That's not precisely true. Most weeks, he works about 9/5.3.

This week, as state workers begin a shorter four-day workweek with longer 10-hour workdays, I decided to try to figure out how much Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. stays late, shows up early and works weekends. After all, the much-hyped, greenhouse-gas-reducing, Generation E-recruiting, corporate model workweek won't affect the Governor's Office - nor state prisons nor troopers. Everybody else, all 23,000 of them, will have to shift.

"You can kind of do the same old thing," Huntsman said a month ago, announcing the change at his monthly KUED news conference. "Or, you can move toward a new model, which is more efficient.

"I would be derelict if I didn't at least, for the next year, give it a go." By "I," he means "They."

This week, the governor and his staff will work as needed - much as they have in the past. After reviewing 52 weekly schedules - the public ones, not the real ones - I found:

* Nearly every week, the governor had at least one meeting, interview, parade or banquet to attend after 5 p.m. - including a globalization class he taught at the University of Utah. Many weekends, there was travel time or a church to go to.

* Few of the governor's official days started before 8 a.m. One exception was the week of the Crandall Canyon mine collapse.

* During the Legislature and campaign season, his schedule was crammed with political events - Lincoln Day dinners and weekend Republican county conventions.

* Many state holidays, he worked briefly - declaring Italian-American Day or going to the Pioneer Days rodeo in Ogden.

* Over the year, he took nearly 40 personal days, including a week at Christmas and more than a week to recover from shoulder surgery in April.

* And, he was willing to do almost anything, at any hour, for motocross and superbike.

Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley says the official schedule doesn't show all the governor's prep work, the speech practice, the late-night and early-morning phone calls. He's always on.

"He's governor 24/7," Roskelley said. "Even if he's just out to dinner with his family, he's still the governor. People still come up to him and talk to him about their concerns. And he does that willingly and happily. He's here to make the most of the time that he has as governor."

Still, the governor's office time looked like banker's hours many days. After all, he's a "family man," a point a scheduler reminded Coalition of Religious Communities members who tried for months to set up an after-work meeting.

Don't mess with the dinner hour.

This week, there are a few unusual tweaks in the governor's routine: Monday and Tuesday, his schedule starts at 7 a.m. and ends sometime after 5 p.m. The remaining three days are "personal" and the weekend is free.

Other state employees won't have it so flexible. Workers enrolled in college are shifting to night classes or have given up on school entirely.

Because some bus routes don't start before 7 a.m., many workers will climb into cars again - adding to the carbon emissions the governor is so worried about. And employees with children in daycare or elementary school have asked family members or neighbors to pick up and watch their kids.

"For me, it's a potential life-wrecker," one mom of young children wrote in an e-mail to me. She staggers her work schedule with her husband's.

"I do not think Governor Huntsman intends to discriminate against people with children, but I have noticed that most of the state employees who find it difficult to accommodate his mandate are the ones who have them. I cannot even imagine how a younger state employee could negotiate having a new baby with this schedule. So much for the idea that Utah values families."

Other state workers are thrilled.

"I am one state employee who is glad to have a governor not afraid to make a bold decision in a difficult time," wrote Vital Records Director Jeff Duncan in a Tribune letter to the editor. "Huntsman's plan is not without risk, and it will cause some hardship. But real leadership does not wait for opinion surveys and public forums."

The governor's pilot program will run for 12 months. At the end of that time, he'll decide if it's a hit or a flop. Huntsman and Human Resources managers boast that they've been called by Kentucky and Oklahoma.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is considering the switch. But Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter worries about cutting customer service; he's watching Utah's experiment.

"Are you going to hesitate based upon fear of the unknown?" Huntsman asked. "No state has done it writ large. We're going to be the first."

Just don't call the Governor's Office after 5.

walsh@sltrib.com