4-day work week seen as '21st century' schedule

Change may affect culture more than taxpayers' bottom line

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published September 12, 2008

• Comments (0)

Switching to four, 10-hour workdays is likely to change state government culture more than it will save taxpayers money, at least in the test run Gov. Chris Gregoire ordered this week.

"At least in this agency, because of what we do, everybody's very excited," said Allyson Brooks at the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

Visiting historic sites across the state is easier in a 10-hour shift than an eight-hour one, Brooks said. She said only two of her employees were opposed to the change, because of child care and health care needs.

And those people can work by computer from home to adjust their schedules, she said.

"I really look at this as a 21st-century employment. When you think about it, eight in the morning to five in the evening is really an industrial age, mid-20th-century way of doing business," Brooks said. "This is the modern age; you have Internet access, you have e-mail. I get way more e-mails than I get phone calls."

But hers is a small, research-oriented agency, with 25 employees in a building it shares with a sandwich shop and the Hands On Children's Museum on Olympia's Capitol Campus.

Gregoire ordered programs representing 650 workers, some of them in frequent contact with the public, to switch to a four-day workweek. State workers suggested it, Gregoire said, as a way to cut energy bills by turning off the lights and leaving the office empty on Fridays.

But many workers also see it as a more convenient schedule that has been limited to few positions.

"I work eight-, nine-, 10-hour days already. So to be told I don't have to come in one day a week, I would be thrilled," said Pam Meacham, a biologist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

And the actual energy savings from a four-day workweek are expected to be modest: perhaps $50,000 in a year, according to the Office of Financial Management.

"In the short term, the savings wouldn't be that great, because it's only a small sample of state government," said Glenn Kuper, spokesman for the office.