If you've always dreaded Tuesdays - and who hasn't? - results of a recent survey may shed some light.

Tuesdays are the most productive day of the week. That's according to a majority of 150 executives surveyed by Accountemps, one of the world's biggest temporary-staffing companies.

A whopping 57 percent of executives said their staffs work hardest on Tuesdays, according to a February 2008 release.

Monday was a distant second, with 12 percent of bosses picking it as most productive, followed by Wednesday and Thursday, each getting 11 percent.

Friday, to no one's surprise, was in the cellar, with 3 percent of the vote. (Six percent of executives answered "don't know." My guess: bank CEOs too busy giving out loans to all the wrong people.)

Accountemps has done the survey for more than 20 years, and it's interesting to note that Tuesday has reigned supreme since 1987.

What does that tell you?

It tells you that that heavy breath you feel on your back every Tuesday isn't your imagination. That breath is your boss' breath. He's working like a Roman orchard slave, and if you're not keeping up with him olive for olive, you'd better hope your leather sandals go faster than his.

It was the same in school. Seventh-grade algebra tests? Always on Tuesdays. To this day, Monday nights can bring a slight shiver down my back as that walnut of a hippocampus wedged deep in my skull struggles to lift its weary, shriveled little head and asks: Are you sure that 15-page essay on the five major themes in The Grapes of Wrath isn't due to Miss Ragnell tomorrow?

Why do we set such a high bar on Tuesdays?

Josh Brost, Accountemps spokesman, speculates that Mondays are consumed by routine housekeeping tasks such as reading e-mails and meetings. By Tuesdays, workers are burning with peak energy, attacking the piles on their desk like comets ripping through the night sky.

Or as Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps, said in a news release, "Many view Tuesday as an opportunity to focus their efforts and establish momentum for the rest of the week."

Yeah. What he said.

By Wednesday, Brost believes, many workers, having spent themselves Tuesday, are wiped out. Ditto with Thursdays.

Fridays are hopeless, as anyone who tries to conduct business after 11 a.m. knows. Those are my words, not Brost's.

It's the national workforce's dirty little secret. Call it Friday lite. Sneak out a little early. Call on a client who lives in Longmont. Remember some research you need to do at the county assessor's office.

Of course, you'll have your cell phone with you.

Which leads me to the obvious question: Has the time arrived for a four-day workweek?

Utah state workers are trying it.

Last July, more than 80,000 of them switched to four 10-hour days with three-day weekends.

Gov. Jon Huntsman says the main benefits have been increased employee morale and productivity and decreased absenteeism and sickness.

With offices closed Fridays, he expects the state to save millions of dollars in energy costs. Smog should also improve.

The icing on the cake has been the public's increased use of online services, Huntsman told National Public Radio recently. Closing most state offices one day a week forced Utahns to go to the Web for everything from fishing licenses to building permits.

Four-day workweeks?

I can't think of a cleaner way to dispose of Tuesdays.

mwinte@aol.com

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