A four day work week in Virginia?
By JR Hoeft | Monday, September 20th, 2010 | Policy
I already thought state employees only worked four days? Might as well make it official.
“[Last] Monday, a commission created by Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) voted to approve that recommendation [a four-day, ten-hour per day, work week] as well as almost two dozen others to shave money from the state budget while making government more user-friendly and efficient.”
This gives state workers Friday off, but doesn’t reduce hours or salary. Some agencies, such as law enforcement and museums would be exempt from the governor’s reform commissions’ plan.
As long as the governor concurs with the recommendation, a four-day work week for state employees is as good as done, as the General Assembly doesn’t have to chime in.
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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6 Responses to "A four day work week in Virginia?"
I think they’d probably phase it in over a couple of years time. While there’s a lot to recommend the four-day week….extends service hours after most people have gotten off work, saves money by having the buildings closed on the weekends ….there are some complications that will need to be worked out. The most important being that it will throw employee’s child-care schedules into chaos.
I am all for reducing the cost of government, but I have to say I could care less about the daycare and dinner time considerations the workers need the state to help them with. Seriously?
If these people are so inflexible they actually need help to adjust 2 extra hours to their schedules I say just fire them and get some competent people in there(damn, that’s pretty harsh).
Additionally, there truly is no reason to extend the workday 2 extra hours, other than keeping them on a 40 hour week thusly still full time. All this says to me is no one is truly willing to reduce spending without upsetting the status quo.
Something unreported in the article was a need for state agencies to get an accurate audit of their real estate holdings because apparently the state does not know all the property it owns. I wonder how many private citizens out there are unaware of how much real estate they possess? You gotta love the government.
I don’t see why that’s so important, Colin. The governor didn’t think it was necessary to do an audit to decide what the state’s ABC business was actually worth before deciding to sell it $500 million.
And due to your comments on the employee situation I’d sumise that a) you’re young and don’t have any kids and b) you aren’t an employers or you’d understand what kind of employees that attitude toward the work force nets.
Well, you are correct about one thing Steve, I am not an employer. I would say the basis for my attitude(I call it a work ethic) is based on my experience as an Infantryman in the US Army and my many years of retail sales(full commission). Shouldn’t have to explain why the Army would make me view longer work days as not a big deal, but I will explain retail, because not everyone has worked in that industry.
In retail, you work when the customer wants to shop. If that is 10 pm on a Wednesday night, your store stays open till 11 pm. Conversely, many people feel their work(and in this case, the government) exists to give them a job, and if their company has to make any changes then it is the end of the world.
In my world, I am the customer of these state government offices that will be open 1 day less a week, Friday no less. That is not making things easier on the customer by any means. Now you can argue(and I do concede the point) that the offices being open 2 extra hours a day makes them more accessible, but I think it is a wash(unless they move the extra closed day to another weekday because I guarantee Friday is not their “slowest day”).
I am running long here but lastly, I understand the point is to save money. The largest percent of any budget is payroll, I just don’t see what savings are truly going to be realized unless we are willing to cut unnecessary jobs or hours.
Colin, both this administration and the previous administration HAVE cut the state payroll, both through attrition and layoffs. The state budget has been cut — that’s actual cuts not decreases in the rate of increase — over the past four years. The cuts are somewhere in the range of $7 billion. Richmond is NOT Washington. What the commission was trying to do here was to find some additional savings by thinking outside the box.
Valuable and fantastic things you got here. Keep posting! I am usually looking to learn on that issue.
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