A four-day workweek for Maine state employees?

Right now I work 4 10 hour days... I think were I work for a non profit it could help. However I work with clients and they need structure. I often find on Tuesday after a long weekend they are out of the reg. way of doing things.
It is a tough call but I like my 4 day work week. I find I am more productive. I also find many times if I am in on a Friday there is less to do than M-Th.

Energy, Gas and productiveness are 3 key points

How does this affect holidays if it falls on a "workday?"

Seriously? People are concerned about how to distribute a 40 hour work week?

My average work week is 60 to 65 hours spread over 6 or 7 days; it's not unusual for the hours to bulge to 75+ hours at least one week per month.

If somebody could convince my employer and our client that a 5 day work week is the goal, I would be _very_ happy.

Aside from 3 weeks of vacation where I actually shut off my phone and did not login to read mail, I have worked a minimum of 2 hours per day, nearly every single day, for the past 18 months.

I think this 4 day work week discussion is an irrelevant waste of time for most people in the private sector, many of whom are very happy to be holding on to their jobs let alone compressing their schedules.

Wouldn't that be such a wonderful idea!!! I have been discussing this with my husband for years now. How nice to be able to work for a company that can do this and also save on electricity, gas, oil, etc. I don't know about anyone else, but by the time Thursday rolls around, I can guarantee the majority of us have already worked close to the 40 hours anyways!
And while we are at it, what an even better idea it would be to CLOSE the stores on major holidays ie: Thanksgiving, Christmas. How sad that people are mandated to have to work on major holidays for a retail outlet that is greedy and makes almost nothing on these days. Talk about a waste of resources!
Families should be kept together, & doing the 4 day and holiday close would help!

Wouldn't that be such a wonderful idea!!! I have been discussing this with my husband for years now. How nice to be able to work for a company that can do this and also save on electricity, gas, oil, etc. I don't know about anyone else, but by the time Thursday rolls around, I can guarantee the majority of us have already worked close to the 40 hours anyways!
And while we are at it, what an even better idea it would be to CLOSE the stores on major holidays ie: Thanksgiving, Christmas. How sad that people are mandated to have to work on major holidays for a retail outlet that is greedy and makes almost nothing on these days. Talk about a waste of resources!
Families should be kept together, & doing the 4 day and holiday close would help!

I work for the Commonwealth in a professional capacity. I love the work I do and I love helping people who need our services. I do more with less and for less than if I worked in the private sector and I choose this. However, our wages have been stagnant while every other basic human necessity, including transport to work and health insurance seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. I don't see an end to these economic realitites but Maine and Utah's plans seems like something they Commonwealth could do to decrease its costs as well as mine. My productivity is monitored regardless of what hours I work. So long as it can be monitored, I think people should be able to choose a 4 day week or to work from home one day and I'm surprised that our "cutting edge" liberal government has to date failed to take any actions like Utah or Maine or at least spell out why this will not work here.

I can see this will work well in government offices and banks. They dictate the hours and the "customers" have to accept those hours. Take it or leave it!
But I have a hard time to see, if it will work in a small business like mine. I would love to implement a 4-day work week and so would my 25 employees. They would save money on gas and I would save money on utilities. But if my clients do not have a 4-day work week, they will go somewhere else.
I am very interested to know, if any small company have 10 hours/4days work week and how it worked out for them.

Seriously? People are concerned about how to distribute a 40 hour work week?

My average work week is 60 to 65 hours spread over 6 or 7 days; it's not unusual for the hours to bulge to 75+ hours at least one week per month.

If somebody could convince my employer and our client that a 5 day work week is the goal, I would be _very_ happy.

Aside from 3 weeks of vacation where I actually shut off my phone and did not login to read mail, I have worked a minimum of 2 hours per day, nearly every single day, for the past 18 months.

I think this 4 day work week discussion is an irrelevant waste of time for most people in the private sector, many of whom are very happy to be holding on to their jobs let alone compressing their schedules.

Honestly, I don't think this would ever work on the private sector. Working only 4 days a week would mean the US would mean a lot less competitive than other countries in the world. This is not France!!. If this gets more widespread, we really should not complain about outsourcing.

I work for a research lab where we have animals that need to be maintained and taken care of. Having a 4 day work does not work for us nor for our animals that need to be fed....

Would be nice if we went back to basically everything closed on Sundays and everyone spends the holidays at home. We might save energy, money, and maybe our families. What a concept.

I work for a very large Communications Co. and where we are open 24/7 365 the company has been able to allow a 4 day work week for employees that choose to do so. I am a single mom, so my choice to take a 4 day work week was based on the fact that I could spend more time at home, and not lose income I desperately need to raise my family in this unstable economy, with the cost of gas, energy and food ever increasing. I am able to work 3 week days and a Saturday. This has been a quality of life change for me. I am not rushing around 5 days a week worried about whether I am going to make it home in time to pick the kids up at the after school program and pay a dollar a minute for every minute after 6pm (I only have to do that three days now!), only to make dinner and bathe them and put them to bed. Not to mention my children are able to participate in play dates which they couldn’t when I worked M-F 8:30-5. I get to spend quality time with my family and that is really what is important.

I can see how the cities and towns of Massachusetts could benefit from this change regarding maintenance fees for the buildings, and if one of the days that things are open is a Saturday then, the people that can’t get their stuff done during the week because they work, would be able to do errands on a Saturday. Town Hall closes at noon of Friday anyway! I think this would be tremendous for the State of Massachusetts to consider.

I believe all businesses should implement a 4 day work week, with the exception of a few that cannot possibly operate this way - the savings on energy and resources alone should justify this.

I think a lot of you are missing the point. Flexible Work Arrangements are designed to lower costs for the employee while maintaining productivity. This is a great management tool when the cost of living is double and triple the average wage increase.
Of course this will not work in every environment, but, numerous organizations have implemented FWA's. The results, less OT and sick (of work) time, while improving morale and job satisfaction. If an organization is also able to yield small savings in hard costs thats a bonus.

It would be nice for workers, but, as far as green-ness goes; its cheaper in total to heat and light one building with 100 workers in it than it is to heat and light those people each in their own (100) houses. This solution is probably not very green.

It seems that a main argument for the 4 day work week is to save heating/cooling costs for the building. If only a partial staff was working, wouldn't you need almost the same amount of energy to keep the building open and working? Furthermore, if the office building was open later in the 4 working days, there would still be energy used then. Lights, heating, electricity etc. would still be on for the same 40 hours. You would of course still save on employee commuting costs.

To Pingo-

A number of years ago I worked for a landscaping company about the same size as yours and we worked 4 10 hour days. However, everyone did not work the same 4 days, different people had diferent off days and off days were not necessarily the same from week to week. I know this takes extra coordination but it worked rally well for the comapny and clients.