Almost all Dutch companies will honor such a request. Of course, it comes with a 20% salary decrease if you simply go from 5 to 4 days of 8 hours.
Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
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Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#32I'm currently hiring for a 3-day workweek in case that's of interest: https://remoteok.com/remote-jobs/110323-remote-pt-full-stack... I had a job like this in the past and I loved the freedom of it the fact that I had plenty of energy left over to pursue other interests. So I wanted to recreate that for those that I hire. EDIT: my role is part-time so it's not a fair comparison.
This is a bit disingenuous. A 4-day work week usually means that a work week is reduced from 40 to 32 hours without a loss of compensation. Like previous reductions in work time, the theory is that while someone puts in fewer hours, it’s worth it because people can’t be fully productive for 40 hours. Your linked offer is a part-time position. It even states that you only get a cut of FTE and that there is the possibi…
To me as a Dutch person, that's not disingenious at all, that is exactly what you want.
You go from a 5 day workweek to 4 days, and take a 20% paycut. Sometimes it's possible to work 4 days of 9 hours, but it always comes with a paycut.
Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#33I like 4-day weeks, but what I would like even more is a month consecutive vacation a year. (Which is just 20-23 days off, rather than the ~50 Fridays every year.) This is pretty common places in Europe like France or Denmark (where you must take at least three weeks consecutive vacation.) Is this something any US companies are advertising?
At Microsoft Israel we have: - 23 days off every year for everyone. - 5 extra days off for COVID years (but doesn't accumulate between years) - 18 days of (paid) sick leave (also for family) - Lots of leaves for stuff like family sickness (1 month a year), bereavement (10 days), paternity (6 weeks), maternity (6 weeks) on top of the ones we get from the government (3.5 months parenting leave for example). - 2 times a…
In Sweden we have
- 25 days off every year for every one (5 days minimum can carry over). Most tech companies have 30 days off.
- No extra days for COVID
- Unlimited sick days
- 240 days of parental leave (so per parent. Increase if you have more than one child (twins, triplets). Plus 10 days for the non-birthing parent to be together the first weeks. 96 days per parent can be saved beyond the 4th year.
- 17 holidays but they are sometimes on weekends and thus give no extra days. The only day that gives you a spare day if it happens on a weekend is our "independance" day.
Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
At Microsoft Israel we have: - 23 days off every year for everyone. - 5 extra days off for COVID years (but doesn't accumulate between years) - 18 days of (paid) sick leave (also for family) - Lots of leaves for stuff like family sickness (1 month a year), bereavement (10 days), paternity (6 weeks), maternity (6 weeks) on top of the ones we get from the government (3.5 months parenting leave for example). - 2 times a…
How do you get any work done?
Well rested and unstressed people are more productive than people "being busy" for 50+ hours per week, 50 weeks per year.
Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#35I got my current 4 day gig just by being upfront with everyone I interviewed with that that's what I was looking for, and waiting until someone said yes.
Same, although I'd add it wasn't easy (in the UK.) I found most of the companies I spoke to the last time I was on the job market were open to me working 4 days a week. I made sure to raise my part time status at the earliest opportunity and added it to my CV to make sure I was only interviewing for positions where this could be accommodated.
However, when it eventually came to negotiating after successfully interviewing it was still difficult and I had at least a few companies - to my huge frustration - try to push me into a full time role or even tell me they weren't setup to handle my request yet but would be in future! With the role I eventually accepted I still had to work full-time during my probation period before I could reduce my hours due to limitations with their processes (apparently.)
To help answer the originl question, at my former employer - The Financial Times - a 4 day week was fairly common amongst folks with young children.
Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
At Microsoft Israel we have: - 23 days off every year for everyone. - 5 extra days off for COVID years (but doesn't accumulate between years) - 18 days of (paid) sick leave (also for family) - Lots of leaves for stuff like family sickness (1 month a year), bereavement (10 days), paternity (6 weeks), maternity (6 weeks) on top of the ones we get from the government (3.5 months parenting leave for example). - 2 times a…
In Sweden we have - 25 days off every year for every one (5 days minimum can carry over). Most tech companies have 30 days off. - No extra days for COVID - Unlimited sick days - 240 days of parental leave (so per parent. Increase if you have more than one child (twins, triplets). Plus 10 days for the non-birthing parent to be together the first weeks. 96 days per parent can be saved beyond the 4th year. - 17 holidays…
In France we get:
* 30 regular days off, that have to be used by year+1, and HR people usually argue with people to use their days off ( the labour inspection checks this kind of stuff)
* 10-12 ( depending on year because it also covers for public holidays that are on a weekend that year) "rest" days if you're not on the regular 35h/week contract ( so most people in IT and similar, because it's supposed that you work more). They have some caveats like not carrying over.
* Some rather limited parental leave ( non-birthing parent's leave was recently increased to like a month, and birthing parent's is somewhere around 3-4 months if i recall correctly? Far too little if you ask me, coming from an ex-communist country where it's 1-3 years)
* 11 public holidays (you don't get a compensation if they fall on a weekend, usually, unless the employer so choses)
Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#37Almost all Dutch companies will honor such a request. Of course, it comes with a 20% salary decrease if you simply go from 5 to 4 days of 8 hours.
Also, some Dutch companies and jobs within the government let you work 4x9 hours
Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#38I like 4-day weeks, but what I would like even more is a month consecutive vacation a year. (Which is just 20-23 days off, rather than the ~50 Fridays every year.) This is pretty common places in Europe like France or Denmark (where you must take at least three weeks consecutive vacation.) Is this something any US companies are advertising?
At Bumble we have: - an unlimited PTO (you'd have to explain going beyond, say, 4 weeks, but otherwise working) - mandatory 2 payed weeks off (1 in December and 1 in Jun) - mostly remote using the "office-hub" model, only requiring presence when necessary - every 2 weeks there something we call a Focus Friday, when nobody can contact you and you are free to concentrate on things you want to work on. This covers all o…
Can't really cover the UK, only offering 20 days PTO without explanation is illegal in the UK, the minimum is 28 days (not including bank holidays). And it's very restrictive compared to most European countries anyway. Seems crazy that this is competitive in the US. Then again, salaries are much higher in the US.
Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#39If you're in Europe I'd wholeheartedly looking into becoming a freelance contractor. Companies regularly hire contractors at 50%-100% more than the equivalent payroll cost, meaning you can easily work less (I haven't worked a 40h week since 2018)
Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm glad that you're happy with the system, but I'm not satisfied with your comment. In my personal experience, people with "unlimited vacation" tend to take less overall vacation than I do, on a mandatory vacation time per year. > (you'd have to explain going beyond, say, 4 weeks, but otherwise working) Unless "I'd like to take a 5-week vacation" isn't enough explanation in itself, it clearly isn't working. An emplo…
In my experience, the conversation goes like this: Me: I'd like to take a 5-week vacation Manager: Why? Me: I haven't taken a long vacation in about year. Manager: Sure thing. Approved. This is what happens and it's better than dealing with accrued PTO where I have to keep track of the days off. I'm sure companies are doing this because they've done the math and see that on average people take less time off with UTO.…
But do you get a reminder if you don't take holiday? In most of Europe, companies don't only have to offer a minimum of 4-5 weeks PTO per year, they also have to make sure employees take at least the majority of their vacation days.