This is a rant....be warned.....

My 48 cases for this week. And yes I have to read every scrap of paper.

As many of you know I work for a state agency for the State of Utah. During the tenure of Governor Huntsman he changed the work day from five days a week, eight hours a day, to four days a week, 10 hours a day. Although it took some adjustment at first, me and most of my co-workers found the new schedule to be a HUGE quality of life issue, especially at a time when budgets were getting leaner, and the cost of health benefits was going up. It was an inexpensive way to boost moral for state employees.

In addition it was a cost saving, one day less to heat/cool the buildings, and less electrical power due to lights and computers that were not turned on Friday. It made the commute better too because state workers were going in earlier, leaving later, which spread the traffic out during commute time.

In my office over the course of the last five years we have become more efficient. We have a case load that it inverse to the economy. In other words when the economy is bad, our case load increases, SIGNIFICANTLY. With the new 4/10's we still had the same 40 hours in a week that we were required to work, but I noticed an increase in efficiency because come Thursday afternoon you could not put it off until Friday, you were putting it off until Monday and with our federally imposed deadlines, putting it off three more days had a large impact. In addition our office was open from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For those citizens who needed access to our services and worked a standard work day of 8-5 Monday through Friday, it meant that they could access our services without having to take time off work, if they were willing to adjust their schedule to either come in prior to work or after work.

Now the Utah Legislature has decided that the State needs to return to a five day a work week in order to better serve residents. Phooey I say. I have been reading some of the comment boards on the news websites, and in my opinion the argument that 4/10's was not serving the residents of the State is without merit. Yes, you can't go in on a Friday, but the State has expanded hours Monday through Thursday and has really made a commitment to technology that allows residents to access government 24/7. Change always call for a new way of thinking, a new way of doing business, and quite often the new way becomes the better way.

Many of the comments I read were from individuals who had "forgotten" until Thursday night that they needed a particular State service, and were frustrated that they then had to wait until Monday. Even under a Monday through Friday model individuals will still "forget" and things have to be pushed to Monday. Much better than "forgetting" is recalling and planning. And if you do "forget" acknowledge your choice not to take a more proactive steps to prevent "forgetting."

Now I don't know about you, but I really don't have a huge call for state services on a routine basis. I don't make it a point of hanging out in government offices, unless of course they are paying me to do my job, and that's a different story. But during the course of the last year I had to access both the DMV and the Driver's License Division. (In Utah they are not housed together, its two separate places.) I think once yearly visit to both of those divisions is probably pretty standard for most residents.

Lets start with the DMV. I had a vehicle whose registration had expired. First stop, safety and emissions. Passed both. For a fee of $5.00 the safety and emissions people would submit my registration information, print me a temporary tag, and my actual tags would be mailed to me. I elected to skip that fee, because I knew I could accomplish the same thing, without the extra charge. So later that evening around 10:00 p.m. I got on-line with the DMV. I entered my licence plate number, my vehicle registration number, the numbers from my safety and emissions, paid my registration fee via credit card, and the DMV website spit out to my computer a temporary registration until my new one arrived in the mail. Never did I grace the steps of their door. Never did I wait in line. Never was I inconvenienced by the four day a week. Furthermore if more people would register their vehicles using this WONDERFUL technology then the lines at the actual DMV, for individuals who CAN'T accomplish their registration on-line, would be significantly less. And guess what you can register your car at 3:00 a.m on Sunday morning if you so desire. It makes no difference when the office is open or closed because the website runs 24/7. How did I know about this secret tool??? Was this inside information? NO! When I received my annual letter from the DMV telling me my registration was set to expire, it also informed me that I could complete "express registration" over the Internet. In fact I would say the letter actually encouraged me to use the "express registration." I did not want to disappoint the sender of my letter so I availed myself of this technology, and was delightfully happy with my experience.

Next stop Driver's License Division. I had a name change last year due to my divorce, so I needed a driver's license that reflected my new legal name. Before even braving the office I got on-line to their website, to determine what paperwork I needed to take with me in order to prove myself to the State of Utah. The website was full of all sorts of helpful information, and told me every piece of documentation I would need to bring with me. The website also allowed me to print the forms I would need to fill out, so I could come prepared with my forms completed. Finally the web site allowed me to make an appointment. I made an appointment. I showed up to the Driver's License Division at my appointed time of 4:00 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon, armed with my identification paperwork, and my forms filled out. Upon entry into the building, there were two lines, one for individuals who walked in and were filling out paperwork and one for individuals with appointments. The walk-in line was very long. The appointment line had no one it in. I cruised to the front of the appointment line, past about 20 people waiting in the walk-in line and went immediately to the next window, while those in the walk-in line sneered at me. I sneered back and thought to myself "SUCKERS. Get on-line, make an appointment, and don't be dogging on my organized self."

I was in and out of the Driver's License Division within 20 minutes on a Thursday afternoon at 4:00 p.m.

I also had occasion this last year to come in contact with the State Tax Commission, and The Office of Professional Licences. Both of these contacts started out by a visit to the web site where the majority of my questions were answered. The follow up was a brief telephone call that took about 10 minutes each. Was my life in anyway inconvenienced by these offices not being open on Friday??? No! I looked at the web sites at night, and made my telephone call during my morning break at work.

The State of Utah is so progressive in its use of technology to enhance the services it provides the residents. And that use of technology is not limited to just DMV or driver's license services. Most agencies have a significant amount of information and access available on-line, as in 24/7 on-line. My agency probably conducts a good 70% of its business on-line, as in 24/7 on-line.

Get with the program folks, you don't need the state agencies to be open another day, you just need to fully use and avail yourself of the services currently offered.