Some Rural Students get 4-Day School Week Due to High Fuel Costs

Some rural students across the nation are getting what many of us working adults wish we could have – a four-day week. High fuel costs have made it extremely expensive for schools to manage paying for transportation and cooling. Cutting out one day per week has made it possible to avoid eliminating important school programs and to preserve staff in areas like Kentucky, New Mexico and Minnesota.

From Reuters:

“For rural school districts where buses may travel 100 miles round-trip each day, there certainly are transportation savings worth considering,” said Marc Egan, the director of federal affairs at the National School Boards Association.

Egan said about 100 schools in as many as 16 states have already moved to a four-day school week, many to save money on transportation, heating and cooling.

Nevada’s White Pine School District switched just one of its schools to a four-day week three years ago. Now, with energy costs soaring, four other schools in the district are following suit.

“We’re looking at it district-wide with energy costs being at the forefront of the conversation,” said Bob Dolezal, superintendent of Nevada’s White Pine County School District, which is facing a 14 percent budget cut due to a shortfall in state funding.

Damn, how I would have loved having a four-day week when I was in school. The Reuters article doesn’t specify how the schools make up for that lost time – longer days? Shorter summer? Either way, I bet the kids are thrilled to have a three-day weekend. Four-day school week FTW!

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Flickr user 416 Style

Some States Shorten Work Week to Save Gas

Great news! Americans suffering from high gas prices might get some relief in more ways than one. Several state governments are going the way of the four-day workweek in order to save gas, which will hopefully set an example for governments and companies across the nation. We’re big supporters of this idea for many reasons, and really hope it catches on.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Seeking to reduce state energy costs, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman announced Thursday that the state would close administrative offices on Fridays, while extending hours on Monday through Thursday.

The idea is to work longer during the week and reduce the amount of trips to and from work.

Following suit just in time for soaring summer gas prices is New York’s Suffolk County Legislator Wayne Horsley. His plan: Let employees work four 10-hour days from July 1 through Sept. 30.

And with no gas respite in sight, the concept is spreading to states such as California, West Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia.

But a 4-day work-week could create change that goes far beyond saving money and energy. According to an article in human resources journal Workforce Management, it could lead to “a revolution in the office that will result in productivity being the central value of work, rather the number of hours logged by employees.”

Just think of how nice it would be to have that extra day every weekend to relax, spend time with your kids, enjoy your favorite hobby, or get things done around the house. You would barely notice the extra 2 hours a day on the 4 days you’d have to work. It might just make you feel like you’re working to live instead of living to work.

Link [Wall Street Journal]

Why a Four Day Work Week Would be Good for America

Stress has permeated American culture. Heart disease is on the rise, more people are on anxiety meds than ever, people are jetting off to appointments and meetings all day long and even children have rigidly scheduled daily lives. We are a country that could really use a breather. Yet, our culture encourages us to work harder and longer, especially as the economy starts to falter.

Being exhausted, stressed out, anxious and overextended isn’t the only consequence of the tough American work week. Long commutes cause pollution and are a big drain on energy resources. As gas prices are rising, people are trying to find ways to cut back, but our country wasn’t built for mass public transportation and we still have to get to work. The solution that some people are promoting could have a positive effect not only on oil consumption, but American life in general: a four day work week.

The idea is taking root in communities around the country. From King 5 News:

The state of West Virginia is considering a four-day week for government workers there.

Working four days instead of five would mean 20 percent fewer trips to and from work, reducing gasoline consumption by an estimated 65 million gallons per day, not to mention more time with family, and for Mike Cummings, a bit more hope for the future.

“I think this would help with a lot of the planet’s problems, I think it would help with our oil problems and give them a little better life,” he said.

Marion County Florida recently switched to a four-day work week for county workers. They expect to save $250,000 in energy costs this year alone.

Would you work an extra two hours per day, four days a week in order to have a three day weekend? Doesn’t the system of living to work, rather than working to live, seem unfair to you? The idea that we have to spend so much of our lives away from our friends and family, doing things we most often don’t even like doing just so we can support ourselves is a difficult one to swallow, yet it’s the expected system in this country. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way.

The benefits of a four day work week wouldn’t just affect oil consumption and our stress levels. The increase in family time could be just what our culture needs, and people need to be able to cultivate interests outside of their employment. Imagine how much more well rounded we’d be as people if we spent that extra day volunteering in our communities, reading books, gardening, exercising and participating in other beneficial activities.

Nobody has identified and explained the benefits of a four day work week better than Aaron Newton at Groovy Green. He’s come up with not three, not ten but sixteen individual benefits to the idea. They include reduced oil consumption, reduced greenhouse gases, reduced worker exposure to pollutants, less traffic congestion, less money spent on roads, reduced personal expenses for workers, fewer auto accidents, less time spent in the car, a reduction in absenteeism, increased productivity, more time with family, decreased labor costs, decreased operational costs, reduced childcare costs, a transition into the informal economy and just plain being happier. Here’s a snippet of what he had to say about it:

Peak oil and climate change could make for turbulent business waters ahead. This country needs more business leaders willing to navigate these waters not by burdening their workforce with limitations or restrictions but with a willingness to try new strategies. Ideas such as this one should be strongly considered by corporate America or maybe it’s time for the Federal government to revisit this issue through law. New ways of working really could benefit both businesses and employees. It’s important in the time ahead not to simply saddle the workers of America with the rising costs of energy and ecological destruction.

There are lots options concerning the number of hours a 4 Day Work Week could contain. Employees could work 10 hours a day and keep a 40 hour work week. Or they could simply eliminate an entire day and drop down to a 32 hour work week. In between is the idea of working 4 days a week, 9 hours a day. But regardless of how many hours people work, the important part to remember is that most tasks are going to get accomplished each week just as they did before. A recent survey by salary.com of over 10,000 American workers revealed that on average, we waste more than 2 hours each day surfing the web or making phone calls to friends.

Increased productivity could be the clincher for companies, who tend to see everything according to the bottom line. Having happier employees that are more satisfied in their lives and grateful for a schedule that gives them more free time could certainly make a big difference. When employee morale is up, more work gets done – it’s simple.

Americans are already getting the short end of the stick when it comes to time off. Compared to other nations, we hardly get any vacation time at all, and when you look at perks like mandatory paid maternity leave and sick days, we look even more stretched and overworked. Employees in Germany, Austria, France, Britain, Spain and Sweden get at least 20 legally mandated days off per year. Doesn’t that make you feel like you’re missing out? Meanwhile, the companies we’re working for are making a profit off of our willingness to perform as ‘labor units’ rather than living, breathing people with lives outside of our work. The rich are growing richer, but those of us actually making the sacrifices haven’t seen our income increase in years.

So, how do we get started? Most of the companies in America won’t make the jump until larger corporations have proven it’s a success. Perhaps if some of those among the 100 Best Companies to Work for – Google, Edward Jones, Goldman Sachs and REI for example – started it up, we could see a trickle down effect as others began following their lead.

Besides that, people need to start demanding more benefits. Imagine if every employee in a major corporation got together and told their bosses they need more time off. Certainly, there are a lot of issues involved in making this switch and it wouldn’t catch on overnight, but even if only a fraction of American workers were able to negotiate a four day work week, we’d be better off overall.

Link [King 5 News] + [Groovy Green]

Photo credit: Flickr user Burning Image + 20th Century Fox