The condensed work week

I saw an article about how some NJ towns are considering making their workers work condensed work weeks to save both the town and the workers' fuel costs. Nice idea, saving money is always good. But I have a better idea to save money. How about combining all the various municipalities and eliminate duplicate services/ bureaucracies first? We have thousands of different government entities on the state, local and county levels for our 21 counties. I bet the savings there, especially if you can combine several towns municipal buildings into one, will save way more money. Even better, the towns that find some of their essential services compressed for space, like a fire or police department, where the members need to be somewhat local, even if management is not, would be able to reuse the now abandoned buildings in lieu of building new space from scratch. In any event, with the savings from consolidation, government offices would be able to stay open 5 days and I as a citizen, who occasionally needs to do business with the government, will still have 5 days available to conduct my business.

Another issue I have with the condensed work week for government offices is the choice of day. What day will the offices be closed? The consensus seems to be Friday. As many who work in private offices or commute already know, Friday is already a very quiet day in the office because many choose that day to telecommute, including me. I also use my telecommute day to run various errands around town I can't do during the week, including interacting with my local government. How convenient they might close their offices the same day I'm home. Almost as if it's defeating the purpose of my not having to take time off to do errands I need to be physically home for.

Now some offices might remain open 5 days a week, but give workers the option to work condensed weeks to save them money. Great for the citizen who wants that 5th day, and I suppose it would save government some money as people could share desks or offices use electricity by not having as many workers on one particular day, but I wonder how much money the workers, especially those with children, will really save. It sounds more like a feel good proposal to me. Though not really the state's concern, what will the longer/condensed work days do to childcare etc? Will the cost savings people think they are getting in gas equal what they will have to shell out in, perhaps, paying babysitters extra money, paying someone to take a child (or anyone who can't drive) to an after hours event, ordering takeout, because there are not enough hours to cook etc?

I tired a condensed work week for a time and hated it. Perhaps it would've been ok if I had a shorter commute, but it just made a long day even longer. I felt like, for 4 days a week, all I was doing was getting up, going to work, coming home, going to be, rinsing and repeating. If I was making double my salary, it might've been tolerable as I could hire people to do the mid week chores I was saving till the weekend, but I wasn't so things just piled up. Not a way to live. Fortunately, my office also offered telecommuting which, though lonely at times, I appreciated much more. It gives me a life during the week and I end up working a longer day at home as I use my commuting time for work.

Back in the day, when the 8 hour work day was established, the theory went that the day was divided into thirds: 8 hours for work, 8 hours for leisure (though some wouldn't count commuting time as leisure, my 2 hours or so of NJ Transit travel each commuting day are pretty much the only two hours I get read and listen to the radio in peace) and 8 hours to sleep. With a 2 hour and change commute, a 10 hour work day would entail me leaving my house at 6:30 and not returning home until around 8 PM. Forget Little league, the gym, meals withmy children, after school events and any weeknight activities I might want to partake in. What good is a 3 day workweek if I don't have the time to enjoy a few hours during the rest of the week? Obviously, rising fuel prices might make my argument moot, as will more services being made available online, as taxpayers are forced to accept either higher taxes or a 4 day week, or the global economy makes different demands that make it reasonable to have an office open many more hours than just 9-5, but for those thinking how great a 3 day weekend will be: be careful what you wish for.