Utah’s Experiment: Monday-Thursday Work Weeks for State Employees
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 1, 2009
During these uncertain times of economic upheaval, long-time established businesses slashing their employment ranks or going belly-up, a bit of rosier news on the working person’s front is always uplifting.
A four-day, ten-hour work week experiment in Utah is gaining popularity and support. And it’s frugally minded… quite uncommon when it comes to our government anymore.
From Time, The Four-Day Workweek Is Winning Fans:
…A year ago, the Beehive State became the first in the U.S. to mandate a four-day workweek for most state employees, closing offices on Fridays in an effort to reduce energy costs. The move is different from a furlough in that salaries were not cut; nor was the total amount of time employees work. They pack in 40 hours by starting earlier and staying later four days a week. But on that fifth (glorious) day, they don’t have to commute, and their offices don’t need to be heated, cooled or lit.
After 12 months, Utah’s experiment has been deemed so successful that a new acronym could catch on: TGIT (thank God it’s Thursday). The state found that its compressed workweek resulted in a 13% reduction in energy use and estimated that employees saved as much as $6 million in gasoline costs. Altogether, the initiative will cut the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 12,000 metric tons a year. And perhaps not surprisingly, 82% of state workers say they want to keep the new schedule. “It’s beneficial for the environment and beneficial for workers,” says Lori Wadsworth, a professor at Brigham Young University who helped survey state employees. “People loved it.” Those who didn’t tended to have young children and difficulty finding extended day care.
And the four-day/ten-hour work week experiment apparently benefits not only Utah state employees:
The advantages of a so-called 4-10 schedule are clear: less commuting, lower utility bills. But there have been unexpected benefits as well, even for people who aren’t state employees. By staying open for more hours most days of the week, Utah’s government offices have become accessible to people who in the past had to miss work to get there in time. With the new 4-10 policy, lines at the department of motor vehicles actually got shorter…
Shorter DMV lines… what a concept.
Related reading:
TreeHugger: Utah’s Four-Day Workweek Program A Big Energy Saver
Neatorama: Utah’s 4-day Work Week
The Motley Fool: All Hail the Four Day Work Week!
Grist: Is a 4-day workweek inevitable? Utah cuts energy use 13%
Challenge for Change: 4-Day Work Week: Save Energy, Save Money
WorldChanging: The Four-Day Work Week Works
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