Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you willing to get paid 24/37 = 64% of a fulltime positions salary? If so, I think plenty of smaller employers would be happy to do this.
Despite having fewer hours on the clock, I will still deliver the same software on the same timeframe. It’s the software I create that they are buying, therefore I should be paid the same. That being said, yes. As long as the salary is enough to maintain my standard of living, I will accept a lower salary to work fewer hours.
Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
81–90 of 312 posts
Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you willing to get paid 24/37 = 64% of a fulltime positions salary? If so, I think plenty of smaller employers would be happy to do this.
Hilariously, I have literally asked companies to give me a 4 day week and take away the salary for the last day. I don't care. I just want a free day, but nope, no-one bit .. even the "smaller" employers.
Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#83So I am seeing more and more of ideas like this; but I feel the need to challenge them a bit. Not the ideal; work less, have more fulfilling lives - I am all in. But all of these initiatives are focused on the wealthier office workers and sometimes factory/shift workers who are non-customer facing. But it totally ignores the service industry which is a huge part of our society (and arguably even more so if we end up…
I don't see the connection here, why would it affect the poorest?
I don't think people mean that all shops close earlier, just that they'd need to hire more people to cover a reduced shift.
> we need to automate out the poorest roles in society
I think we've done that many times in history but it has never led to a reduced workload, usually the company will take the increased profits and the ones that lost their job need to find something else
Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#84Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are some rich people in the US who endorse 996. Calacanis being one. Imagine trying to be a bigger piece of shit. Japan isn’t even 996 & they’re going to have to start forcing people to have kids at gunpoint or kinda implode as a nation. Near purely because of their abysmal work culture. I recall when Cards Against Humanity paid for their overseas factory workers a day off by paying for a full factory day with…
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Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#86It could be just me, but I find the value of stopping around 3-4pm versus 5-6pm to be pretty limited. You still have this feeling that the main part of the day is almost over and you can't do any substantial personal tasks or serious relaxing before the dinner ritual.
Also, when you're the exception in your team to leave early, you're effectively "disappointing" your team every single day that you work. Where others might have 4PM meetings, you're never available. This invites a feeling of guilt, where you start to make exceptions, and incidentally stay longer. Others are learning that your 4-6pm unavailability is quite soft. Further, every single morning you're behind in email and chat, needing to go through what happened late in the previous day whilst others are already up to speed.
With a real day off (4 day workweek), you have a full day to do something really substantial. Time feels plentiful rather than scarce.
A full day off is a barrier that is much easier to defend. You're just not available at all on that day, and work and expectations easily adapt to that.
Overall, I think the problem with modern office work is that it's far too collaborative. We've normalized being in meetings for half of the day and having hundreds of emails and chat messages to wade through, whilst the actual work takes a back seat.
If you'd have a clean and clear work package, you could do the work in that package at your convenience in whatever way fits best in your life. But we don't have that. We start the morning fresh with an idea of goals for the day in mind, and at the end of the day we did almost none of it. Everything changed throughout the day. Too many dependencies, too many moving parts. That's the real problem.
Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#87I like the 4 day week, but that is because I have kids who are teenagers. Giving them some extra time each night with their parents is not important to them. But having an extra day to do something big, explore a new place, go to new museums, take small road trips, go camping, etc. - that makes a difference in their life. When they get older and go off on their own, though, I would agree with you - a short daily work…
That sounds awesome! If you don't mind sharing, how do you manage school obligations?
Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#88So I am seeing more and more of ideas like this; but I feel the need to challenge them a bit. Not the ideal; work less, have more fulfilling lives - I am all in. But all of these initiatives are focused on the wealthier office workers and sometimes factory/shift workers who are non-customer facing. But it totally ignores the service industry which is a huge part of our society (and arguably even more so if we end up…
This has to happen first. Automation will put them out of work way faster than the UBI system will come online - and that is assuming the UBI system is not completely stonewalled to begin with.
As soon as we know the work is definitely automatable, we should start pushing for UBI. Once people who do not want to work leave the workforce, everything will get better.
I think people get so wrapped up in the concept of "free loaders" that they overlook how sandbagged our economy is by forcing those same people to engage with it.
We dont cull the weak anymore, which is fantastic, but they are still weak. We need to care for them and get them out of the way of people trying to accomplish things.
Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let’s be honest, if you ever worked in East Asian countries with these work ethic culture, you’d know they just sit around the office doing absolutely nothing. It’s bullshit.
Even on this very forum you people will consistently brag that they only work a couple hours a week at their 500k job.
Re: Ask HN: 6-hour workdays more important than 4-day workweeks IMO
#90The thing about the 5 days a week is that at the weekends you end up doing personal stuff you neglected during the workdays. I'm not sure that having two more hours a day will free up your weekend, I'm kind of leaning to 4 days a week because you can actually have useful time. Personally, I wouldn't object to 3 days of non-stop working till the midnight to have 4 free days a week. Things won't pile up and instead of…