Photo by Hjem. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

The shift continues. A lot of North Carolina business are trying to find ways to help employees reduce some of the sting of high gas prices by encouraging all sorts of transportation alternatives and giving non-traditional bonuses. The News & Observer newspaper collected a lot of the efforts into one story, and the list is pretty amazing. As we noted the other day, a four-day workweek is becoming more common across the country, but the options in the North Carolina Triangle area are varied. Companies are offering telecommuting options and gas card bonuses, along with rewards for carpooling, premium parking spaces for hybrid or biofuel-powered vehicles. At least one company is getting extra smart and reducing the number of trips it is sending its employees on. Renting cars for employee trips - instead of reimbursing workers for taking their own vehicles, which costs more - is becoming more common. And those are just some of the options. I'm sure any newspaper in America could create a similar story to the one the News & Observer put together. It's just the way it is today.

[Source: The News & Observer via EVWorld]

Photo by Yandle. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

Some jobs easily lend themselves to telecommuting. Office work, for one, is easily done from home, as is any job that requires nothing but a phone. Oh, and that bizarre blogging thing. But custodial work? You might not be able to mop the gym floor from your bedroom, but that doesn't mean you can't figure out a way to stay home one day a week.

Reuters has a story about a shift in the U.S. to a four-day work week, just one more response to the recent jump in gas prices. The first group of people mentioned in the story is custodial workers at Kent State University. The idea isn't new, and some employers have long offered employees the chance to work four longer days of 10 hours each instead of five "normal" days of eight hours. Nowadays, though, workers are migrating toward the shorter work week, especially in rural areas where public transportation isn't an option and commutes can be long. One new idea that could also someday become a trend: the four-day school week.

[Source: Reuters]