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helwenInteresting article on 10-hour, 4-day work week
Colorado's starting to look at switching state employees to 10-hour, 4-day weeks. Utah will be implementing this starting next month (17,000 of their 24,000 employees). The hope is to cut down on fuel people have to use to get to work, cut down on greenhouse gases, reduce wear-and-tear on the highways.
For some departments, it might even save some heating/cooling and electricity, since some offices would probably be closed one day per week. Other departments like DPW would need to have some staff working M-Th and others working Tu-F, or some other combination if they need to have weekend coverage.
One of my brothers-in-law is in the National Guard here in MA and they recently changed from the 4-day week to a 5-day week, and I know he's very glad he has a car that gets fairly good mileage, but many of his co-workers don't, and they're definitely feeling the pain at the pump. I know people should switch to vehicles with better mileage, but not everyone can afford to do things like that, or they need to have the larger vehicle for carting lots of stuff around. A 10-hour, 4-day week could make it easier for employees to get more done around the home too -- all those important improvements like insulating, for instance, or spending more time with family.
I wrote to my governor, state senator and state representative about this today, including the link to the news article. And perhaps if they take it seriously and go for it, Mass. National Guard will re-consider its change to a 5-day week and return to the 4-day week.
Colorado's starting to look at switching state employees to 10-hour, 4-day weeks. Utah will be implementing this starting next month (17,000 of their 24,000 employees). The hope is to cut down on fuel people have to use to get to work, cut down on greenhouse gases, reduce wear-and-tear on the highways.
For some departments, it might even save some heating/cooling and electricity, since some offices would probably be closed one day per week. Other departments like DPW would need to have some staff working M-Th and others working Tu-F, or some other combination if they need to have weekend coverage.
One of my brothers-in-law is in the National Guard here in MA and they recently changed from the 4-day week to a 5-day week, and I know he's very glad he has a car that gets fairly good mileage, but many of his co-workers don't, and they're definitely feeling the pain at the pump. I know people should switch to vehicles with better mileage, but not everyone can afford to do things like that, or they need to have the larger vehicle for carting lots of stuff around. A 10-hour, 4-day week could make it easier for employees to get more done around the home too -- all those important improvements like insulating, for instance, or spending more time with family.
I wrote to my governor, state senator and state representative about this today, including the link to the news article. And perhaps if they take it seriously and go for it, Mass. National Guard will re-consider its change to a 5-day week and return to the 4-day week.
