’re finding out about each other that we never had time to find out before.”

Since Curt began working a four-day week, he and Jami have spent some Fridays together, including one when they went to a home show and felt relaxed about staying much longer than they had originally planned. Meanwhile, they are planning some long weekend trips.

Leslie Bowen’s employer made a scheduling change 18 months ago that gives her every other Friday off. While the change has given her a block of open time every two weeks, the time off hasn’t come without a price, says the 40-year-old project engineer at Fluor Daniel Inc., in Irvine.

The new schedule has changed the nature of the time she has with her two daughter.

“On my Fridays off, I’ve been been able to pick up my youngest daughter right after school at 2:30 and we sometimes spend time together, going to the beach, or just hanging out,” says Bowen. “But I don’t find that the benefit of having every other Friday off equals the cost of working an extra hour each day. I’d rather work every Friday and get off an hour earlier.”

She used to walk in the door each afternoon between 4:30 and 5, but now does not get home until 5:30 or 6. Bowen says that gives her very little time to change clothes, unwind, talk to her daughters, who are 7 and 13, and oversee homework before getting dinner on the table at 7 or 7:30.

“My youngest daughter goes to bed around 8:30, which doesn’t give me much time with her when I get home at 6,” she says. “Because I leave the house at 6:30 in the morning, there’s really no opportunity to talk then either.”

Bowen said the schedule change has had less impact on her relationship with her husband, Dennis Bley, 50, an engineer who is a consultant in Newport Beach. “He’s usually not home until 7, and he works on Fridays and does a great deal of traveling,” she says.

Although Bley’s schedule is flexible and he could take Fridays off as well, the couple haven’t taken advantage of the possibility yet. But Bley says he’s considering it.

“I think I will try taking off Fridays occasionally so that Leslie and I can spend some time together while the kids are in school,” he says.

“I wouldn’t want to take off every other Friday with Leslie, though, because I think she enjoys the day to herself.”

While Jim McNerney has found that his recent change to a four-day week has its benefits, it also has a downside.

“Although it may seem like you have an extra free day, it isn’t all that free,” says the 62-year-old engineer, who is also with McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in Huntington Beach. McNerney finds that because the four days of work are long and start very early, he has little energy or time during the week to tend to personal and household matters that need attention.

He and his wife no longer start the day together. Whereas he used to rise about the same time as his wife, at 6:15, and he started work at 7:30, he must now greet the day at 5 in order to begin working at 6.

McNerney chose the earliest starting time possible in order to have time with his family in the evening. He has a young grandson who lives nearby and often visits.

“If I got home an hour or two later, there wouldn’t be much evening left.”

McNerney had a choice between having Mondays and Fridays off and opted for Mondays, because his wife, Pat, who manages a church office in Seal Beach, often works on Saturdays. “We’re hoping to make a few two-day trips where we go on Sunday and return Monday,” he says.

This time alone together will be something new for the McNerneys, who raised four children. “Up until just recently, our youngest daughter and other children were here more often and we always did a lot with them,” says Pat. “Now we have time for each other.”

Jim says he also enjoys the time on Monday when he has the house to himself while his wife is at work.

“I really value quiet time, and I’ve found it nice and relaxing to have the house empty.”