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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

#121

Post by twox2 »

TuringNYC wrote: post #85
tombert wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in NYC, and I have a roughly 1 hour commute each way, but I just take the train everywhere. Of course I can't speak for anyone else, but I find that taking a train to work is a lot less stressful than driving every day. At least on the train, I can read, or pull out my laptop, or just play a video game.

I’m born and raised in NYC and took subways and trains to work everyday for over a decade in NYC. I mostly agree with you...but...I found the past several years of subway outages worse and started driving/ridesharing more and more. I’ve had times where subways constantly get rerouted, suddenly go express, skip stops, run on different lines, etc. it became so maddening.

All it takes is one time being stuck in the tunnel for 1.5 hrs in crowded train car and you have pretty much permanent PTSD. I have a panic attack every time the train comes to a premature stop even for a minute.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#122

Post by nfriedly »

burnte wrote: post #79
Ididntdothis wrote: post #8

It seems a lot of these experiments are a success. But after a while somebody gets greedy and thinks “we get good productivity at 32 hours. I wonder how much more we could get at 40 hours?” And soon you are back at the old schedule. Something similar happened at my company. For once a project was ahead of schedule. So instead of thinking that the system worked well and keep working in relaxed manner management decide…

>we get good productivity at 32 hours. I wonder how much more we could get at 40 hours? Usually 4 days a week means 4 ten hour days, not 4 eight hour days. Hence the phrase "four tens".

In my mind "4 day work week" means "4x8 hours", and "4 tens" means "4x10 hours". I have family that works 4x10 hours, and they usually refer to it as "4 tens".

It looks like some people go either way, though. Quote from the article:

> Many employers aren't just moving to 10-hour shifts, four days a week, as companies like Shake Shack are doing; they're going to a 32-hour week — without cutting pay.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#123

Post by annoyingnoob »

I feel like my best work happens in about 6 hours on most days. Beyond 6 I feel like I'm less motivated/productive, I get things done but it goes a little slower.

I've previously done a 9/80 schedule with every other Friday off. The 9 hour days made my personal life harder, harder to meet family obligations like pickup/dropoff. I'm cool with 5 shorter days, I would be happier and probably more productive.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#124

Post by sloppycee »

Darkphibre wrote: post #71
mikkergp wrote: post #57

I don't know if I'm pro a 4-day work week, (I'm personally not for it if it's 4x10 instead of 5x8) But I'm reading the book [peak performance]( https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Performance-Elevate-Burnout-Scie... ) (Highly recommended) and I generally think that companies should really encourage those employees to work at a schedule that works best for them (This is obviously harder for shift work where the value comes fr…

> Nap time adds to productivity Amen to this! I pushed for, and saw implemented, a dual nap room for our studio. It was used around the clock by people stretching, meditating, and napping. I found a huge productivity spike taking out 20 minutes a day. Then, we hired a bunch more people for the upcoming launch, and it was re-purposed into a storage room for old rack hardware (I pushed against this, but was told it was…

Most children stop napping around four years old.

Maybe there's a deeper problem at your job if people need a nap room. Just get more sleep at home, you're not being paid to sleep.

btw, a 'dedicated lego room' sounds like another symptom of a toxic infantilizing culture that eats confidence and breeds reliance.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#125

Post by hawaiianbrah »

wolco wrote: post #32
hinkley wrote: post #15

Many of us work in spaces where servers are expected to be working and running 24/7. Yet our bosses still want every single employee to have butts in seats 9:00 am to 5 pm, 5 days a week and in the same time zone. Sometimes with a little guilt-tripping on the side for taking sick days and vacation. Wouldn't we be better off with several shifts, 4 days a week, covering Monday through Saturday or even the entire week?

Mature places have this with a global workforce. Not so mature places put 9-5ers on call with a tiny bump in pay.

And the least mature do it without a bump at all!

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#126

Post by philshem »

blackearl wrote: post #108
blobbers wrote: post #82

"Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is backing a parliamentary proposal to shift to a four-day week." -- with all the Russian meddling in the U.S.A., maybe they can get this pushed through! Jokes aside, I would love this. Right now in tech asking for this sort of thing feels like a 'career limiting move', and definitely in a hiring situation could label you as 'not a hard worker' despite your emphasis on efficien…

If not career limiting, pay limiting. I'd worry that I suddenly get a 20% cut in salary

I consider it a 20% bump in time.

edit: or is it 25%?!

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#127

Post by devmunchies »

frockington1 wrote: post #48
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

GDP growth is not indicative of a higher standard of living. It just means more things are part of the economy.

If I grow my own food and play board games with my family, it doesn't boost the GDP. However, if I go to MacDonald's and then send my kids to daycare while I go to the movies (3 economic transactions), it increases the GDP since those services are now commoditized.

Increasing the GDP might boost the standard of living in really poor countries, but there's a healthy ceiling until it becomes growth for the sake of growth.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#128

Post by ndespres »

I met with someone recently who offered 4-day workweek as a benefit, but it wasn't a 32-hour week over 4 days, it was just 4 longer days with the same number of total hours. It would be great to have 1 less commute, a 3 day weekend etc but where are the benefits of these computers that were supposed to save us all time?

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#129

Post by SuoDuanDao »

echelon wrote: post #58
amyjess wrote: post #27

Going down to a 32-hour workweek would be lovely, but I'm simply not interested in doing 4×10. I'd rather get home at a decent hour than have an extra day off.

To each their own. My work week is spent on work and I can't really enjoy the time before or after work. I'll never enjoy M-F. I'd rather have a 4x10 than a 5x8. If my side hustle ever graduates into a startup and I start hiring other people, we're doing 4x10 or 4x9.

I wonder whether the benefits decrease when the whole team does 4X10 - I found when I did 4X10 that I was much more productive for the two hours I was alone in the office. Of course, no saying everyone has to work the same 4X10.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#130

Post by wobblykiwi »

echelon wrote: post #58
amyjess wrote: post #27

Going down to a 32-hour workweek would be lovely, but I'm simply not interested in doing 4×10. I'd rather get home at a decent hour than have an extra day off.

To each their own. My work week is spent on work and I can't really enjoy the time before or after work. I'll never enjoy M-F. I'd rather have a 4x10 than a 5x8. If my side hustle ever graduates into a startup and I start hiring other people, we're doing 4x10 or 4x9.

Why not try a 4x8?
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