Utah Four Day Work Week Environmentally Friendly
Not sure whether you would consider this a dream come true or not, depending on the hit your bank will take, but Utah has become the first US state to make it mandatory to take a three day weekend. Their guise is for environmental friendliness, but I think we can all see through that.
Governor Jon Huntsman, a first-term Republican, has introduced the change, which will affect the majority of state employees, in an attempt to reduce the state’s carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency, improve customer service and provide workers more flexibility. “The reaction (from the public) has been very much a willingness to give this a go,” he says.
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The four day work week is not as uncommon as I first thought, with forms of it popping up all across the US. The USA Today article notes that “The four-day work week is fairly common among city and county governments…” and it continues:
Jacqueline Byers, director of research at the National Association of Counties, says the four-day work week is gaining in popularity among county governments. Marion County, Fla., has a mandatory four-day work week for employees; Oconee County, S.C., and Walworth County, Wis., have it for road work crews, while Will County, Ill., has it for the auditor’s office. Oakland County, Mich., is seeking volunteers for a four-day work week, and Miami-Dade County, Fla., and Suffolk County, N.Y., are moving toward it, she says
It is a rather drastic measure, cutting an entire day out of a work week, but one that is sure to make a big impact. While in the months to come – the new system is set to go into effect on August 4 – I’m sure we’ll see statistics explaining what the cutback has done specifically for the environment, but there is more. Such a measure, already seen to be working throughout smaller counties and cities, is another example of how local and individual changes are having large impacts.
There will obviously be some immediate negative impacts. “One thing that has to be changed is the level of expectation from taxpayers, because they’ve always wanted five-day access,” Byers says. “They have to adjust to offices that are open longer on weekdays, but closed on Fridays.”
In addition, longer work days will create problems for those dealing with public transport and childcare, but the Utah government is looking to have these issues ironed out before the August 4th start date.
In fact, Rex Facer, an assistant professor at Brigham Young University whose research team is studying the four-day work week concept, believes that such a change will have impacts on the work-life balance as well. “More and more young workers are entering the work force,” Facer says. “They’re looking for ways to enhance their work-life balance. Alternative work schedules offer more of this work-life balance than do traditional work schedules.”
So all in all, I can hardly see where this can go wrong!
credit: Bree D. at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
There’s something important missing from this article: HOURS.
Most places that do 4 day work weeks require their workers to put in 10 hour days instead of the regular 8. That way you get the same amount of total work hours, but with 1 less day.
Ive personally worked this schedule before, and I have to say, its not that bad. There are some days where its annoying because you lose a lot of your free time after work, but when that 3 day weekend comes along, its always worth it.
Besides, I dont know about you, but even working 8 hour days, I cant ever seem to get to my bank when theyre open anyway. I dont think 10 hour days would change that.
Thats something I’ve always said would be a better solution for everyone. Its not uncommon to work more than your daily 8hr cycle. My days alone with the dayjob last around 10-11hrs….4 days x 10hrs still gets in the recommended daily dose. Hopefully this spreads!
Props to Utah
If the lights are on in a building for (4) 10 hour days or (5) 8 hour days, isn’t that still 40 hours of energy needed? How does this help the environment?!?
This is just a ploy to get government workers another day off!
I’ve been doing the whole 4 day work week for about 3 years now. Its pretty great. The worst part though is the 10 hour days. I get to work at 7 and dont leave until 6. My productivity went up when I started the 10 hour days. Fewer days to putt around in the morning and afternoon means increased work time. Its also great if you can work it to have 4 day weekends every other week. I get 2 Mini Vacations a Month plus I’m able to work those long weekends into my anual leave so I’m able to have 2 long vacations a year. It is definatly a good idea.
I think this is a stupid idea. It seems to boil down to a “Looks good on paper” type of deal. Its hard enough to coordinate across the time zones, but now coordinating across the days of the week? If they staggered the 4 days, where some people work M-Th and others work T-F, it could work, but shutting down from Friday only spells heartaches.
It will be interesting to see how this ends up working out in practice. Personally, I would love a 4 day work week to be standard nationwide. We need to catch up with the European work vs. life balance to improve American quality of life.
None of you are thinking of the economical impacts of this idea. Restaurants, stores, transportation serives all depend on five day weeks to stay afloat. This messure will be depleting the income of urban businesses but 20%. All that jsut to save some money on gas to the office, which will just be spent on gas to other areas instead. Use your brains.
I’m all for it… Want to improve the economy? Give people 3 day weekends… what do you think they’ll be more likely to do? Go out to eat, to the movies, take a weekend trip, go out and party one more night, stay home rent a movie, do more grocery shopping, EXERCISE, have more sex, … benefits, benefits, benefits. Heck, the Commodities exchange shortened their hours after 9/11 to close at 2:30PM (i think that’s the time they close) — and they’ve decided to keep them… Bring it on at a national level … let us all spend our money on our lives, rather than work for all of it!!!
If they are not going to make the four work days longer I hope everyone gets a 20% pay cut.
Katie’s got a point: in largely commuter cities, the downtown shops are already on shortened hours. Remove a day, and you remove revenue from already-struggling businesses.
And no, people won’t “just go” downtown; these businesses are typically out of the way or too far away to “just go”. Besides, because no one really comes downtown (unless there’s an event of some kind), these businesses are either closed or have sincerely short hours on the weekend.
I appreciate the sentiment of the 4-day workweek, but the truth is, I can’t imagine it will buy us anything except shorter evenings, bleaker urban areas, and ever-higher output expectations.
As a point of facetiousness, I got it: Let’s start a company-funded stimulant distribution program, and start working 40 hours straight! Yes, that seems better still! 5 day weekends? Sign me up!