The Four-Day Workweek gains traction

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TIME: In an era when most of us seem to be working more hours than ever (provided we're still lucky enough to have jobs), 17,000 people in Utah have embarked on an unusual experiment. 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.

www.time.com...

I'm all for a 4 day work week. More time off, sounds fantastic. What is the underlying reason for the 4 day work week? Money. People have more free time, so they will spend more money.

On a sidenote, the article says "Monday Sept 7 2009" but its Friday Sept 4 today...
Strange

I know many of us will be too young to remember the Carter administration and the adoption of such measures, so I really have to wonder what this does psychologically to the state or the country.

Condensing the work week into four days should make people feel a little disturbed, but inside do they feel a little happier knowing with certainty that at least they have four days and now have an extra day off?

Originally posted by warrenb
On a sidenote, the article says "Monday Sept 7 2009" but its Friday Sept 4 today...
Strange

Forgot to add that TIME often date their articles online with the date in which the next issue is released.

Originally posted by warrenb
I'm all for a 4 day work week. More time off, sounds fantastic. What is the underlying reason for the 4 day work week? Money. People have more free time, so they will spend more money.

On a sidenote, the article says "Monday Sept 7 2009" but its Friday Sept 4 today...
Strange

Maybe the reasoning is just to cut back peoples pay in a slow process. Eventually they would say, "Well, after four days, you should only work 30 hours a week". Saving them (corporations) money, and less pay for us. So, less pay for us, less spending power.

But, I highly doubt that is realistic.

How about encouraging people to telecommute?

You would need smaller buildings.

telecommuters are happier not spending 10 hours a week commuting.


Less dependence on oil. Win win all around.

By the way, I am home today on furlough.

Getting furloughed 5 times by June.

The state figures they would save 1.2 mil on energy and utilities alone,

so this isn't a bad idea.

I know many universities are going to a four day school week, mine included. I love it, it throws a few things off but it's so much more relaxed and less stressful.

They can save a whole lot more if they don't work at all and spend no money. It depends how you look at it. The Industrial age gave us 3 shifts because in 24 hours you can produce 3 times for the same over head cost than to work only 8 hours in 24 hours. This is nothing but to manipulate the sheeple.
Oh, we forgot about over time that we used to get time and a half for any work over 8 hours. It was all calculated based on economics and double for sunday 3 times for holiday. Can you see how the elite is motivating you. Don't forget they get the help from experts called consultants. They don't dish out money for nothing. It is always an investment looking for returns.

[edit on 4-9-2009 by charlie0]

Unfortunately, many of us have jobs that are production based and already work 10-12 hour days, so we would still be working on Friday to get the work done. I think this would work nicely in retail/customer service based jobs though.

I used to run a welding shop in my younger days. I figured out that since it took an hour of set up in the morning and an hour of shut down in the evening we were loosing 10 hours a week of non welding time. So I proposed that we switch to 4 x 10 hour days. That meant we only lost 8 hours of non welding time and the shop guys got every friday off. They loved it. It was good for us too, if we got really busy or had a rush job then fridays were a non manditory OT day for anyone who wanted to work.