by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Gov. Jon Huntsman announced on June 26, 2008 that Utah state workers will soon only have to work four days a week. But before workers can shout “hurrah” they better read the rest. Most agencies will switch over to four, 10-hour, work days a week. So there is no reduction in working hours per week, as you all will have thought. He fooled y'all y'all.
So, while it is a 4-day week, the 40 hours are still being worked, now 10 hours in a day. For anyone who commutes for a considerable distance to work this will mean even less time at home and with family, with their children.
The "Working 4 Utah" initiative is being welcomed as an energy- and money-saving change for the state. Huntsman says the alternative workweek will formally launch in August.
"It has never been done on the statewide level, so we would be the first state actually rolling this out," Huntsman said. "So, July we're going to be working very closely with departments and agencies making sure we anticipate ... all of the issues and challenges that'll be associated with doing this right."
The new four-day, 10-hour schedule would apply to about 17,000 state workers – about 20 percent of the total state workforce. All those people wouldn't have to commute on Fridays, and the offices where they work – about 1,000 buildings statewide – won't have to be heated or cooled, and lights and computers would be turned off.
It sounds rather good that “all those building do not need to be heated” but the truth is rather different as the heating will still have to be working for, otherwise, in a very cold situation, the electronic infrastructure would not be very happy, to say the least. So, don't jump as yet as regards to huge savings in heating. Even when a building is not used the heating is lest to run, in winter, at a certain level.
The bottom line, according to Huntsman: energy savings and overall efficiency. "When you look at the totality of our needs here, this is a good policy moving forward," he said.
The Department of Administrative Services says closing nearly 1,000 buildings statewide on Fridays could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3,000 metric tons.
It will also save a lot of money. "We estimate that it can help save somewhere around 20 percent of the cost we're having right now in energy prices and energy usage," said Kimberly Hood, with the Utah Department of Administrative Services.
The governor formally announced this executive order in KUED news conference on June 26, 2008. State officials say they'll be watching for the benefits, which may include employee flexibility and higher worker morale.
Somehow I doubt the “higher working morale” for, as said earlier, people now will be away from home so much longer. Instead of the normal 8 hours a day worked now it will be 10 hours and I don't know whether this includes or excludes the lunch hour. If not then we are looking at someone being 11 hours at works, really, and with say an hour commuting into work and an hour going back home, which is probably the average minimum, we are talking 13 hours so, someone leaving home at 7.30am to get to work by 9am with a little time to spare, will not get home until at least 8pm if not later, unless, and I did not see that mentioned, the State of Utah intends to start work at 8am or 7am even to make up for that. Again, I personally doubt the “higher working morale”.
"This is going to be a one-year pilot program that we take a look at. We'll make sure that we'll have the results that expect it to have," explained Jeff Herring, with the Utah Department of Human Services.
There are other issues to be ironed out: child day care questions, availability of public transportation, second jobs and school. All these are concerns for the Utah Public Employees' Association, the state workers' union.
"We want to make sure the public is served and that the taxpayer is served. And we want to make sure that public employees are able to do that efficiently. And being closed on Friday, is that going to create a burden? We don't know," said Audry Wood, with the Utah Public Employees' Association.
The new schedule includes all state agencies that are now open regular Monday-Friday business hours, like the Division of Motor Vehicles. It does not include state agencies currently open on weekends.
Because of the nature of their jobs, state troopers, corrections employees, courts, higher education and legislative workers are not included.
"The state courts are very supportive of Gov. Huntsman's initiative to conserve energy and improve air quality," said Utah State Court Administrator Dan Becker. "Like certain other functions of state government, the courts must remain accessible Monday through Friday to ensure compliance with statutory time frames for required criminal and juvenile proceedings."
The "Working 4 Utah" initiative will be critically evaluated following the one-year trial period to allow for any necessary adjustments in the future.
What would be a real breakthrough would be if the Governor had decided that those people that could would work from home for half the week or so. I am sure that the saving would be the same if not even better, especially as there would be even less cars on the road.
Yet another idea that has not been, it would appear, properly thought through. Similar to the schemes that are being devised left, right and center in the UK and which turn out to be so cockeyed that it is just unbelievable. Every government, every politician, every country and every business as well, so it seems, want to do something green, mainly in order to be seen to be doping something green. This, I am afraid to say, is getting us nowhere.
Time for to take a real deep breath and think things through very slowly and carefully before we run and try to do things that may not benefit at all – like the planned Eco-Towns in the UK, that are now coming under fire for being ill conceived, for example.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
Utah to move to a more sustainable four day work week
