Are Long Weekends always a good thing?

Friday's Cavalier Daily held a column reporting on a proposition for Virginia state employees - obviously of concern for the University. Associate Editor Rebecca Rubin tells us that the Virginia state government is reviewing a proposal to place many government workers under a four-day work week of 10-hour days, maintaining forty hours per week. The idea, according to Isaac Wood of the Centre for Politics, is to save possibly more than $3 million in energy costs.

Wood apparently ignores the social costs or externalities of the proposal, calling the cuts "really painless" before he asks "do the benefits to the state outweigh the costs?" Rubin is more economically astute and (though without calling them such) assesses some negative externalities that the proposal could inflict. She highlights the inability of the public to work with the affected agencies for the additional day each week. Are there more externalities hidden here, positive or negative?