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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

#301

Post by jariel »

devmunchies wrote: post #289
jariel wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"GDP growth is not indicative of a higher standard of living. " Whoa there, GDP is absolutely correlated to the standard of living, this is not contentious. That it's not a direct measure, true, but it's definitely 'a' measure. Moreover, growth or contraction in per-capita GDP in a nation is definitely correlated with increasing/reduced economic prosperity even in 'rich' countries. Yes, many things are 'not measured'…

Our comments aren’t conflicting. I was mostly saying that at some point the continued growth of the GDP means turning every aspect of human interaction into an economic interaction, where everything becomes commoditized. Home cooked meals or housing my aging mother aren’t impactful on the GDP like supporting the restaurant and retirement home industries, but I’d say it’s a healthier way of life. A sleepy town may not…

Yes, I see what you are saying, but those 'high GDP output zones' are where a ton of the surpluses get created. A million 'happy little towns' won't create a lot of the very specific things we need and depend on for our standard of living to be high. We depend very heavily on 'exceptional organizations' and those things involve inherently greater dedication than many other jobs. For example, I don't think that Tesla would ever happen were it not for the fairly intense work of the leadership there, and they are 'forcing' the market on electric cars. A lot of things behind the scenes like this. Admittedly, on the other hand, a lot of jobs are pushing paper ...

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#302

Post by Ericson2314 »

Everyone always asks "why don't well all do this". Well, let me tell you. The system doesn't reward productivity like you imagine it, profit / per time work. It rewards profit / hours. Never mind if working more makes you less productive per the first measure, as long the extra time spent offsets the loss in productivity you will be compelled to do it.

Well, almost. If you are willing to be paid less that helps. But how many people are rich enough to be able make that choice? Enough to change the cultural and mores?

We need UBI or laws to break that. There is no distributed / individual way to escape the baton of the market here.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#305

Post by burnJS »

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…

Even if your commute is only 30 minutes, that is 5 hours lost a week roundtrip. An hour commute? Say goodbye to 10 hours a week. Yuck. Thankfully I have never had a long commute, my current commute is a 10-minute bike ride.

Additionally, every company should provide at least one work from home day. Having a day at home where you can do laundry while working and other minor chores are such a huge win. Not to mention sleep-in to 830 if I want. Even while doing these mini chores I am WAY more productive at home. It also breaks up your week. My WFH day is Tuesday. So I deal with Monday, then have that cushy WFH day, then when I come back on Wednesday it feels like just a 3 day work week. Friday is casual and most employees take Friday to WFH. Its a ghost town and I love it.

I need to begin looking for one of these dank jobs that are truly a four-day work week though.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#306

Post by adele11 »

genocidicbunny wrote: post #299
quietthrow wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are part of the hyperactive onsite mainstream HN crowd.single or married but no other responsibilities (children, aging parents and other such commitments). When you live the other life you will see how work just fills up and an extra day feels like a miracle.

Exactly this. Once you have other responsibilities or hobbies outside of work, a 12-hour workday will leave you with absolutely no free time. Add in your typical bay area commute time, and you'd hardly have time to sleep.

When I was single, no kids, I couldn't do 60 hours a week. Just not possible for me to keep focusing, keep writing good code.

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#307

Post by riffraff »

burnJS wrote: post #305
volkk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Even if your commute is only 30 minutes, that is 5 hours lost a week roundtrip. An hour commute? Say goodbye to 10 hours a week. Yuck. Thankfully I have never had a long commute, my current commute is a 10-minute bike ride. Additionally, every company should provide at least one work from home day. Having a day at home where you can do laundry while working and other minor chores are such a huge win. Not to mention s…

I think it also highly depends on how you commute.

I had a ~1h commute for years, which meant 10 hours gone a week, but I commuted via public transport (train+metro/subway/underground) which meant I had 10 hours a week for reading or conversation with friends on the same route. I worked from home for 10 years after, and I swear I read less!

If I had been driving those would have felt like completely wasted time.

Or, a friend of mine in Sweden had an even longer commute by train, but his company counted the time as office time, since he'd just work on the train, which meant no loss of free time.

(I still agree all companies should encourage WFH as much as possible)

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#308

Post by incompatible »

theatraine wrote: post #293

I never understand these studies. I'm bootstrapping a startup and my work output scales linearly with hours until about 60 hours per week. 60 hours per week is comfortable with 4x12 hour days and then 12 hours over two shorter days. To accomplish errands and the like I just do things before 2pm which is plenty of time. For me personally more time working = more output. What am I missing? I should note that I have no…

I'm wondering how many people would take advantage of the 4-day work week to fit in another job in one or more of the off-days. How many people are obsessed with obtaining higher income, far beyond what they need to survive?

Re: More bosses give four-day workweek a try

#309

Post by exclusiv »

nickbauman wrote: post #89
volkk wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 changed my life so my work is 6 blocks from home. I will never go back. No realistic amount of money will ever be worth a commute. I consider commuting a form of incarceration.

I'm lucky to have a drive that takes me down the ocean for the bulk of it and I use my commute time for phone calls after the best part so even though it's nearly 40 minutes it doesn't bother me at all. But yeah if your commute is just boring traffic it can get to you day in day out.
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