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More bosses give four-day workweek a try

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Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#41

Post by aetherson »

tombert wrote: post #33

I remember when I interned at Lockheed Martin forever ago, they had a system where you normally work 9-hour days (8 on Fridays), and as a result had every other Friday off. It equated to a 80 hours for every two weeks, and it was really nice if you ever had to go to the bank or DMV (which are typically only open during weekdays). I always wondered why this wasn't more popular.

Popularly known as the 9-80 schedule. My wife has it, it's really nice to get the Friday off but it makes it rough for her to be at all involved in picking up/dropping off the kids (which is hard even with a normal 8 hour day).

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#42

Post by rverghese »

mjayhn wrote: post #18

I can't begin to explain how much less stress I encounter in day to day life having just one week day to stay home. Just having a day to be able to easily knock out chores between Jira issues; drop the car off at the dealer, sell something on craigslist, complete a house project, go to the dentist, meet the handyman, go to the bank, etc is so nice. All of these things wind up on the back burner when I'm in the middle…

But doesn't this rely on everyone else working 5 days?

If everyone had a 4-week, it would be just like the current weekend. You can't go to the bank or dentist, because they would also be off.

Perhaps you could get the same effect and quality of life by taking Sunday and Monday as your days off and working Saturday.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#43

Post by wolco »

askafriend wrote: post #5

I'd really like to do 4x10hrs versus 5x8hrs. I think that'd be a significant improvement for a lot of people.

If you are trying to kill 40 hours that works. Why not 14-14-12 or 20-20 where you take 4 hours from each day to get the 8 hours for sleep.

I remember going to an interview somewhere and during the summers they came in at 8:30am each day (instead of 9) so they could get off at 2:30pm on a Friday. That sounded like hell for no big gain.

We need to go down to 20 hours.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#44

Post by kbenson »

volkk wrote: post #31
mjayhn wrote: post #18

I can't begin to explain how much less stress I encounter in day to day life having just one week day to stay home. Just having a day to be able to easily knock out chores between Jira issues; drop the car off at the dealer, sell something on craigslist, complete a house project, go to the dentist, meet the handyman, go to the bank, etc is so nice. All of these things wind up on the back burner when I'm in the middle…

> I know not everyone is as sapped for energy as I am after work, but I leave work and sit in an hour of traffic. My energy is just sapped from me by the time I make it home. I have enough energy to feed myself and sometimes work out to maintain my health.. I know that some people just dont have the privilege of living close to their jobs, but after spending one internship getting up at 5;45am to drive with my dad to…

There are ways to work around the system around metro hubs that tries to push you towards the standard of commuting 2 hours or more each day to get to a higher paying job, but you have to search for them and be flexible yourself in your search for a job that's flexible.

These days, it's likely semi-remote work, where you commute 1-3 days a week or in off hours (part of day at home, part at work). For me, I've been lucky enough to always find something that I found interesting and that pays well enough while not having to commute more than 10-20 minutes in the local area, and that's having been born, raised, and lived my entire life 45 minutes North of SF.

There's not guaranteed to be something good in the borderlands, but I think people might be surprised what they could find if they can resist the call of the behemoths (and those that congregate in the same area) while being within throwing range of them.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#46

Post by jonny_eh »

rverghese wrote: post #42
mjayhn wrote: post #18

I can't begin to explain how much less stress I encounter in day to day life having just one week day to stay home. Just having a day to be able to easily knock out chores between Jira issues; drop the car off at the dealer, sell something on craigslist, complete a house project, go to the dentist, meet the handyman, go to the bank, etc is so nice. All of these things wind up on the back burner when I'm in the middle…

But doesn't this rely on everyone else working 5 days? If everyone had a 4-week, it would be just like the current weekend. You can't go to the bank or dentist, because they would also be off. Perhaps you could get the same effect and quality of life by taking Sunday and Monday as your days off and working Saturday.

Maybe people could take different "3rd" days off?

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#47

Post by xboxnolifes »

Apocryphon wrote: post #29
gordon_freeman wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think stuffing 10 hours in a workday will have a diminishing rate of productivity return during the last couple of hours during the workday.

How about a compromise? 4x9 hours.

I like 4x9, because a lot of work is already 5x9 if you include mandatory lunch break.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#48

Post by frockington1 »

k__ wrote: post #36

I'm from Germany and none of my friends works 40h anymore. They're all down to 50-80% This is even regulated by the law, your employer has to allow you to reduce your work time, only in some extreme cases they can deny it. Works like a charm.

I like the idea of working less, but it's going to be hard to use Germany as a poster child. The German economy hasn't been doing to great recently. In my opinion it's largely due to carrying lagging EU economies, but it will be hard to use a struggling economy as a positive indicator

Germany: https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/gdp-growth US: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#49

Post by clSTophEjUdRanu »

kody wrote: post #13

I worked 4x10s when I worked for the Army and it was awesome. 3 day weekends take off so much pressure, and come Sunday night I was starting to feel the itch to get back into work rather than the dreadful feeling that I 'wasted' my weekend. The only work experience that was better than this was 100% flexibility to work remotely and/or flex hours. So there's my anecdata for you :)

I worked 9 hour days with every other Friday off and hated it.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#50

Post by fogetti »

k__ wrote: post #36

I'm from Germany and none of my friends works 40h anymore. They're all down to 50-80% This is even regulated by the law, your employer has to allow you to reduce your work time, only in some extreme cases they can deny it. Works like a charm.

I am curious. Where do they work? What do they do?
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