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The Four Day Grind

August 14th, 2008
By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor

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While it has cropped up many times over the years, another unanticipated bit of fallout from surging energy costs has been a renewed interest in both telecommuting and the four day work week. Chrysler is looking into it again, Howard County, Md. has adopted it, along with Brevard County Community College in Florida, among others. Some of these early adopters are seeing benefits in the form of reduced energy costs at office locations and improved employee productivity and satisfaction. The workers also realize savings in gas and related expenses for work travel, less time spent commuting and more time spent with family.

Other employers are moving toward allowing eployees to work from home. Such telecommuters realize the ultimate savings in gas and flexibility of schedules. Neither of these systems, however, are without isses and concerns. Not all types of industries have work which can be done remotely. (If you’re the person who attaches widget number 217A to Frame Subsection B3, you really can’t do it from home.) Retail outlets, of course, can’t simply close down operations for an extra day per week without suffering losses of revenue. There are also concerns regarding productivity, particularly among younger workers in less responsible positions who may require more supervision.

So what do you think? Is this generally a boon or a bust? Or is it situational? We’ll be talking about that, and a few places which are experimenting with such plans today on Mid Stream Radio at 1 pm eastern, 10 am pacific. Feel free to stop by and share your thoughts.



This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 7:17 am and is filed under Blog Talk Radio, Social Commentary, Corporations, Society, Business. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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    I have visited a few industrial plants that experimented with 10 hour days. they said that they lost too much productivitiy. 10 hours of clock time equals 11 hours at the job and with commutes, a 13 hours days. they said that productivity fell off in the last two hours that it did not make up for the energy consumption.

    However, I could stores in the exurbs opening much later in the day during Monday through Thursday to save money.
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    I remember when BigOil was price-fixing gas over $5 a gallon here recently and on the news I'd see BigOil talking heads interviewed telling us to "stop complaining" "keep driving like usual" "I'm keeping MY SUV [implied: you're an idiot if you don't].

    I say, any activity that reduces the consumption of gasoline and any oil product is at the VERY TOP of my to-do list. If four-day workweeks cut way back on gas use. Do it.

    If trading in your SUV or keeping it parked just for off-road excursions and carpooling or using a second economy car most times keeps BigOil from profiting.. Do it.

    If switching to geothermal from coal and oil (or even nuclear) power plants cuts hugely into BigOil profits or their shareholding (in coal and nuclear)... Do it.

    Do every single possible thing you can think of to reduce the profits of BigOil. I don't like the fact that they're leading us into WWIII.
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    Where I work in Detroit metro we're on a 9-80 schedule; every other Friday we have off, a three-day weekend every other weekend. (If only gasoline were cheap again so I could take advantage of that and enjoy it!) Working nine or ten hours a day is commonplace, anyway.

    "Do every single possible thing you can think of to reduce the profits of Big[ ]Oil."

    Have you bombed any service stations yet or hijacked and destroyed any tankers?
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    "stores in the exurbs opening much later in the day "

    That would be ideal, too, in the Upstate NY city I lived in for two years; there are more people on welfare than ever there now. Let them sleep off the party of the previous night before opening the stores.
 
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