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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?

#151

Post by clumpthump »

dvtrn wrote: post #135
MDGeist wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My previous company had instituted the forced holiday once or twice a quarter and it was truly effective at getting people who never take time off to take a break. They tried to discontinue it after the pandemic receded a bit but people protested so they kept it in the end.

They tried to discontinue it after the pandemic receded What arbitrary KPI did they point to as a reason for that decision?

Not the person you're replying to but I had the same experience. My company was careful to announce the extra holidays as a special pandemic related wellness thing (subtext: not permanent) whenever they did it, so the discontinuation was just not announcing new ones.

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

#152

Post by Exeon »

In Switzerland it is quite standard that companies - including Exeon - hire employees with 80% workload. (We also have many colleagues working 20%, 50%, 60% and 100%) This model is very popular with people with kids and with university students, who need time to finish their studies. Work-life balance is important, so we also offer 5 weeks of paid time-off (at 100% workload), remote and flexible working and other benefits.

We are a cybersecurity scale-up and we are actually hiring: https://www.exeon.com/company/career

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

#153

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

louwrentius wrote: post #138
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have not seen anything about 90 sick-days in any contract with an employer ever, even when I was still a regular 'waged' employee Have you checked your national insurance conditions? In Austria this also isn't in any employment contract because it's ratified in the national health insurance agreement everyone working here must have, which limits everyone to 90 days sick leave but many people don't know this and t…

Forget about the 90 days, it doesn’t apply to NL. https://dutchreview.com/expat/sick-leave-netherlands/ The two years I mentioned are right.

That's pretty good. I guess Austria just wants to be employer heaven.

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

#154

Post by zerkten »

rr808 wrote: post #139
vinay_ys wrote: post #95

In most tech companies you can negotiate a lower number of days per week for lesser pay. In the last two decades I've been in the industry, I knew very junior people (early in their career) and very senior people doing 3-4 day workweek due to personal reasons in pretty much every company I worked in. It wasn't a big deal. Ability to take 3-6 month long unpaid breaks (sabbaticals), 4 weeks of PTOs, plus sick/carer lea…

Wow I've never heard of this. I'm in NYC though. Is this in SV or generic tech? I'd love to take sabbaticals every year or two.

Some people negotiate 4-day weeks with the same pay across all industries, but I'd say it's overall less common than the person you replied to. People like to talk about exotic work schedules and the like, but fewer actually make demands for it. Those that try it revert for different reasons, including the rest of the team operating without reasonable consideration.

Where I've seen this be successful is when the person picks up time that overlaps with a remote team. This is viewed as adding additional value because it can be hard to get other people to get up early, or stay up late to collaborate with those teams. If it's part of their deal then it can end up being a more sustainable situation.

If you want a sabbatical, why not just ask for it? Use it as a filter for the organizations you want to work with. I suspect it'll be hard to negotiate because the company won't understand what value they'll get. You are a prospective hire and not a proven asset. It's only after a period that they can assess that they feel you are worthy of a sabbatical and aren't a flight risk. When it comes to academia, then sabbaticals are part of the deal. They aren't for tech companies, although some like Microsoft offer these for higher levels (people with proven value who have lots of options.)

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

#155

Post by brightball »

Anecdotally, a friend of mine started a therapy practice to be open 4 days a week in person. After a while, they realized everybody was just moonlighting at other businesses on Friday because they just wanted to make more money...so now the business is open on Friday mornings as well.

Just thought it was interesting because odds are pretty high that any 4-day work week option is going to pay less and when given the option, a lot of people would rather just have the extra 52 paid days per year.

EDIT: I don't usually comment on down voting...but I'm really curious about this one.

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

#157

Post by janeerie »

krm01 wrote: post #121

Currently not hiring (will hire in the coming months again), but I run a small UI/UX design agency where we help B2B software teams design cleaner & more user friendly products [1]. A 4-day workweek is a core part of our culture. It dramatically increased productivity, increased energy levels and reduced overall mental pressure. The way we make it work is to not have everyone be away during the same day. It’s really…

Definitely bookmarking for when you're hiring again!

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

#158

Post by cr1895 »

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.

You're wrong for the case of the Netherlands and Belgium.

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

#160

Post by cr1895 »

jlengrand wrote: post #113

A lot of companies in the Netherlands will be open to that. My experience is also that it's usually OKish, if you make it part of the salary negotiations. If you are open to that, let them pick one day a week off / fewer hours per day and it'll be even easier to convince folks

>A lot of companies in the Netherlands will be open to that.

It's part of employment law. So long as you fulfill the criteria & there isn't a very compelling reason for your employer to say no, you're allowed to reduce hours.

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