Kelly Days

By contract, we work a minimum 54-hour week. Fire department schedule is 24 on, 24 off. For example, my schedule over two weeks would look like:
Mon-Wed-Fri-Sun (which comes out to 96 hours)
Tu-Th-Sat (for a total of 72)

We are lucky enough this year to be near-fully staffed, and so we get a Kelly Day once every two weeks. For example, mine for the summer is Thursday: on the Tu-Th-Sat week I don’t work the Thursday and so get a “three-day weekend”. Our time sheet still must come out to 108 hours a pay period, but usually with the “long week” there’s no risk of going under. Getting put on sick leave or something similar would be the only reason for being under on hours.

So there’s the Kelly Day. From what I understand, Kelly Days were made to keep firefighters from going into overtime over the course of a month-long schedule (over 212 hours in a month being considered overtime).

This is the first department I’ve been with where I had a Kelly Day, and having that one day off to catch up on sleep/etc has been really nice. In reality, having 24 hours off is much less time than it seems. I get off work on Wednesday at 8a if I’m at Station 1, and closer to 9a if I’m coming from Station 2 at Willy Field (by the time the oncoming shift is out to relieve us and we’re ferried back to town). From there it’s gym and lunch, then laundry with a little bit of down time or errands. Dinner, watch a movie or two, and off to bed.

So the Kelly Day is when I get to sleep in, really relax, and maybe have a day to kick around or stay out late. It’s also a great day to get in some volunteer time; I’ve been volunteering at the Craft Room, Library, and doing shadowing in Medical. Volunteering is important at McMurdo – while there is a paid rec position in the summer (and holy cow does she do a lot), much of the “fun stuff” (from parties to the radio shows to the coffee house) is kept rolling by volunteers.

So even when we’re not working, “time off” goes fast!

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

Leo Tolstoy