The state's four-day workweek appears to be gaining converts among employees, but not everyone's a firm believer.
A new survey by the Utah Department of Human Resource Management shows an increasing percentage of state employees are adjusting to and even embracing the compressed workweek.
But the Utah Public Employees' Association wants more information before passing judgment on the program.
"People have been pretty quiet about it," said Todd Sutton, employee representative for the UPEA. "We don't have complaints that it's a bad program."
But Sutton remains worried about how specific groups are handling the schedule, proposed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in June and launched in August as a cost-savings measure.
"We want to know specifically how this is impacting families with children, women with children and those with disabilities or special needs," Sutton said.
A demographic breakdown of survey results won't be ready until January, said Jean Mills-Barber, deputy director of the Department of Human Resource Management.
"It certainly looks as though things are improving," Mills-Barber said. "People are moving more to positive or neutral in terms of adjustment" to working four, 10-hour days a week.
Still, Sutton would like to see the broken-down numbers before endorsing the new schedule.
"I'd rather see those numbers than the rosy stuff," Sutton said. "We don't know what still needs to be done. We need to know whether the state is addressing certain needs."
The program is designed as a one-year pilot -- with 17,000 of the state's 24,000 employees on the new schedule. More than 6,400 workers responded to the most recent survey. Another is scheduled for February.
