Utah’s 4-day Work Week

Last year, the state of Utah mandated a four-day work week for state employees. The salaries and number of hours each worker put in remained the same as the workday became longer, but offices were closed on Fridays.

After 12 months, Utah's experiment has been deemed so successful that a new acronym could catch on: TGIT (thank God it's Thursday). The state found that its compressed workweek resulted in a 13% reduction in energy use and estimated that employees saved as much as $6 million in gasoline costs. Altogether, the initiative will cut the state's greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 12,000 metric tons a year. And perhaps not surprisingly, 82% of state workers say they want to keep the new schedule.

Even those who do not work for the state have benefitted since offices are open later Monday through Thursday. Other states and businesses are looking at the results and may possibly try the schedule out. Link -via Digg

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What about parents with kids in school. Don't they have increased babysitting costs with an extra hour in the morning and evening for all school aged children?

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I live in Utah and let me tell you, this is a huge benefit. Aside from the savings to the state and carbon emissions, we have a more efficient government. Perhaps places like the DMV have lost a whole day and added that traffic to the other 4 days, but waiting times have remained even, and service seems better. Most employees who work it are extremely pleased with the longer hours as they get Friday off. I know, I am one of them. I have so much more energy to work during the week after a 3 day break. If you search the internet, it is full of kudos and interest as to how well this has worked here. And now the Utah legislature is talking about ending this practice for the new year. Once again, there are those blind legislators who defy logic and reason to ... to what? There is no reason to end this!

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Another addition is that comming in that early cuts the commute time down as the traffic is much less.
I was able to do this in the past and it was great. I'd vote for Mondays off instead. Gives you time to recover from the weekend.

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Why not work a couple more hours each day and have a extra day off!! It makes complete sense.