A Four-day Week

Fancy a three-dayweekend一not just once in awhile but week in week out? You may think your bosses would never agree toit,but the evidence suggests that

employers,employeesand the environment all benefit.

The four-day weekcomes in two flavors.One option is to switch from five 8-hour days to four10-hour days,meaning overall hours and salaries stay the same.Two years

age,the state of Utah moved all of itsemployees,apart from the emergency services,to working 4/10,as it has becomeknown.The hope was that by shutting down buildings for

an extra day eachweek,energy bills would be cut by up to a fifth.

The full results ofthis experiment won't be published until October,but an ongoing survey of 100buildings suggests energy consumption has fallen by around 13 percent. The

survey also foundthat 70 percent of employees prefer the 4/10 arrangement,and that people lookfewer days off sick.

The second form ofthe four-day week is to work the same number of hours per day for four daysonly,with a 20 percent pay cut. With the recession hutting revenues ,

accountancy（会计工作） company KPMG announced inFebruary that it was offering its 11,000 U.K. employees the option of afour-day week to avoid job losses.So far

85 percent ofemployees have applied to join the scheme, and 800 now do a four-day week.

Not everyone willlike the idea of working longer days or taking a pay cut in exchange for a3-day weekend,but it appears most do.According to Rex Facer at Brigham Young

University inProvo,Utah,it was the crash of 1929 that led to the five-day week.During thenext big financial crisis in the 1970s,there was much talk of moving to afour-day

week,but for avariety of reasons that didn't pan out."Things are differentnow,"says Facer."I wouldn't be surprised if we could get 50 percentor more of the workforce

working four-day weeksin the next few years."

By carrying outthe four-day week experiment,the state of Utah aims to_______.

A.reduce energyexpenses

B.boost thecompanies' productivity

C.provide longerweekend

D.increase energyefficiency