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Once You Try a Four-Day Workweek, It's Hard to Go Back

83 pointsby sarego7 months ago

25 comments

alexjplant7 months ago
Parts of US Department of Defense and their contractors do what they refer to as Compressed Work Schedule (CWS) wherein employees work 9-hour days and get every other Friday off. Some people opt to split their off day and make every Friday a half-day so that they can be on the links or at the riverside bar and grill by lunchtime. While in college I worked 10 hours a day Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Saturday was fairly productive on account of nobody being in the office to bother me.<p>Ever since I&#x27;ve taken remote jobs that have unlimited PTO I haven&#x27;t missed these arrangements at all. No commute and the ability to take time off with reasonable constraints means that I&#x27;m able to catch up on chores and personal obligations much more easily.
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nntwozz7 months ago
Aldous Huxley imagined in the &#x27;20s we would automate most things and work less in the future. Today we work more than ever together with increased automation, and women work as well instad of being home to take care of the household.<p>On paper it looks like progress, but I&#x27;m not so sure about the quality of life.
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froddd7 months ago
I’ve worked a 4 day week for a few years now. Best decision I’ve had the chance to make. I feel more productive on those 4 days, and my time away from work is more fulfilled too.<p>I always recommend it to people who may be lucky enough to afford and choose it.
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stavros7 months ago
I work four eight-hour days (with a concomitant 20% pay cut), and I&#x27;m never going back. I did try a five-day year, after six or so years of a four-day week, but that just made me cement my decision to not work five days.<p>A two-day weekend is too short, a five-day workweek is too long. 4&#x2F;3 is the perfect split.
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laweijfmvo7 months ago
For workers, sure. We said the same thing about WFH, and well, employers disagreed as soon as they were able to.
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penjelly7 months ago
imo life is filled with too much these days to handle in 2 days. the rest, administrative and maintenance required to keep things moving takes 2 full days.
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JKCalhoun7 months ago
Archive: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;6EtcE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;6EtcE</a>
astrodude7 months ago
Don&#x27;t all life&#x27;s comforts work this way?
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Night_Thastus7 months ago
So this is fewer hours as well, right? Not just the same 40 hours but compressed into 4 days?<p>It doesn&#x27;t seem unreasonable it could work for some jobs and people. Too many hours and people tend to get stressed, tired, worried about home matters they can&#x27;t attend to, etc - and their performance suffers as a result.<p>Depends a lot on the job and person, though.
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CobaltFire7 months ago
I did a schedule of four 10 hour days for a few years in the military (with every fourth week being an extra three six hour days because someone had to be there at all times).<p>It was absolutely amazing for actually being able to get things done. I hated going back to the regular five day week after that.
johnea7 months ago
Personally, I&#x27;m really a fan of the 0 day workweek!<p>But I&#x27;m conflicted about all the work I have to do to get there...
ElevenLathe7 months ago
I used to work 4x10 hour days, Sun-Wed, 2nd shift. It was OK, but I was ecstatic when I was finally able to move to a normal 9-5 Mon-Fri schedule. It&#x27;s so much nicer to have society&#x27;s expectations of when you are meant to be working to match when you are actually working.
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braza7 months ago
One of the aspects that has never been discussed in those studies is the competitor&#x27;s offset, which wouldn&#x27;t adopt the 4-day work week.<p>Local companies in Germany have a very defensive business due to the nature of the market (not so internationalized, highly consolidated, a lot of small businesses that no big corporation would try to enter, and low competition in mid-sized businesses due to bureaucracy).<p>For local SaaS companies or local companies for sure, it can work since no big competitor can rise. Still, the real test would be Germany placing that in their industrial base (e.g. cars, industrial instruments, chemical industry, logistics), or in some other businesses where the entry barrier is low.
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BizarroLand7 months ago
I had a 4-10s shift when I worked for a local college during the summers.<p>Mon-thurs sucked about 20% more.<p>Fridays were 1,000% better.<p>It was a good trade and I miss it.
sotix7 months ago
Everywhere I’ve been interviewing at recently has told me upfront that they expect a 50-60 hour workweek with a few outright stating they work half the day on Sunday. I’d love a four-day workweek, but right now I’m just hoping for a five-day, 40-hour workweek to start.
indoordin0saur7 months ago
I think a three day weekend is more important than a four day work week. We should move to an 8 day week :)
Apofis7 months ago
I don&#x27;t think I can code for 10 hours straight. My brain is usually pretty expanded by the late afternoon.
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nine_zeros7 months ago
When a worker RTOs with a one hour commute each way, 5 days a week, they have already worked for 5 days that week.
kazinator7 months ago
If the kids are also reduced to a four day school week, you will be wishing for five day again.
omani7 months ago
I work only a few hours a week. best time of my life!<p>everything else is modern slavery.
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airstrike7 months ago
<i>&gt; Employers saw benefits, too: 70% reported that recruiting workers was easier once they went to a four-day schedule—a boon in a country where many industries complain that intense competition for talent drives up costs.</i><p>I mean, that&#x27;s definitely going away if all other employers also move to four-day workweeks, so it seems like you shouldn&#x27;t factor that in as one of the benefits of this schedule.
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gepardi7 months ago
Duh
nuz7 months ago
Wait til you try a one day workweek
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dylanz7 months ago
Once You Try a Three-Day Workweek, It&#x27;s Hard to Go Back
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tomohelix7 months ago
I know this is HN and most people here heavily support WFH. But as this article shows, people will support whatever benefits they can get, even if it is very likely come at the cost of productivity. With WFH, it is a mixed bag of whether that would affect productivity or not but from a risk averse management perspective, it is understandable that they don&#x27;t want to risk it and go back to the traditional mode.<p>In my (likely very controversial to HN) opinion, software devs are already heavily compensated compared to other professions and adding more benefits on top of that in the form of WFH just make it even more unfair. What is fair? It is what the employers are willing to pay and if most are demanding RTO then that is just what the market is willing to bear.<p>Most jobs do not have the luxury of WFH. Not for a doctor, a biologist, a chemist, a civil engineer, a lawyer, etc. They are required to come to office to work and they are often paid less than a software dev.
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