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

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

#161

Post by qwerty456127 »

unfocused wrote: post #104
qwerty456127 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My job is easy, crisis-proof and generally fun, not to mention 6-7-hour workdays which many can only dream about (not a common thing to find at my location). I just hate getting up in mornings, having fixed time schedule and spending many days in a row working this way. But that's the standard almost everybody has to deal with. So I don't feel like changing the job. Perhaps I'm going to return to flexible-schedule gi…

I know you're not to supposed to listen to advice on the Internet, but perhaps improving/changing your sleeping habits if you want to stay in your job? If Saturday is the one day you are getting good sleep, then there is some improvement to be done. Perhaps reading a book before bed, and trying to go to bed early, can create a new sleep routing for your sleep hygiene? Worth a try! Hope you feel less tired!

> I know you're not to supposed to listen to advice on the Internet

Perhaps that's the conventional wisdom yet advices on the Internet are exactly what I hunt for by writing this kind of comments here :-) For a reasonably rationally minded person this is a great input of things to explore. Many such advices already changed my life for good.

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

#162

Post by xyzzy4747 »

metabro wrote: post #79

There just is so much work that I don’t get how working 4 days will workout. The work isn’t going to scale down. The deadlines I don’t think will change. At my company which is a very typical big sv company, no one is watching how long you work but the work needs to get done.

The amount of work that can be done at any business is actually infinite.

If companies allow people to take the weekend off, it's not such a stretch to extend it to 3 days.

That said, I run a startup and even taking the weekend off feels generous to me because I see all the things not getting done.

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

#163

Post by ac2022 »

I agree especially with kids. I got kids, I close shop at 4pm.

I get kids, go to park, pool, etc. Bring sandwiches or pick up junk food. One kid is baby, so usually drop him at home with mom.

Sadly most parents especially dads work late. So I am not able to make plans with moms for after school playdates. And my wife is not very social and she doesn't like Texas afternoon heat.

But there are a few dads who leave work early and we try to arrange pladates after school.

Not sure if one whole day off would create as many opportunities for play as shorter work days.

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

#164

Post by qwerty456127 »

chitowneats wrote: post #103
qwerty456127 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My job is easy, crisis-proof and generally fun, not to mention 6-7-hour workdays which many can only dream about (not a common thing to find at my location). I just hate getting up in mornings, having fixed time schedule and spending many days in a row working this way. But that's the standard almost everybody has to deal with. So I don't feel like changing the job. Perhaps I'm going to return to flexible-schedule gi…

Dude, change job. You can absolutely find a software job where they let you work later in the day.

I used to have a software job but am not sure I want to return to that. I prefer communicating to people. Writing code gets me severe ADHD attacks :-]

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

#165

Post by gibspaulding »

high_byte wrote: post #87
jokethrowaway wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds awesome! If you don't mind sharing, how do you manage school obligations?

I guess 4 day school days wouldn't be a bad idea either... of course the other day should be filled with something productive, which may or may not include "schooling" (learning) or "working" (as in creating, not paid/unpaid labor) or other form of activity.

The college I graduated from for the most part didn't offer classes on Friday and I can attest that it was wonderful as a student. It meant that I could get homework done and/or work a side job on Friday and still have a proper weekend to re-coup for the next week.

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

#166

Post by joadha »

dsr_ wrote: post #141

Can we agree that different people have different optimal working styles? Some people get everything done first thing in the morning and are useless in the afternoons. Some people can't get started until noon whatever their local time is. Some people can commit to 10 or 12 hour days, and if so, it's not fair to ask them to work 5 days a week at that rate. Some people work best in private offices, some at separated wo…

How do you maximize opportunities for collaboration?

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

#167

Post by hemreldop »

s5300 wrote: post #13
orangepurple wrote: post #7

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…

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#168

Post by JacobThreeThree »

sph wrote: post #112
bodge5000 wrote: post #106

Funnily enough Im more the opposite. Give me 10 hour days for 3 days a week and I'd jump at the chance. An extra 2 hours at the end of the day isnt much to get used to, but being able to spend more full days not working than working would mean a lot to me. That vs the proposed 6-hour 4-day week some people mentioned in this thread, it'd be very happy with either obviously, but I still think I'd go for 3 days if I had…

Your brain and body recharges every night. Memory function actually improves over night. Doing more hours doesn't make you more productive, the amount of meaningful work you can do in a day is pretty much constant. I'm definitely in the shorter days camp. In my experience there's a 2 to 4 hour peak performance window and a long tail of diminishing brain power.

>Doing more hours doesn't make you more productive, the amount of meaningful work you can do in a day is pretty much constant.

Although that may be the case for most people, I doubt there's no exceptions to this.

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

#169

Post by femiagbabiaka »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #154
AndyMcConachie wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Japans xenophobia is a problem in that they can’t bandaid their birth rate issues with immigration the way other countries have been able to, but that doesn’t make it not a problem. Immigrants arrive and then have similar birth rates within a generation or so.

Wow! I did not realize this was the case. So this must be a result of domestic policy even beyond the job culture.

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

#170

Post by galoisscobi »

joadha wrote: post #166
dsr_ wrote: post #141

Can we agree that different people have different optimal working styles? Some people get everything done first thing in the morning and are useless in the afternoons. Some people can't get started until noon whatever their local time is. Some people can commit to 10 or 12 hour days, and if so, it's not fair to ask them to work 5 days a week at that rate. Some people work best in private offices, some at separated wo…

How do you maximize opportunities for collaboration?

Set 2 half days as office hours where people self organize and collaborate on whatever they need to solve. Poll the team to find what those 2 chunks of time are. 2 half days is arbitrary, the core idea would be that builders/makers have uninterrupted time to focus and build for the rest of the week.
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