This caught my eye when I saw it in USA TODAY earlier this week. I guess it wasn’t talked about, so we’ll talk about it Friday.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s four-day workweek for state employees isn’t saving the state as much money as Gov. Jon Huntsman’s staff thought it would when Utah became the first state in the country to adopt the compressed schedule to try to reduce energy consumption.
In August, Utah began the one-year pilot program and shut down most of its services on Fridays in an effort to save $3 million on utilities and cut energy consumption in state buildings by 20 percent.
“At this point, I think the $3 million should be considered a stretch,” Kim Hood, executive director of the Department of Administrative Services, told lawmakers Wednesday. “I think we need the full year of a pilot program to determine what the savings are going to be.”
However, employees occasionally coming into work on Fridays, unpredictable temperatures and energy prices, and individual electricity use habits of state workers in buildings that may need to be made more energy efficient has made reaching that goal unlikely this year, lawmakers were told.
“It’s one we feel like we can reach. I don’t know that we can reach it in the first year,” Hood said. “This is a target and in order to reach that target, it’s not just … enough to close down our buildings to business on Friday. We have to work hard at reducing our energy use.”
Exact figures on cost savings were not available Wednesday.
Huntsman and other Western governors had previously set a regional goal of increasing energy efficiency 20 percent by 2020 when he made the switch to a four-day week.
The move was made by the governor with little-to-no input from state workers, residents or lawmakers and was one of the boldest initiatives he took during his first four years in office. Huntsman is increasingly trying to frame himself as part of a new breed of Republicans that consider the environment a top issue, even in a state where many of his GOP colleagues believe global warming is a hoax.
Instead of having employees working eight hours a day, five days a week, Huntsman ordered about 17,000 of the state’s 24,000 executive branch employees to begin working four days a week, 10 hours a day.
Initially, Huntsman’s staff set a target of closing 1,000 of the state’s 6,000 buildings on Fridays. College campuses, court houses, liquor stores, veterans hospitals and emergency services remain open on Fridays.
The four day work week isn’t working to perfection? NO! I DON’T BELIE…wait, we knew this was going to happen. You know why? Because 40 hours of energy is 40 hours of energy, and when you combine those 40 hours into four days and then leave the potential for stray energy to be consumed on the fifth day, you are going to generate a great possibility of exceeding your previous budget.
The impact on energy use may not be as big as expected, but I would imagine that it has had a positive impact on traffic by spreading the commute over more hours and taking cars off the road one day a week.
Tyler,
Your response is not an accurate reflection of the article. The article suggests that the four day workweek is saving money – just not a much as was hoped. You response suggests that the four day work week is costing us more than the five day work week was.
There’s a big difference between “costing us more than before” and “saving us less than we hoped.”
David,
I am going to have to agree with Tyler’s interpretation here. Politicians, especially one’s like Gov. Huntsman, are amazingly proficient at straining at gnats and swallowing camels.
If there were meaningful savings, Gov. Huntsman would call the program revolutionary.
If there were really nominal savings, Gov. Huntsman would claim that it had worked as anticipated.
If there were practically no savings (perhaps a meaningless amount), Gov. Huntsman would say, it was “saving us less than we hoped.”
Tyler is right. 40 hours of energy is 40 hours of energy.
Gov. Huntsman FTL.
Jesse,
Politicians are also proficient at claiming solvency not originally sought when the initial goals fail.
Gov. Huntsman FTL.
As a SL valley I-15 user, I have not noticed any difference in traffic levels since the 4 day work week began.
Is there a link to the article? There just seems to be something missing here.
I agree that 40 hours of energy is 40 hours of energy but there is still a gap between what Tyler said and what the article said. He should at least acknowledge that he is not quoting the article and that he does not take it at face value.
My experience has been that busses have very few riders on Fridays since the 4 day workweek started – I doubt that saves us any energy.