Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#1

Post by high_byte » Fri, May 20, 2022, 10:03 AM UTC

Standard work hours here is 9am-6pm, so 9 hours and I used to stay 10+ hours in the office often. before covid was another hour commute daily which meant pretty much not having any sun. New girl at work has a kid and told me she thought it was crazy staying past 3-4pm, and it dawned on me how right she is. pretty much everyone finished working by 7pm - many stores, restaurants are already closed before I even had a chance. Also after 6 hours the effectiveness or quality of work declines.

I got nothing against 4 day workweeks - I myself work part time, but I rather work 2-4 hours for even 6 days a week and I'd like to see this approach more popularized. Anyone else feels like this?

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#2

Post by svennek » Fri, May 20, 2022, 10:42 AM UTC

I hear you. I am self employed but try to mimic the standard 37-hour work-week of my country. Most weeks I do it 6x6 instead of 5x7,5ish...

6 hours feels more productive and 6x6 feels less hard than the normal 37 over 5 days...

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#3

Post by taubek » Fri, May 20, 2022, 10:45 AM UTC

It all comes down to productivity. Who can be productive 8 hours, day after day, for years?

I know people (in IT) that work 6x6hours. And both they and employers are satisfied with this arrangement.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#4

Post by sokoloff » Fri, May 20, 2022, 10:47 AM UTC

I think it depends on the job quite a bit. For creative work, I often find it impossible to force myself to work past 4 hours in a stretch; in other cases, I can easily work 11 hours before noticing that it's been that long and I haven't even had lunch yet.

My company does a version of summer Fridays, where it's very easy to take 3-day weekends every week and I very much appreciate the "extra" day and would strongly not like to go in the other direction.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#5

Post by truckerbill » Fri, May 20, 2022, 10:48 AM UTC

Flexible hours in general should be encouraged and fought for. 4x6hrs would be ideal for me, but you have to have leverage to convince most places to agree to that.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#6

Post by ben_w » Fri, May 20, 2022, 10:55 AM UTC

I tried 10 hour days *once* for a project crunch, and that was a bad decision in every regard.

If your office hours are officially 09-18, but you’re working lunchtime and until 19:00, I don’t expect that officially reducing hours is going to help, because I expect you to unofficially keep with the longer hours anyway. On that basis, I think you personally would be better off with fewer days than shorter days.

On the other hand, if you keep to the shorter hours, I think either shorter or fewer days would both be an improvement, though I don’t know which is the better quality of life.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#7

Post by orangepurple » Fri, May 20, 2022, 10:57 AM UTC

Meanwhile in China...

Excerpts below taken from the website https://996.icu/#/en_US

What is "996"? 996 working, ICU waiting.

A "996" work schedule refers to an unofficial work schedule (9a.m. ~ 9p.m., 6 days a week) that has been gaining in popularity. Serving a company that encourages the "996" work schedule usually means working for at least 60 hours a week.

In early September 2016, it was said that 58.com (58同城, a classified advertisements company) introduced the "996" work schedule, without paying employees overtime who worked on weekends. The company later claimed that the schedule was only practiced managing extra workflow during peak season - September and October, and that the schedule was not compulsory.

In early 2019, Youzan (有赞, a Hangzhou-based E-commerce company) announced the company would adopt "996" work schedule in the annual convention. Bai Ya, the CEO of Youzan, responded: "This will definitely be a right decision when we look back in a few years."

In mid-March 2019, it was reported that JD.com (京东, a major E-commerce company) started adopting "996" or "995" work schedules in some departments. The PR posted that (Our culture is) to devote ourselves wholeheartedly (to achieve the business objectives) via Maimai (脉脉, a Chinese real-name business social network platform).

Gaining more publicity only recently, this work schedule, however, has long been a known "secret" practiced in a lot of companies in China.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#8

Post by jhoechtl » Fri, May 20, 2022, 11:02 AM UTC

It really depends. If you live in a condo and you free time is sports, meetings friends, etc. a six hours work day is more important.

If you build your house on your own, cultivate green land etc. the four day workweek is more important as these kinds of work require a lot of preparation time.

Opt in models?

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#9

Post by 5350-uiop-1130 » Fri, May 20, 2022, 11:02 AM UTC

I would take 3 day weekend. Needs to be a clear delineation between work and weekend or some companies will take the p*ss.

If you have 6 hour days you might find yourself still working more. For me its no contest.

Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO

#10

Post by nvilcins » Fri, May 20, 2022, 11:04 AM UTC

truckerbill wrote: post #5

Flexible hours in general should be encouraged and fought for. 4x6hrs would be ideal for me, but you have to have leverage to convince most places to agree to that.

Been practicing 6-hour 4-day work week schedule for a while now and I'm the happiest I've ever been. No real noticeable difference in productivity long-term, and a significant improvement in the amount and quality of personal (non-work) time.