11–20 of 57 posts
If we ever got to a 3 day work week would mean that (gasp!) work isn't the main thing we do! Our entire culture would change.
I've been working a 4-day work week for over a decade now. I took the pay cut myself. I pretty much agree with the article. Especially in knowledge-intense office jobs, people can't really be fully productive across the day or week. People have different energy cycles throughout the day, and we're biologically just not designed to focus this stretch of time. So a number of hours is "busy time", sitting out the hours.…
> barely anybody can even tell that I'm not in on Fridays.
> I took the pay cut myself.
Why take a pay cut here? Why is your effort worth less then the guy who uses his time less efficiently?
A couple of random and semi-related thoughts: I'm not really good for more than 6 hours of any sort of challenging mental work in a day, anyway. I also don't think that "hours" are a particularly good thing to track for software engineers -- we have ticket tracking and project management software that track effort already. The bit about being rewarded with a Friday off reminded me of how I'd try to get my homework do…
That's because in a well managed business there's always more work than workers. Schools on the other hand aren't designed to fully load students (perhaps they should be to keep advanced students from getting bored).
I'd love the social effects of a 4 day work week because it means a 3 day weekend. In terms of quality time with friends and family, that would be massive. If we ever got to a 3 day work week would mean that (gasp!) work isn't the main thing we do! Our entire culture would change.
Most people are too boring to evade the allure of climbing hierarchies though.
Soon after implementation, I feel that companies would like to reduce pay as well. Maybe not by 20%, but it's an easy way to increase profitability.
Later, I learned that full time employment is 35 hours, and insurance/benefits for part-time work gets really complicated for the stupidest of reasons. So despite the stupid responses, employers actually do have some obstacles to overcome even if they want to implement shorter weeks.
I've been working a 4-day work week for over a decade now. I took the pay cut myself. I pretty much agree with the article. Especially in knowledge-intense office jobs, people can't really be fully productive across the day or week. People have different energy cycles throughout the day, and we're biologically just not designed to focus this stretch of time. So a number of hours is "busy time", sitting out the hours.…
> I'm in the lucky position to work in a fully output-based role, based on sprints and clear deliverables. One week before the new sprint, we agree in detail what gets delivered. And then I deliver, consistently and reliably. I take this extreme reliability very serious, as I don't want to be seen as some part-time worker or somebody not doing their part Is the nature of your work very predictable, or, do you tend to…
Our estimation process is quite mature by now. I break down a larger technical solution into smaller pieces, which are then individually estimated by the team. Any potential pitfalls, risks and challenges I already researched, so they're calculated in. It leads to very few surprises.
In the rare case that me or the team was way off, say something takes twice as long than expected, then we just move the second half to the next sprint. Some might find that a "luxury", we do not. Because we know that when we double load people, they stress out and make mistakes. Quality isn't optional in our game, we deploy to millions of consumers.
Our rhythm is so predictable, that if you'd take away my agenda entirely, I'd still know exactly what to do on any given day.
I've been working a 4-day work week for over a decade now. I took the pay cut myself. I pretty much agree with the article. Especially in knowledge-intense office jobs, people can't really be fully productive across the day or week. People have different energy cycles throughout the day, and we're biologically just not designed to focus this stretch of time. So a number of hours is "busy time", sitting out the hours.…
> You still need to output the same productivity as somebody working 5 days. > barely anybody can even tell that I'm not in on Fridays. > I took the pay cut myself. Why take a pay cut here? Why is your effort worth less then the guy who uses his time less efficiently?
It seems such large sweeping changes require a culture shock. Covid did that for remote working. All the age-old remote work skeptics (read: conservative managers) now were forced to do it themselves. Even if they considered it to be terrible, they were forced to find a way to make it work. And it would work. Now you can't dial it back. People with job options will demand it going forward.
I have no idea how to do this for shorter work weeks at equal pay though.
A couple of random and semi-related thoughts: I'm not really good for more than 6 hours of any sort of challenging mental work in a day, anyway. I also don't think that "hours" are a particularly good thing to track for software engineers -- we have ticket tracking and project management software that track effort already. The bit about being rewarded with a Friday off reminded me of how I'd try to get my homework do…
If you are constantly putting out more and better quality work than the average, the reward is you ask for more pay or you switch to a higher paying job.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You still need to output the same productivity as somebody working 5 days. > barely anybody can even tell that I'm not in on Fridays. > I took the pay cut myself. Why take a pay cut here? Why is your effort worth less then the guy who uses his time less efficiently?
Good question, and that is hopefully a culture change coming, but I'm honestly not counting on it anytime soon. It seems such large sweeping changes require a culture shock. Covid did that for remote working. All the age-old remote work skeptics (read: conservative managers) now were forced to do it themselves. Even if they considered it to be terrible, they were forced to find a way to make it work. And it would wor…
It's going to be a very tall order. Even with WFH and demonstrable positive effects on productivity metrics almost across the board - there are still companies clinging to the old way of doing things and employers demanding return to office.
The most common response to a 4 day work week is going to be "no one else is doing so we can't afford to either - if anything we need you to work harder!" (may be familiar sentiment to some who advocated for WFH over the years).
Unfortunately, like you, I can't think of a scenario to force companies to wake up and realize that reducing hours can actually increase productivity. Similar to WFH, even when companies look at the data themselves, they decide against it.
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776163853/microsoft-japan-say...
We really are in some kafka-esque bureaucratic nightmare where workers time is being sucked away for no reason at all.
I've been working a 4-day work week for over a decade now. I took the pay cut myself. I pretty much agree with the article. Especially in knowledge-intense office jobs, people can't really be fully productive across the day or week. People have different energy cycles throughout the day, and we're biologically just not designed to focus this stretch of time. So a number of hours is "busy time", sitting out the hours.…
> I'm in the lucky position to work in a fully output-based role, based on sprints and clear deliverables. One week before the new sprint, we agree in detail what gets delivered. And then I deliver, consistently and reliably. I take this extreme reliability very serious, as I don't want to be seen as some part-time worker or somebody not doing their part Is the nature of your work very predictable, or, do you tend to…
Make more bricks!!
Soon, the games started on inflating story points, etc, and i soon made my way out of there...