Why Thursday is the new Friday

4-day work week is Uncle Sam's latest move to cut oil use


By Zhen Ming


IT'S only 5am. The radio alarm in your bedroom goes off.

Five more minutes, you mumble to yourself, as you stumble in the dark to press the snooze button. But the alarm goes off yet again.

It's time to wake up. And here's what you can expect to do, if you are the average American worker: 24 minutes of grooming (more if you're a woman) and 18 to 36 minutes of breakfast, plus whatever multi-tasking you can squeeze in, like reading the newspaper, or watching the early morning show on TV.

By 6.30am, it's time to start your 25-minute commute - alone - in your car. Except that, it's Friday in Utah, and, argh, you've just realised you don't have to show up for work today.

Utah is the first American state to institute the four-day work week as a policy.

The new policy, a year-long experiment established by executive order, took effect on 4 Aug.

It means that Utah state employees work from Monday through Thursday from 7am to 6pm. They will put in the usual 40 hours spread over four days instead of five - but save on the cost of driving on the fifth.

But employee saving is not the main reason why Utah is taking a new look at alternative work schedules. It expects to save about 20 per cent, or US$3 million ($4.2 million), in energy costs.

Cutting costs

Other state and local governments across America, including New Mexico, Virginia, and Washington, are also following suit - hoping to conserve energy, reduce fuel consumption, and alleviate congestion.

The federal government also wants to put its weight behind this four-day work week bandwagon.

US House Majority Leader Steny H Hoyer has asked the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to 'undertake comprehensive analysis of the transitioning to a four-day work week for all possible federal employees and inform me by 31 Aug, of any additional actions Congress would need to take to implement such a policy by the end of fiscal year 2008'.

In the US, fiscal year 2008 ends on 30 Sep. This means, as early as 1 Oct, US may implement a four-day work week nationwide.

Mr Hoyer said in his letter to the OPM: 'In these times of high gasoline prices, I believe the federal government should do all it can to ensure that federal agencies and departments are appropriately reducing gasoline consumption. This goal can be accomplished with the adoption of personnel policies to limit unnecessary commuting.'

Ouch! It's a sign of how deeply gas prices are cutting into employees' pay and businesses' bottom lines.

Says Ms Michelle Conlin, working life editor of BusinessWeek magazine: 'If the 20th century was about the five-day work week, nine-to-five, the 21st century is going to be about flexibility.

'But, she adds, four-day weeks aren't for everyone: 'Certainly, for manufacturing lines, for retail, for 24-hour customer service support and things like that, this isn't applicable.'

'The notion of our standard work week here in America has remained largely the same since 1938,' explains Mr Aaron Newton, an American land planner and global peak oil expert.

'That was the year the Fair Labour Standards Act was passed, standardising the eight-hour work day and the 40-hour work week. Each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, workers all over the country wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast and go to work.'

Arbitrary

To be sure, the 40-hour work week was a vast improvement for many Americans who were, at the time, forced to work 10-plus hours a day, sometimes six days a week.

Adds Mr Newton: 'So a 40-hour work week was seen as an upgrade in the lives of many of US citizens.'

But the notion that we should work for five of these days in a row before taking two for ourselves is, as best I can tell, rather arbitrary.'

The math, as I see it, goes thus: Depending on the kind of assumptions you make, Americans can save anywhere from 1.6 million to 8.4 million barrels of oil a week if the country adopts a four-day week.

At Friday's average price of regular unleaded at the pump, Americans will save up to US$609 million if they all stop driving for just a day.

And with the government taking the lead, American industry will follow.

In an effort to save costs, Chrysler is considering reducing the work-week at the Toledo plant from the normal five days down to four, and allowing its workers to stay on for 10-hour shifts.

And for many Americans, Thursday is the new Friday.

But it will take a while to see Thursday like it's Friday.What Americans will realise is that Thursdays will become very busy, because they have to finish everything for the week.

The result: Thursdays can get a bit hectic. Friday would've been hectic anyway, so why not get the work done one day early?

What do you think, folks? If you were an American, would working four long days be ideal, or would it throw your life into chaos?


Source: The New Paper, Sun 24 Aug 2008