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Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

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Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#61

Post by OJFord »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #52

How doss 4 day work week work with public holidays. Say that one week you have a bank holiday on Monday, but you usually only do Tue-Fri, would you be allowed the Tuesday off as well? Making that week a 3 day week?

Usually/makes sense to prorate them so you only get 4/5 of themif you work Mondays, or get an extra 4/5 of them days holiday if you don't.

In the UK this would be required if you're only offered the statutory minimum (which is also prorated) leave, since you don't have to be offered the bank holidays but have to then have as many days extra (just not on guaranteed dates).

Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#62

Post by louwrentius »

apexalpha wrote: post #58

Here in the Netherlands it's your legal right to work less hours for the same pay (per hour). In my company, the largest ISP, lots of people work either 32 hours, 36 (4x9) or something else. A standard contract at our company is 36 hours. Meaning every other Friday off by default. So I think finding a job in the Netherlands would be a good start.

Just want to support this response. I work 32 hours as a contractor, it should not be and issue in NL. The 100% remote part may in practice be more of a challenge than working 32 hours.

For others: That extra day off means less income, but to me the value of that extra day off is almost incalculable.

Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#63

Post by JulienSchmidt »

That should be rather easily doable but finding a company obviously depends on what you're looking for. Most likely you're in Software Engineering? If so, with which preferences and specialities?

Here at SumUp we're hiring fully remotely across the EU and most teams are very flexible regarding the working hours. A 4-day week should be easily doable and I've personally done that before.

Contact me via my email address in my profile and I'm happy to connect you with the best matching team.

Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#64

Post by throw1230 »

id wrote: post #23
vkazanov wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>you'd have to explain going beyond, say, 4 weeks This is less than the PTO mandated by law in many European countries. Hardly unlimited.

Important to know Europe doesn't calculate time offs like the US does. In the US, if you take 4 weeks off, it's 20 days PTO. In Europe it's 28-30.

Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#65

Post by louwrentius »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #55
mzi wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>- Unlimited sick days I very much doubt that. In most EU countries sick days are limited to 90 days, after that a panel of doctors will examine your case and move you to disability pay for example, as you can't just be on sick leave "unlimited".

In NL the concept of ‘sick days’ doesn’t exist. If you are ill, you are ill. You can get the flu and be out for a week or so and nobody bats an eye. Some use more than others and some may game the system.

But overall we in NL are not familiar with the stress of losing our days off because of illness. This should be the norm for every decent country that cares about human well-being.

Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#66

Post by superice »

bartvk wrote: post #31

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.

It's not just them being nice, it's the law! As an employer you legally cannot deny a request for working part-time unless you have a halfway decent reason.

In my case I was able to start working 32 hours a week at my previous employer, even explicitly communicating that I was going to work (teaching CS in high school) on my day off. I initially requested 30 hours, for working 7.5 hours on the remaining days, but they figured they should set a company wide minimum of 32 hours for people in (more-or-less) managerial positions. If I had pushed it, they probably would have budged on that too.

Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#67

Post by Symbiote »

vkazanov wrote: post #14
thomasahle wrote: post #6

I 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…

In the UK the mandatory minimum is 20 days paid holiday (plus the ~8 public holidays per year).

In Spain 22 days + public holidays.

That's the minimum, many jobs give more, e.g. 28-32 days + public holidays. (On my last job in Britain it increased slowly, when I left I had 33 plus the public holidays.)

It would be informative to see if the people in Britain and Spain take more holiday than those in Texas.

Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#68

Post by matthews2 »

throw1230 wrote: post #64
id wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you'd have to explain going beyond, say, 4 weeks This is less than the PTO mandated by law in many European countries. Hardly unlimited.

Important to know Europe doesn't calculate time offs like the US does. In the US, if you take 4 weeks off, it's 20 days PTO. In Europe it's 28-30.

Which countries do it like this? At least at where I've worked in the UK, only the days where you would've normally been at work are counted.

Re: Ask HN: Companies hiring for a 4-day workweek?

#70

Post by onion2k »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #55
mzi wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>- Unlimited sick days I very much doubt that. In most EU countries sick days are limited to 90 days, after that a panel of doctors will examine your case and move you to disability pay for example, as you can't just be on sick leave "unlimited".

I very much doubt that. In most EU countries sick days are limited to 90 days, after that a panel of doctors will examine your case and move you to disability pay for example, as you can't just be on sick leave "unlimited".

Here in the UK we can "self-certify" sickness for anything less than 5 days. If you're ill for less than a week then you just tell your boss you're ill and don't come to work. You're still paid. If you're ill for more than 5 days then you need to get sign off from a doctor. You're still paid for the time you're sick. If you're ill for several weeks or longer then you move to "statutory sick pay" which is usually less than your salary but some employers will still pay you your full salary. If you're off work for a really long time (6 months+) then most employers will negotiate with you to resign.

At no point are you ever really in danger of losing your job though, or being forced to return to work. Employers are mostly pretty good about it, especially in tech.

In theory I could be genuinely ill every other week for a full year and self-certify 26 individual weeks off without needing to visit a doctor or losing my job. In that sense, we absolutely do have "unlimited" sick days.

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