“Employees enjoy switch to 4-day workweek High gas prices cause change”
A spike in gas resulted in companies to switch from working a 5 day to a 4 day work week for many of their employees. Once the gas prices hit the $4/gallon price, employees actually started to request the change so that they could save money on fuel costs. After companies started to investigate pros and cons from switching to a 4 day work week, a lot of companies decided it was time to make the offer to their staff. Most manufacturing and operating companies are now working 4 days a week and 10 hours per day. The staff seem to really enjoy the change. This was helpful to the staff because they were able to cut costs on fuel and they were also able to enjoy an extra day off while still working their 40 hour work week. This helped the companies out because they were able to cut costs on energy and they also didn’t need as many supervisors. (Employees enjoy switch to 4-day workweek High gas prices cause change” Valerie Whitney –Business writer. Daytona Beach News - Journal, The [Daytona Beach, Fla] 20 Nov 2008: A.14.) I thought that this was a great article. They had great reason to make the change to a 4 day work week. I feel that this could be useful in my proposal paper.
“Montco; eyes 4-day; week; A four-day workweek” [Derived headline]
State and local governments are considering switching to a 4 day work week. The reason is not only to save employees on fuel costs but also the government as well. The office in Montgomery County has 29 employees and they decided it was time to make the switch. Instead of being open from 8:30 to 4:15 they extended their hours. The Employees who were in favor of making the change in other states say it's a win-win for local governments. They say it can save on utilities and operating costs with fewer employees at work. ( Montco; eyes 4-day; week; A four-day workweek [Derived headline]
The Intelligencer [Doylestown, Pa] 30 June 2008: B.1) I thought that this was a good article in the fact that not only are they helping save money for employees, but for the government as well. I do feel that some of the information from this article could be useful in my proposal topic.

“Fluor Will Test 4-Day Workweek for the Summer”: [Orange County Edition]
Mark Krouse, director of human resources for the Irvine-based engineering and construction, decided that he wanted to try an alternative schedule for all of his staff. He decided that making the change would happen during the summer time when the employees would enjoy the extra time off to see how the change would go. Krouse said that for any employees who could not manage the new schedule, they would have to go back to working the schedule they previously had before the change. Krouse said that he would not be able to go to 4 days a week working 10 hours a day because that would not benefit the company. With the new schedule, employees will work 9 hour days from 6:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 8 hours on the Fridays that they work. After conducting a survey they found that 94% of the employees enjoyed the change. (Fluor Will Test 4-Day Workweek for the Summer: [Orange County Edition] Berkman, Leslie. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext) [Los Angeles, Calif] 29 May 1990) I thought this was also a great article and really enjoyed how they found alternative schedule so that they could make the compressed schedule work. I do not know that I personally would like the schedule that was imposed. I do however feel like this article could be helpful when writing my proposal paper.

“4-Day County Workweek Hits Snag Labor: Key departments ask to be exempted from plan. It was intended to save up to $1 million a year.” : [Ventura County Edition] County Personnel Director Ronald Komers said that many of the Ventura County government's largest departments are asking to be exempted from the 4 day work week. This could result in the county losing money that it saves by having a compressed work week. He said that there are about 2000 out of the 6500 employees that will still work a compressed work week. They had thought that if they could make the change for all of the employees and shut the facility down on Fridays that it could save the county $650,000 to $1 million dollars annually. However, if not all of the employees are willing to make the change and they only get 2000 to work the compressed week they will actually only be saving about $400,000 annually. After reviewing the pros and cons, they decided that it was not worth it to make the change to a condensed work week and that they needed to be open 5 days a week for customers. Komer’s said that he hopes that they will review the information again at some point and hopefully see that he benefits will outweigh the problems. (“4-Day County Workweek Hits Snag Labor: Key departments ask to be exempted from plan. It was intended to save up to $1 million a year. : [Ventura County Edition] Daunt, Tina. Los Angeles Times” (pre-1997 Full text) [Los Angeles, Calif] 29 May 1993) I really enjoyed how this article stated the amount of savings that could be made by switching to a compressed 4 day work week. I was not as excited about the fact that the proposal was turned down. I think that there would be ways to work around the problems that they feel arose when talking about the situation. I feel like this article could help with my proposal paper in the way that I can show the amount of savings that could be made depending on the situation.
“Utah's 4-Day Workweek Gets Attention; Other States Express Interest in How the Experiment Might Save Them Money”
New York State Rep. Michael N. Gianaris, is a Democrat who estimated that his state would save $30 million by switching to a four-day week. Gianaris said that Utah changed to a 4 day compressed work week last year and saved $3 million on gas costs and $200,000 on janitorial contracts. Also, complaints about offices being closed have decreased and wait times at the DMV have lessened because they have extended their hours so that that they can still maintain a 40 hour workweek. The governors’ office said that other states are actually interested in the money being saved and have called to ask questions. SO far the employees and customers seem to really like the change but they do plan to set aside a time to review the changes and decide if it is something they will continue with. (“Utah's 4-Day Workweek Gets Attention; Other States Express Interest in How the Experiment Might Save Them Money” By:Brock Vergakis. The Washington Post [Washington, D.C] 01 Mar 2009: A.3.)
I felt this this article was a little short and could have gone into a little more detail. I am not sure that I will be able to use this article for my proposal paper because it is based on a state-wide decision.
“Alternative workweek draws mixed responses” City Manager Scott Sellers brought the proposal before the Kilgore City Council, describing how a 4/10 schedule for municipal employees could possibly provide better customer service for local residents. About 39% of the employees thought this would be a good idea, 42% were completely against the idea and the rest of them were undecided and wanted a trial run. They decided that sending out a survey to everyone would be the best option. Seller’s said that he did realize the difficulties in the citizens being childcare for 10 hours a day, moms/dads getting off work at 6pm, picking up their children and then getting home to make supper. (“Alternative workweek draws mixed responses” By: Draper, James. McClatchy - Tribune Business News [Washington] 28 Apr 2012.) I feel like when they sent out the survey to see if people would like working the compressed schedule, they did not give the employees/citizens enough information on pros/cons. I do not think I will be using this article for my proposal paper.

References:
“4-Day County Workweek Hits Snag Labor: Key departments ask to be exempted from plan. It was intended to save up to $1 million a year. : [Ventura County Edition] Daunt, Tina. Los Angeles Times” (pre-1997 Full text) [Los Angeles, Calif] 29 May 1993
“Alternative workweek draws mixed responses” By: Draper, James. McClatchy - Tribune Business News [Washington]
“Employees enjoy switch to 4-day workweek High gas prices cause change” Valerie Whitney –Business writer. Daytona Beach News - Journal, The [Daytona Beach, Fla] 20 Nov 2008: A.14.) 28 Apr 2012.
“Fluor Will Test 4-Day Workweek for the Summer:” [Orange County Edition] Berkman, Leslie. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext) [Los Angeles, Calif] 29 May 1990 “Montco; eyes 4-day; week; A four-day workweek” [Derived headline] By: The Intelligencer [Doylestown, Pa] 30 June 2008: B.1
“Utah's 4-Day Workweek Gets Attention; Other States Express Interest in How the Experiment Might Save Them Money” By:Brock Vergakis. The Washington Post [Washington, D.C] 01 Mar 2009: A.3.