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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

#191

Post by Ididntdothis »

andrekandre wrote: post #166
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a development manager for years, for a Japanese company. The Japanese are type A++ (at least, in Tokyo). They are masters at applying stress across the Pacific. As a manager, it was my job to insulate my team from the stress, and I often took the hit for telling my bosses that I wasn't going to push my people harder than they already were working. It seemed to work out in the end. When they finally rolled up my…

> I had a manager at a startup tell me that conventional management assumes that engineers will only stay at a company for 18 months, so they really pile on the stress which is ironic, because isn’t that why people stay less and less longer at a company (can’t stand the slog)?

I think economically it may make sense to hire fresh people for less money, burn them out and then have them leave soon. This may be one reason for ageism .

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#192

Post by standardUser »

techslave wrote: post #174
standardUser wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 hours really seems extreme. I am certain that the vast majority of office workers could produce the same level of output at a 4x9 schedule as they do in a 5x8 or would in a 4x10. And most would be profoundly happier people.

really? HN crowd is talking about 10 hr days as “exhausting” ? i can’t remember the last time i worked less than 5x10.

To me, the idea of consistently working more than 50 hours/week is only something I would do if I desperately needed the money and couldn't find a better way to support myself. I hope to never be in that situation.

I understand working like crazy for things like starting a company/grad school/career change, but those things all last a limited time and come to an end.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#193

Post by walshemj »

lwb wrote: post #133

Something felt fishy about their claim that number of hours worked has been climbing in the United States so I checked their source. It turns out that "average annual hours worked" has changed from 1,780 in 2011 to 1,786 last year. This seems like barely a rounding error... On the other hand, if you look at the FRED website it shows that average annual hours worked has massively decreased in the last 50 years: https:…

Are you forgetting overtime back in 51 I suspect there may well have been more OT worked and there would have been more factories back then

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#194

Post by nine_k »

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…

I work in NYC. My commute from Brooklyn in now about 30 minutes, 20 of them on a train, the rest is walking and waiting on a station. It's the shortest and least stressful commute I ever had among several cities I lived. Dense cities have upsides when you live inside them.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#195

Post by bradleyjg »

kempbellt wrote: post #172
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 had the same experience when I lived in NYC. A 45 minute commute on the subway was a lot less stressful than the 45 minute bumper-to-bumper driving commute I do now (in Seattle). I would usually play mindless puzzle games and listen to music on my commute. Other people mention the train delays being stressful, but my company had a standing "subway delays ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" attitude about showing up late. People would show…

I’ve never pulled a laptop out on the subway but the LIRR or MNR is a different story.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#196

Post by wongarsu »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #191
andrekandre wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I had a manager at a startup tell me that conventional management assumes that engineers will only stay at a company for 18 months, so they really pile on the stress which is ironic, because isn’t that why people stay less and less longer at a company (can’t stand the slog)?

I think economically it may make sense to hire fresh people for less money, burn them out and then have them leave soon. This may be one reason for ageism .

Provided it's easy to get new people up to speed and experience isn't overly important

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#197

Post by bluntfang »

kody wrote: post #20
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…

I agree that it's hard for some people (managers) to see a relaxed, happy person and believe that they're also totally productive. I don't blame them either; I feel like the image of overly-caffeinated, stressed-out people is embedded in our collective consciousness as representative of High Productivity and our lizard brains can't seem to be able to reconcile that with the data that is saying "relaxed people who mak…

>I feel like the image of overly-caffeinated, stressed-out people is embedded in our collective consciousness as representative of High Productivity

Don't forget about the over prescription of amphetamines. I knew I was in a bad place when all the "high performers" (according to management) all had darting eye, chewed gum all day, and were underweight/never ate during the work day.

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