Four dollar gas means a four day work week for many

Across the U.S., businesses and governments are moving to a four day work week, to help employees save money and cut back on expenses. The national average for unleaded has reached yet another all-time high, and it looks like there's no turning back.

Leavenworth County, Kansas, is moving its Public Works Department's road crews to a four-day week. In Gove, Kansas, government offices will be closed on Fridays, allowing them to save on heating and cooling as well as gas. Companies in central Ohio are thinking about giving the four-day week a try. St. Francis University in Pennsylvania is allowing employees to work four-day weeks, as long as it doesn't interfere with services. The Birmingham, Alabama, Chamber of Commerce is letting its workers try it too, although the Birmingham News quotes one consultant saying it's good for morale as well as the bottom line, but it won't work for all types of industries.

In all these cases, workers will still work a full 40-hour week, they'll just work 10-hour days.

Other companies are trying other tactics, as the Wall Street Journal reports. Hewlett-Packard, for example, is quadrupling its videoconference room in hopes of eliminating 20,000 employee plane trips per year.