Next school year, Barrett is going to have to hire someone to send her children off to school because she is one of 17,000 state employees who on Aug. 4 shift to a four-day, 10-hour workweek.

"It's not just an issue for me," said Barrett, a supervisor in the Department of Health. "There are lots of us struggling with not being able to see our kids off to school in the morning or be home in the evenings when they come back. It's important for us to touch base with our kids."

Barrett said the transition from a traditional five-day, eight-hour workweek to a compressed one in which she will work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, would have been easier had it been handled differently.

"All of the sudden our lives are going to change without any input from us whatsoever," she said. "It's difficult to be told you are going to have your schedule and your life turned upside down and you have three weeks to figure it out."

That type of top-down management style is one of the steps Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is taking as he fulfills his campaign promise of running state government more like a business.

He didn't waste much time. Even before he took office in 2005, he overhauled the state economic development program by firing 33 people. He said the system he inherited was duplicative and inefficient.

Huntsman also has pushed out hundreds of services to the state's Web site, reasoning that renewing vehicle registrations, buying hunting licenses and filing income taxes online is more convenient for citizens and, at the same time, saves tax dollars.

The governor also centralized the state's computer operations under a Department of Technology Services and, in a somewhat controversial move, made the employees at-will, meaning they no longer had the civil-service protections traditionally enjoyed by public workers.

More recently, word leaked out that Huntsman was quietly moving to do the same with the entire state work force, abolishing the so-called "merit system."

That initiative, it appears, has been put on hold (see packaged link.)

Four days

When Huntsman announced his "Working 4 Utah" four-day workweek initiative, he did so to save on energy costs. Administrative Services Director Kim Hood says the state expects to be able to close about 1,000 buildings for an extra day a week under the plan, cutting energy use by about 20 percent and saving a projected $3 million a year when it's fully implemented.

Huntsman's plan is to try it for one year, after which it would be re-evaluated.

"We realize it's an adjustment, but the best way to do this was to get in the situation and work through it in a proactive and innovative way," said the governor's spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley.

For many state employees, it sounds like a good idea.

Of 2,117 responses to a new Utah Public Employees Association survey, only about 25 percent were upset while 75 percent were happy with the schedule. But of those who said they approved of the new workweek, many had questions about how to balance day care, second jobs or night school, said Todd Sutton, a UPEA employee representative.

Much of the criticism is aimed not at the program itself but at the take-it-or-leave-it implementation.

For a compressed workweek program to succeed, it needs three things: employee buy-in, flexibility and voluntary opt-in, says Markus Vodosek, an assistant marketing professor at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business.

"It's typically a good idea to communicate early on what the plan is. If you have open communication channels, it's much easier later on because people will point out the obvious kinks earlier on," he said.

Ajay Gupta, an income tax auditor, wishes communication had been early and two-way.

"Within my division alone, several employees are looking for other jobs now," he said.

Gupta, who is applying to programs to earn a master's degree in public administration, now worries his ability to attend night classes will be hurt.

Larry Scanlan, a manager in a Department of Health laboratory, worked for more than a dozen years in another state agency on a four-day workweek. After switching jobs he's been back to the traditional five-day schedule for three years, but looks forward to once again having his Fridays free.

"It gives me more flexibility in my own time, and we can be more productive in the lab," he said.

Scanlan applauds Huntsman for acting much like the boss of a private company in announcing a change and expecting people to adapt. "People have to make adjustments, certainly," he said. "But let's see how it is a year from now."

smcfarland@sltrib.com