Policy Manual

Compressed work week refers to practices such as:

1. a full work week that is condensed into fewer than five days; or
2. two full-time work weeks compressed into nine or nine and one-half days.¹

Footnote

1. Consistent with the Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt staff receive time and a half for work over 40 hours in a work week. Hence the work arrangement cannot alter a non-exempt schedule in a manner that causes overtime to occur. Although it is permissible, with the supervisor's approval, for a non-exempt staff member to alter when the 40 hours are worked during the work week, staff cannot "bank" overtime hours worked in one work week for use as time off in a future work week.

Reduced hours/part-time refers to the practice of decreasing the number of regular hours worked to less than a full-time position. Reducing hours worked may affect salary, benefit levels, and accrual rates of vacation, sick, and holiday leave.

A  specific work arrangement may be requested and established as follows.

1. An employee follows university guidelines to request a specific work arrangement utilizing the Work Arrangement application in Employee Self Service.
2. Arrangements must be documented in Employee Self Service and signed by the employee, the employee's supervisor, and other relevant administrators as appropriate.
3. Work arrangements for non-exempt employees (including merit staff and P&S non-exempt staff) must document the agreed-upon regular work hours of the employee. University overtime and time-reporting policies (see III-17.2) apply to non-exempt employees regardless of work location and/or work schedule.
4. Work arrangements must be time specific, that is, set a specific date for review and reconsideration, and they may be modified as appropriate as determined by the employing unit. The initial review may follow a short-term pilot period. 
5. Requests for specific work arrangements will be evaluated by the supervisor and employing unit based on the following criteria:
   1. The arrangement must support the department's or unit's business needs and goals, including cost effectiveness, excellent customer service, productivity standards, and appropriate work distribution among colleagues, which may include cross-training.
   2. Appropriate performance standards and measures, means of supervision, communication, and systems for accountability must be feasible and practical.
   3. Appropriate materials, resources, systems, etc., must be accessible to the employee.
   4. The employee's past performance indicates that the arrangement will be successful.
   5. Additional criteria established by the organizational unit based on business needs and in alignment with these university criteria.
6. Requests for remote work outside the State of Iowa require additional university-level review and analysis of various compliance risks, including but not limited to income tax withholding, unemployment insurance coverage, workers compensation coverage, etc. Approval of such requests is dependent upon compelling business reasons.
7. Specific work arrangements may be discontinued by either the employee or the employing unit with a four-week notice unless an immediate and unanticipated operational need supports the discontinuation upon shorter notice.
8. The denial of a work arrangement request or the discontinuation of a specific work arrangement by the employing unit will be based upon the criteria stated above, and the rationale will be communicated to the employee in writing. Such an action cannot be grieved under university policy. 
9. Work arrangements can be tracked in Employee Self Service. Additional information regarding work arrangements, documenting, and tracking may be found at https://hr.uiowa.edu/well-being/family-services/workplace-flexibility.