While I was on KMBZ/Kansas City today, their website's poll question was: "If your company offered you a four day work week, but you had to work 10 hours a day, would you take it?"
The question is based on the governor of Utah authorizing a yearlong experiment aimed at reducing the state's energy costs and gas expenses for employees, by having them go to the 4 days/10 hours plan, beginning next month. It doesn't affect cops, prison guards, or others who obviously have to be on the job every day, but about 17,000 state office workers will now get a lot of three day weekends.
Not surprisingly, nine out of ten respondents to the KMBZ poll said yes, they'd take that schedule. What isn't said is that a lot of Americans are already putting in ten-hour days on the job, five days a week, and taking work home or staying in touch with their business via e-mail and cell phones even when they're not at the office.
I'm reminded of a friend who put in more than 20 years with his company and earned 5 weeks of vacation per year. Instead of taking them as full weeks, he chose to break them up into 25 individual days. That allowed him to arrange an amazing schedule -- for ten weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day, he took off every Monday and Friday. That gave him a three day work week and a four day weekend, all summer long. And he still had another week of vacation to use in the winter.
Bud Light should use him as one of their Real Men of Genius: "Mr. Extra Long Weekend."Labels: columns