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Belgium approves four-day week

euronews.com

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Re: Belgium approves four-day week

#3
It seems that with these types of changes, I mean with more and more of the workforce working on schedules that don’t overlap, it is going to become more and more important for business software to run autonomously without anyone there to babysit it, but it seems to me we have been moving in precisely the opposite direction for some time now.

Specifically “doing agile” seems to encourage this, I always see lots of supporting infrastructure being skimped on so a new feature can be delivered faster, with some hand wavy plans to fix it in some future sprint.

Re: Belgium approves four-day week

#4
post #2

"In practice this means maintaining a 38-hour working week, with an additional day off compensating for longer work days." Unfortunately it's a compressed 4 day week, instead of a "proper" 4 day work week (i.e. 4 x 8 hour days, e.g. https://4dayweek.io ) A step in the right direction however

As an employer there are plenty of jobs that I would be perfectly fine allowing the employee to work 20% less, as long as they cost me 20% less.

Re: Belgium approves four-day week

#5
post #3

It seems that with these types of changes, I mean with more and more of the workforce working on schedules that don’t overlap, it is going to become more and more important for business software to run autonomously without anyone there to babysit it, but it seems to me we have been moving in precisely the opposite direction for some time now. Specifically “doing agile” seems to encourage this, I always see lots of su…

How on earth is this related to "agile" software/product development?

> I always see lots of supporting infrastructure being skimped on so a new feature can be delivered faster

That's bad management and has nothing to do with agile. Reserve time for bug fixes (or have fire fighting capabilities) and refactoring, include time for tech tickets. ALWAYS. Plan workload jointly with developers, talk to them regularly. It's that easy.

Re: Belgium approves four-day week

#6
38 hours (the estimated work week) is exactly half of the 996 week (76 hours) of some companies in China. I don’t think that’s healthy, but if I had to bet, I’d pick the 76 hour workers outcompeting their 38 hour counterparts.

Re: Belgium approves four-day week

#7
post #2

"In practice this means maintaining a 38-hour working week, with an additional day off compensating for longer work days." Unfortunately it's a compressed 4 day week, instead of a "proper" 4 day work week (i.e. 4 x 8 hour days, e.g. https://4dayweek.io ) A step in the right direction however

As an employer there are plenty of jobs that I would be perfectly fine allowing the employee to work 20% less, as long as they cost me 20% less.

That's literally missing the entire point of it. You already have this now - always had it. There's nothing new or interesting about what you're "proposing".

What IS new and interesting is getting employees who work 20% less, AND THEREFORE are 20% more productive (and presumably 20% happier), at the same cost.

Re: Belgium approves four-day week

#8
post #6

38 hours (the estimated work week) is exactly half of the 996 week (76 hours) of some companies in China. I don’t think that’s healthy, but if I had to bet, I’d pick the 76 hour workers outcompeting their 38 hour counterparts.

[deleted]

Re: Belgium approves four-day week

#9
post #2

"In practice this means maintaining a 38-hour working week, with an additional day off compensating for longer work days." Unfortunately it's a compressed 4 day week, instead of a "proper" 4 day work week (i.e. 4 x 8 hour days, e.g. https://4dayweek.io ) A step in the right direction however

As an employer there are plenty of jobs that I would be perfectly fine allowing the employee to work 20% less, as long as they cost me 20% less.

I think you have misunderstood the reason behind the move towards the 4 day workweek across Europe.

It's literally more productive for less hours.

Re: Belgium approves four-day week

#10
post #6

38 hours (the estimated work week) is exactly half of the 996 week (76 hours) of some companies in China. I don’t think that’s healthy, but if I had to bet, I’d pick the 76 hour workers outcompeting their 38 hour counterparts.

A race to the bottom it is.
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