I haven’t read the entire thread, but I used to work a 4/40 schedule. At the time, my one-way commute was 70 miles. I saved a lot of money by not having to drive one day per week.
Another advantage was the long weekends. When I worked 4/40 schedule I had more time to read and work on hobbies. Since I stopped working that schedule I seem to have almost no time for such things. Long weekends also enabled me to travel a bit. A couple of times I took off to Utah just because I had the time to. If I still worked 4/40, I would be going all over.
I think that businesses could easily adjust to a 4/40 schedule if they had any imagination. While our small office had to work the same days for reasons that are unimportant to this discussion, larger businesses can have half of their employees work Monday through Thursday, and the other half work Tuesday through Friday. Or some people could work M-Th, some could work Tu-F, some could take a day off mid-week (e.g., Wednesday), and some could opt for a five-day week. I would have each employee choose a schedule that meets business needs, and stick to it. (i.e., take the same day off each week, rather than having it “float”; and the schedules would have to be approved by the department managers so as to ensure coverage for the whole week.)
Better still, I think that telecommuting should be encouraged. I am perfectly able to perform my job remotely. If I was telecommuting I would save about $150/month in fuel costs. If everyone else whose job could be done remotely telecommuted, they would save money not only for themselves, but also for those who did have to be on the road. How? By not being on the road, the roads would be less crowded. This would allow drivers to operate their vehicles more efficiently. If we had millions of people not driving, we could reduce or even eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. The environment would be better off because pollutants would be reduced dramatically. Telecommunications technology would improve by leaps and bounds, becoming faster and cheaper as demand requires it. Telecom infrastructures would be upgraded.
Working parents could be at home with their children. While this could be seen to negatively impact the ability to work, I think that ultimately less time would be lost due to child issues. Also, I think people would be less inclined to take sick days; not only because they can work from home whilst they are sick, but also because they would work harder and longer to prove that telecommuting is viable and that they are not abusing it.
In addition to gasoline and maintenance on your vehicle, how much do you spend away from home? Unless you pack your lunch, you’re liable to go out. In the area where I work ten or fifteen dollars is not uncommon for a lunch. (I typically pay $7 to $12.) That’s roughly $200 a month in lunches, when just grabbing something out of the fridge costs much less. Less expensive clothing could be worn, reducing clothing costs. If you’re not wearing clothes that have to be dry-cleaned, then you save on dry cleaning costs.
Going to the market could be done on your lunch hour, saving time in the evening. Errands that require taking time off from work could similarly be done.
Meetings could be conducted on a conference phone (all of our meeting rooms have speaker phones for just this reason) or even by videoconferencing.
Businesses would save millions by having much smaller offices. The company I work for just built a large, multi-building campus in a fairly expensive part of town. Our division is renting two floors of a large building. With telecommuting, the new campus would not have been necessary. Employees coming into the office could fit into the rented floors, or a much smaller “campus” could have been built which would have saved tens of millions of dollars. (Incidentally, our mainframe and Unix are located in Texas; so the company as a whole is “telecommuting” already.)
Quality of life would increase. Everyone knows how much I hate living in Southern California. If I could telecommute I could live up in Washington. Thus I would not only save money by not driving to work (gas, oil, insurance, maintenance), but my living expenses would be cut by 20% to 50% (depending on if I rent a house, or buy one). Plus, I would be in a place where kayaking, hiking, camping, etc. are closer, easier and better. This would reduce health care costs by allowing me to live a healthier lifestyle. A healthy, happy employee is a good employee! (Not that I’m not a good employee now, of course!)
So I’m all for a 4/40 schedule and for telecommuting. Sign me up!
