High gasoline prices pushed Chapel Hill marketing agency Koroberi to rethink the workweek. This summer the agency's 30 employees can take every other Friday off -- reducing commuting time and expenses by 10 percent. The staff has dubbed the program "Green Fridays."

"We have a lot of younger staff members, and they drive an average of 30 miles a day. It was becoming an issue for them," said Koroberi's president, Kathryn Olive. "What drove me over the edge is we lost one of our really valuable staff members who got a new job because he couldn't afford the extra price of gas."

The four-day workweek isn't a new concept. In a nationwide survey of human resource professionals conducted in February, 59 percent reported that their companies offer some sort of flextime, allowing workers to choose their work hours -- within limits.

The conventional workweek has come under siege as laptops, BlackBerries and their ilk untether more workers, said John Challenger, CEO of outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Now $4-a-gallon gas has given the move toward four-day workweeks added momentum.

"It's a hot topic these days," said Lauren Cohen, regional manager for staffing firm Robert Half International.

Utah recently became the first state government in the nation to mandate a four-day workweek for most of its employees, partly to reduce energy consumption.

Erika Golden, 27, a public relations account executive at Koroberi whose round-trip commute from Raleigh to Chapel Hill covers 55 miles or so, regrets the day she bought an SUV. "It likes gas," she says of her Nissan Pathfinder.

She loves Green Fridays.

"When I sat down and calculated it cost me $12 a day to go to and from work, it really makes a difference," Golden said.

What workers like

Companies that offer a four-day option say it's a morale booster that helps keep workers. Many employees are eager to trade longer work days to gain a three-day weekend and eliminate a commute.

The state Department of Labor and Replacements Ltd. of Greensboro, which sells china and flatware, began allowing staffers to work longer hours the rest of the week in exchange for taking off the fifth day, or in some cases, taking every other Friday off.

They join companies such as computer maker Lenovo, which offers employees a 4 1/2-day workweek, and Talk PR, a seven-person Wilmington marketing and public relations firm. Both instituted alternative schedules last summer, and they are doing so again this summer.

To encourage employees to take advantage of its summer policy, Lenovo raises the thermostat and turns off the lights Fridays at noon.

"It took a while for employees to become comfortable with the program," spokesman Ray Gorman said. "People were a little bit reluctant to leave at first."

At least two state agencies -- the Department of Transportation and Department of Environment and Natural Resources -- have permitted some employees to work an alternative four-day week for at least a decade.

State government doesn't have a one-size-fits-all policy for offering four-day workweeks, said Margaret Jordan, spokeswoman for the state Office of Personnel. Agencies set policy based on their needs.

Progress Energy of Raleigh, which for 10 years has given many of its 11,000 employees the option of taking every other Friday off, upped the ante this summer at its nuclear power plants. Now many of those employees can opt to take every Friday off -- reducing their commuting time and expenses 20 percent each week.

"Schedule flexibility is clearly something they value and appreciate," spokesman Mike Hughes said. "We're looking for ways to make that work for our business without compromising the aspects our customers rely on -- reliability, etc. We do have power plants and systems that have to be operated 24 hours a day."

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