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’m doing my part. I shifted to a zero day week.
For once I’d be happy. Come Friday I’m usually already at 42 or more hours.
I hope that was a voluntary shift.
4-10s is the way to go! I loved that schedule, even if you occasionally had Sat, Sun and Wed off.
Wish we’d do that. Hell, I already work 10 hour days for the most part. lol
78 have taken us up on it,
And on day 5 they jump in their boat and run 30 gallons of gas through the motor.
“4-10s is the way to go!”
Couldn’t agree more. Long weekends all summer. Time for side jobs in the winter. (Back when I was in construction.)
I work 9 hour days with every other Friday off.
Doesn’t save me any gas though. Instead of driving 6 miles to work on that Friday, I drive 30 miles to a shooting range!
Yes, almost 9 years ago. I anticipated these fuel prices and retired early.
The reason is simple: Three day weekend!
duh...
30 gallons is 15 minutes at high speed (100+) in my boat
Horsley is IGnorant. That's right, a Capital IG.
And we LIKE it that way.
I shifted to working from home.
Happy hour starts a little earlier than it used to.
LOL! Me too! Counted up how much more money I was spending on ammo and gas, had to restrict myself (some)on those Fridays off.
Thinking about a high end air rifle or pistol I can shoot in the back yard.
I think a lunchtime commute home would finnish the day for me.
Or they can play 18 Holes THREE times that weekend. I ALWAYS “save” money on long weekends./sarc
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