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What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

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Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#81

Post by shimms »

IMTDb wrote: post #54
adetrest wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could never understand why would someone accept these jobs. What's so great about becoming a manager and work 60h/week? How's that better than 40 a week as a subordinate and letting someone else worry about all the office drama?

It's just a different set of skills and you create value/feel rewarded in a different manner. It's not better or worse, it's just different and appeals to different kind of people. Take some other example from video games: - Why would anyone pick a healer in an MMO group ? What's so great about becoming a healer ? How's that better than playing a DPS, actually contributing to killing the boss and letting someone else…

What a fantastic analogy, and aligns almost 100% with why I like management and leadership.

I've often struggled to articulate the reasons I enjoy these positions over a "producers" role. This will help - thank you.

Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#82

Post by shimms »

duckworthd wrote: post #76

My $0.02. I've been working a 4 day/week schedule for 1.5 years now. Initially, I took the time off to lead a nonprofit volunteering project but quickly got burned out (4 days work, 1.5~2 days nonprofit work = 5.5~6 days/week). I've since reallocated the extra day to hobbies and am quite happy with the setup. As I've explicitly taken an independent contributor role at work, I feel no need to be 100% available, and my…

How did that conversation go with your manager when you first wanted to reduce your hours?

I had a similar conversation about 8 years ago, moving from 5 days to 4 days.

My boss at the time wasn't too happy with the proposal, and suggested it might just be easier for them to replace me with someone who wanted to put the full effort expected in.

Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#83

Post by pasbesoin »

seanalltogether wrote: post #14

I've often felt that a 5 day work week is about availability , not raw productivity. I could easily compress all of my weeks work into 30 hours or less, but that's not what my managers and clients value. What they value is the fact that I'm making progress on my tasks, and that my reachability is not preventing anyone else (people above me or below me) from making progress on their tasks

I've held a number of "exempt" positions (salary, no overtime pay) where the workload is typically high but there are the occasional slow periods or an abnormal personal schedule demand.

When they want you to work extra hours, there's no argument. There's the project and the deadline.

Come a slow day or two, though, or the need to take an hour or three for a personal task (see the doctor, for example), and there's no automatic, corresponding flexibility from them.

Oh, your manager may grant you the time, but it's always at their discretion and a "favor" in return for your "good behavior."

Gee, thanks. :-/

By the way, the positions are "exempt", but there's no hour-by-hour management of associates that requires constant attention. The whole definition of "exempt" is skewed to fix labor costs rather than provide (and pay, at a higher fixed level) for real "management of employees". Hell, often I'm not even directly interfacing with anyone who is non-exempt.

Butts in seats. In my mind, it goes along with the "open space" paradigm. It's not actually about being "efficient"; it's about appearances, and control.

Like the one petty tyrant manager who wouldn't let us upgrade woefully outdated and overly expensive process, because he might lose some headcount. His status and "security" were, in his mind -- and perhaps even correctly -- tied to that headcount.

And... I suppose low cube walls helped to "show it off."

P.S. I actually got along pretty well, including with my management. Perhaps too easy-going.

As I've had time to reflect back upon all this, my resentment has grown and hardened. A LOT of wasted time and energy.

If/when you start feeling this way, look around not just at the ostensible work you have to complete, but at the system and environment in which you are expected to complete it.

Which are the real problems?

Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#84

Post by jeffro_rh »

chucksmash wrote: post #24
treis wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still not 32. 7 to 5 is 10 hours. Subtracting 1 is 9. Times 4 is 36.

Maybe subtracting two per day, or the "leave by five" had an implied "at the very latest." Surely he did the math before putting the number in the title of his blog post.

He worked four 10 hour days and called it 32 hours a week. We don’t have any reason to trust his math.

Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#85

Post by test1235 »

seanalltogether wrote: post #14

I've often felt that a 5 day work week is about availability , not raw productivity. I could easily compress all of my weeks work into 30 hours or less, but that's not what my managers and clients value. What they value is the fact that I'm making progress on my tasks, and that my reachability is not preventing anyone else (people above me or below me) from making progress on their tasks

you might want to give the developer hegemony[1] a read - the author mentions this specifically: the output of a developer is hard to quantify, so now instead of being paid to build things (as might a traditional labourer), you're instead paid for your time, during which the company can assign you any work.

[1]https://daedtech.com/book/

Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#86

Post by sl1ck731 »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #63
popotamonga wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take the computer with you. Once in a while you have to pop it out. Rarely.

> Once in a while you have to pop it out. Rarely. I think "working from home" means something different to different people...

Yeah, it can go either way. I tend to spend more time "working" than I would in the office because I get more invested in things or am just more comfortable. If I went into the office ever I would 100% just shut off at 5, and if I was asked for significantly more I would tell them to shove it.

Some of my coworkers view it differently though and it becomes difficult to collaborate because they are running around doing other things during core hours. It is kind of an internal battle because I don't want the privilege taken from me.

Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#87

Post by klyrs »

I've recently started taking vacation in half-days. I have some flexibility to work remotely, and I've taken a couple of weeks away -- staying in an airbnb with friends, we work short days and go hiking or whatever in the afternoons. It's marvelous, and beneficial to my mental health.

This winter, I had an excess of vacation, so I took 3 weeks half-off. With only 4 hours, I find myself very focused -- I'll set a reasonable goal, and stay on track for the full time. At the end of my work day, I've accomplished one or two tasks; I feel good about what I've done and still have energy and time to take care of personal business. At the end of a half-time period, I don't feel behind the ball like I do coming back from a full vacation -- I have time to put out fires, respond to requests, etc.

I'd estimate that I get as much done in a 4-hour day as I would in 6 hours of a normal 8-hour day. Honestly, I'd be happy to work half as many hours and take a 25% paycut... if only my employer agreed

Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#88

Post by bryanrasmussen »

sokoloff wrote: post #78
adetrest wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1.5x the pay for double the hours isn't a trade-up though.

If you're paid 100 units [after-tax] and your expenses are 80 units, you're left with a (higher than average) savings rate of 20% or 20 units of currency. If you double your hours, raise your pay to 150 units and inflate your lifestyle by 25% (from 80 units to 100 units), you are now making 150, spending 100 (with more luxury), and saving 50 units (250% of what you were saving before). That might be considered a trad…

and probably a portion of that luxury is stuff like cleaners and other labor saving services which means that a lot of time that was spent on non remunerative work is now spent on the work.

Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week

#90

Post by aasasd »

aasasd wrote: post #49
arvinsim wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something about it feels satisfying.

I think it ticks several boxes at once: - It's a sans-serif with contrast, which is a rarity per se, doubly so with stroke widths that don't look weird (considering that the brain is unused to sans-serifs with contrast and usually begins mildly panicking at seeing them in body text). Triply a rarity with interesting letter shapes. Rosario has the perfect contrast: just enough for it to be noticed, but not so much as…

Correction: a sans-serif with stroke width contrast, i.e. varying stroke width―as exemplified by Optima and other 'antiquas without serifs,' and occurring pretty regularly in decorative titling on posters but not in body text.
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