Rocky Road To Four-Day Week

Everybody’s doing it, right?

The “it” being the four-day week. As in everybody is moving to, or at least experimenting with, the four-day week.

Well, not exactly everybody!

Also, everybody likes the idea of working a 10-hour day, four-days a week, right?

Well, not exactly everybody!

So who is doing the four-day week, and how’s that working out?

Governments in Utah, Washington State, Hawaii, and Wayne County, N.C., are experimenting with the four-day week. That’s a start and that’s impressive. But it isn’t exactly everybody. It doesn’t include places like the U.S. Government, the nation’s largest employer. Or Wal-Mart, one of the largest employers, or WFED where I work.

In fact, most places aren’t on the four-day week yet. And it may be awhile before they are.

So when is Uncle Sam the nation’s largest single employer going to get with the program?

Answer: It may be awhile.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has said the government ought to give as many employees as possible the option of working a 4-day week. He believes it would boost moral, save energy, make for a more efficient workforce and maybe ease metro Washington’s nightmarish a.m. and p.m. rush hour gridlock.

The Office of Personnel Management says there would be major problems if most feds went to the 4-day week.

Actually, they are both right. A voluntary four-day week would probably help in all the areas Hoyer cites. And it could be a pain to administer, and create some serious service and safety gaps, under OPM’s worst case scenario.

For the record, Uncle Sam has tried the four-day week before. The push then wasn’t so much energy conservation, or even traffic. It was sold then, on an experimental basis, as something that would improve employee morale and, by the way, service to the public. Like IRS and Social Security offices could have extended hours to serve the public. Or even be open on Saturdays. Problems like the law requiring overtime pay after an 8-hour day had to be ironed out.

Suffice to say the program fizzled after awhile. Agencies had a tough time getting people to work on Saturdays, and the public didn’t respond in large numbers to the extended hours. Also, many employees at the time complained that they could barely stand eight hours and that putting in another two hours would drive them around the bend. And mess up their off-duty schedules.

But the final straw, if memory serves, came on the day when some member of Congress – or a high-power House or Senate staffer – called a federal office with an important inquiry. It was a Friday. He couldn’t reach his normal agency contact, so he tried somebody else. No answer. Then somebody else. No answer. And so on. Eventually he concluded (correctly or not) that everybody there was on the four-day week and their weekend was Friday-Saturday-Sunday. Does that ring a bell with anyone?

And how does the four-day week strike you? Would it work for you? Would it work for the public? Let us know and we’ll let them – the powers-that-be – know.

For a look at how the four-day week is going in other places, click here.

Nearly Useless Factoid

According to the TechnologyBB.com‘s “Long List of Weird Science Facts”, a full moon always rises at sunset.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

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