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…
Does everyone in your team take the same day off?
Or do some take Monday off, and others take Friday off?
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…
Part of the challenge with these random days off is everyone rushing to get five days of work done in four (usually because of poor or insufficient planning).
> In most tech companies you can negotiate a lower number of days per week for lesser pay I don't think most companies will let you. I tried to negotiate this many times in the past for engineers and it was never successful. Even for companies that otherwise were very flexible or knew that a 4 day work week was the only way to afford someone they wanted to hire. Many tech companies will do this and its worth asking.…
The impression I've always gotten was that you can't get this up front , but you can negotiate for it eventually . The past few places I've worked had part-time people, but they all seemed to be AAA employees that the company was happy to bend over backwards to keep.
I guess my personal experience collaborates this: I started working 4 days a week for personal reasons, using a large chunk of saved vacation days (we in the Netherlands have quite more then in e.g. the US), and then just made that permanent. It helped that in that timeframe (end of previous century) more women were starting in IT, and parttime work was accepted. In my later years as a IT consultant in the public sector, several clients actually only hired for a maximum of 32 hours a week.
Now no longer working through an agency, I was kindly asked if I could work for longer hours and accepted, so now working 36 instead of 32 hours a week.
I'd be more interested in 2 or 3 day weeks, optionally up to 7. And 100% remote. I've been or still am self-employed and what I like about that is that I can work when I have the brainjuice to work and not work when I have no brain for it. I do Go on the backend, Vue mostly on the front. Angular in the past. Some experiments with React and Svelte. Sometimes I do classic websites (in Go). Self-employed in Germany, but…
Any tips for starting self-employment? Always dreamed of doing that, atleast for a while. But trying to find clients seems the most daunting. Also can you give some insight into your work schedule and coordinating that with clients(in terms of flexibility)? Thank you.
I did it out of necessity. There were no jobs and there was a market. I had the expertise. Nowadays it's all different.
I stopped working for other people about 9 years ago.
Things went well, 2 years ago my main source of income went away. So I've been trying to rebuild - or - find a job with similar freedom.
But the job part isn't working for me. I can't seem to bear authority.
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…
My experience is limited (couple of UK companies), but I've twice been able to negotiate down to 4 days as an existing employee without much difficulty, but found it much harder (failed) to negotiate starting at 4 days with a new employer.
I've negotiated down to 4 days (1st time 34 hrs/wk, 2cnd time 37.5 'cos they wouldn't allow reduced hours, 3rd time 32 hours) at 3 UK employers. This was at interview time. It seems to me you're in a strong position both at interview when they need to fill a position, and once you've been there a while and shown you can deliver. BTW the 2cnd time, when I still had to do the same hours, was not fun cos the days ended up being long and tiring, although younger people with less caring responsibilities mgight not find this too bad.
My experience is limited (couple of UK companies), but I've twice been able to negotiate down to 4 days as an existing employee without much difficulty, but found it much harder (failed) to negotiate starting at 4 days with a new employer.
I've negotiated down to 4 days (1st time 34 hrs/wk, 2cnd time 37.5 'cos they wouldn't allow reduced hours, 3rd time 32 hours) at 3 UK employers. This was at interview time. It seems to me you're in a strong position both at interview when they need to fill a position, and once you've been there a while and shown you can deliver. BTW the 2cnd time, when I still had to do the same hours, was not fun cos the days ended…
At what point in the application-and-interview process did you usually bring up the 4-day-week requirement?
For companies offering 4 day week jobs in Europe @ full salary, try: https://4dayweek.io/remote-jobs/europe There are currently ~100 companies on the platform atm but I have a backlog of new companies to add and see more companies every day And @HN, if your company is open to 4 days @ 80% salary, please get in touch :)
Thanks for 4dayweek.io! Quick bit of feedback: It's the only job site I check regularly that doesn't have a feed I can subscribe to (that I could find, anyway). It's made worse by having to scroll past the same group of prioritized listings every time I visit. Would really appreciate some improvement here <3
I worked for a very progressive company in the mid-80s that did 4 1/2 day work week, 7:30-5:30, and 7:30-11:30 with flex time options. Productivity was through the roof. We also experimented with other trends common today like open floor plans, shared office space, etc. and gave them up due to negative impact. Sadly, a new CEO and a sell off of a couple of divisions ended the practice, back to 8-5, no flex option, just like everyone else.
I've negotiated down to 4 days (1st time 34 hrs/wk, 2cnd time 37.5 'cos they wouldn't allow reduced hours, 3rd time 32 hours) at 3 UK employers. This was at interview time. It seems to me you're in a strong position both at interview when they need to fill a position, and once you've been there a while and shown you can deliver. BTW the 2cnd time, when I still had to do the same hours, was not fun cos the days ended…
At what point in the application-and-interview process did you usually bring up the 4-day-week requirement?
Towards the end of an interview when its going well. :) Its not the 1st thing you ask, but probably best mentioned before they make an offer. It might mean they feel they can offer slightly less pay, which to me is OK. If an employer is being slightly flexible with me, I don't necessarily want top dollar too because I always want to look like decent value. If the salary offered by that employer is not as good as some competitors, thus hurting recruitment, and they know that but can't change it, they may see flexible working as worth offering to clinch the deal. One thing in my favour, which not everyone has, is the "excuse" of extra caring responsibilities. When I give details, its clear cut to any employer that the day off would be to address that or recover from it, rather than indicating any "work-shy-ness" of any kind. These are my tactics anyway :). If anyone on here wants to challenge this I shan't be offended :)