Is Utah's experimental switch to a 10-hour-a-day, four-day work week for state employees something that Montana should copy? Well, it has a lot going for it.

Utah switched this month to the new system, working from Monday through Thursday, for a one-year trial. Most state workers (except for those providing essential services or operating a special information hot line on Friday) will work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with an hour off for lunch.

Some of the benefits are obvious. By shutting down on Fridays, the state should be able to cut its energy usage by nearly 20 percent. At the same time, state workers would shave 20 percent off their weekly commuting expenses - a big deal in an era of $4 gasoline.

And, of course, who wouldn't enjoy all those three-day weekends?

A big downside, on the other hand, is that while citizens would have more hours in which to access state services four days a week, they'd lose one whole day a week. Utah intends to mitigate that loss by providing services via its expanded online options, as well as the hotline providing information about how to use them.

There are plenty of other details to think about, such as figuring out how to keep annual holiday accrual whole and equitable and renegotiating lease agreements to accommodate the four-day schedule.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer's spokesperson, Sarah Elliot, said he has recently spoken with Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman about the new state hours, and "we're definitely interested to see how this works in Utah. We're definitely watching it."

A four-day work week isn't a new idea, but it's one that has seldom been implemented. Just maybe, given a new reality in which relatively cheap energy prices may be a thing of the past, that's about to change.