A .410 would do a lot for me, too.
Posted on 05/29/2008 12:23:47 PM PDT by 300magnum
Workers shifting to 4-day week to save gas By Andrea Hopkins 1 hour, 8 minutes ago
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - When Ohio's Kent State University offered custodial staff the option of working four days a week instead of five to cut commuting costs, most jumped at the chance, part of a U.S. trend aimed at combating soaring gasoline prices.
"We offered it to 94 employees and 78 have taken us up on it," said university spokesman Scott Rainone.
The reason is simple: rising gas prices. And while so far only the university's custodians are eligible, Rainone hopes the option will be offered to all departments -- including his own.
"In our office, we have people who travel anywhere from 5 or 6 miles to a couple who are on the road 45 to 50 minutes," Rainone said. "As the price of gas rises, the level of grumbling rises."
Regular gasoline averages $3.94 a gallon in the United States, up 33 cents in the past month and 88 cents since the beginning of the year, the Energy Information Administration said this week.
The federal government has offered four-day workweeks to eligible employees for years as part of a flexible work program that also includes telecommuting.
But the surge in gasoline prices is pushing more private employers as well as local governments to offer a four-day week as a perk that eliminates two commutes a week.
In America's struggling automaking heartland, the shorter workweek offers employers a way of rewarding employees when the budget does not allow a salary increase, said Oakland County, Michigan, executive L. Brooks Patterson.
"By allowing employees to work four 10-hour days it will save them 20 percent on their commute costs and ease the financial pinch of filling up their cars," said Patterson, who last week proposed the compressed week for county workers.
Gasoline prices have begun altering U.S. commutes in many ways, a survey released on Thursday showed.
CHANGING HABITS
Some 44 percent of respondents said they have changed they way they commute -- doing things such sharing a ride or driving a more fuel-efficient car -- or are working from home or looking for a closer job in order to reduce gasoline costs, according to staffing services company Robert Half International. That's up from 34 percent two years ago.
On Long Island, New York, Suffolk County legislator Wayne Horsley also has proposed employees have the option of working four 10-hour shifts, rather than five eight-hour shifts, saying it would save 461 barrels of oil in a 120-day pilot project.
"This is a gasoline-driven proposition and we're looking to change people's long term philosophies of life," Horsley said.
The program, termed Operation Sunshine, will cut gasoline costs for workers who drive an average round trip of 32 miles to work. It also aims to cut the county's energy bill by having less employees in the office at a time, Horsley said.
In Oklahoma, a resolution is pending before the state legislature encouraging state agencies to implement flexible work schedules that would allow the four-day workweek.
"State employees are on fixed budgets and they are not usually the most highly paid in our society," said State Sen. Earl Garrison, a Democrat, who sponsored the measure in the Senate.
Some schools, including community colleges in rural areas where commutes are long and public transportation is scarce, already have plans to drop a day of classes, usually Fridays.
The school district in Marietta, Georgia, a city north of Atlanta, institutes a four-day week during June and July when schools are out and it is mostly administrative staff who are working, saving on air conditioning and water in addition to commuting costs for employees, said Thomas Algarin, director of communications at Marietta City Schools.
But a four-day workweek brings problems too. The state government in Ohio is bucking the national trend and canceling an 8-year-old policy that allowed a compressed workweek -- after complaints that no one was around to answer the phones and serve the public some days.
"There were just too many vacant seats on Friday," said Ron Sylvester, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services.
(Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago, Kevin Krolicki in Detroit, Marcy Nicholson in New York, Matthew Bigg in Atlanta, and Tom Doggett in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)
I'd be Russian back to work, because I am still Hungary. I don't want to be considered a Turkey.
So,Viet, then we went back to work.
A .410 would do a lot for me, too.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
“I’m doing my part. I shifted to a zero day week.”
Hey!!! Me too!!!
Me too... I hate that 30 foot commute - burns up too many socks!
I'd rather work four 12 hour days than five 8 hour days. I had a previous job with four 10s with 2 days off together and one day off in the middle of the week. That was nice as well. With more and more companies operating 24/7 or open seven days a week, it doesn't seem too difficult to break away from the traditional five 8 hour day work week.
Actually, the majority of keyboard-related jobs could be shifted into the home if Congress would provide incentives for employers doing so. This would be the BEST thing they could do other than 4 day work weeks AND expansion of our own domestic drilling. It would maximize our conservation of oil.
I did the air pistol thing for a while, all the way up to owning a top-of-the-line pistol (Steyr LP-10). It was fun shooting 10M AP at home, but ultimately not as satisfying as firearm shooting (and I’m really more of a plinker anyway). I sold the LP-10, but did keep an Izzy IZH-46M for informal target shooting and plinking. Its a great gun for the money.
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