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Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

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141–150 of 271 posts

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#141

I work four days in my current role and will continue doing so in my next one. I don't have much choice in the matter so I always raise it at the earliest opportunity and have even added it to my CV to make sure I don't waste anybody's time. I've found the majority of the companies I've spoken to over the last few years (in the UK) have been open to me working 4 days a week but I've also had the frustrating experienc…

What industry or domain are you in?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#142
My company basically affords us the freedom to choose how much or how little we work. The ideal target we discuss is 3-day work weeks. Surprisingly, this still affords each of us around 70th percentile salary.

Grated, we're not a "product company" and instead work essentially as hired IT mercenaries, i.e. contract work, but it's a pretty sweet gig.

The job kind of found me. I posted my CV to some online forums (include here) and mailing lists, and a few random small companies contacted me over the course of about a year.

We actually keep our ears to the ground for interesting individuals, so if you're interested, feel free to shoot me an email: local-part: wilson, domain: rainlab.co.jp. We're fully remote, so timezone concerns aside, physical location is mostly irrelevant.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#143
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it typical to find completely unacceptable pay on your site? Listings that have requirement for engineers which could pull home 200-300k a year wanting to pay $15 an hour. I guess this is why "nobody wants to work anymore" One listing (company name omitted to protect the witness): Requirements BS/MS in Computer Science Strong in Data Structure/Algorithms, can solve intermediate-level Leetcode questions with ease E…

There's no way that gets filled right? That's completely divorced from reality lol.

Maybe it’s a typo? They are missing a zero there ;)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#144
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how and why I got down to 3 days a week. I went to 4 to get my next job, then down to 2 at my current job. If you can afford it and arrange it, it's fantastic.

Isn’t that just a (very) part time job at that point? Sounds like pseudo-retirement really, so I would assume you had quite a bit of savings by the time you went to 2-day-job.

Depends on the company/salary - I'm on 10x my initial salary when I started in tech 8 years ago so if I went down to a two day work week I'd be on 4x my initial salary still. I couldn't afford this nowadays because of lifestyle creep, but it's fun to think about. If you were in Europe and found a 2 day remote role for a US based startup you could probably find a comparable salary!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#145
Yep, best decision I have made. I am focussed at work in a way I have never been before, because I don't feel as though the treadmill of life is getting away from me. I solve bigger more complex problems faster because I feel comfortable comitting my full focus, as I know I will get time to myself to catch up with the rest of life.

I work 4 x 7.5 hour days, I just took a paycut in theory. So I negotiated a full time wage and then calculated what I get paid at 4/5ths of that number.

I was freelancing for about 4 years prior, and I am currently preferring this arrangement as I truly get to focus and commit both to work and hobbies rather than splitting focus. I am getting more fulfillment by performing highly at work now too, which was an unexpected benefit. I also enjoy the camaraderie I get from work over freelancing, which can be a very lonely affair.

Of all the arrangements I have had, including a "sabatical" of 6 months, I prefer this. Retirement I hope to work 0 days of course, buy while earning, 4 days has proven a good balance.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#146
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4 x 10 hours or 4 x 8?

This is an important distinction, but personally I think I prefer 4x10 over 5x8. Productivity will probably be better too.

This is anecdotal, so not data, but I'm not 100% sure i agree. But it may be an age thing.

In my youth (for some definition of youth) I could work flat out for 10 hours+. I'd get in the groove and just fly.

I'm a little (or lot) older now - and I can do maybe 6 hours at a time now. I now fill the rest of the time with non-code work, like docs etc. Or I just knock off early.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#147
I tried but then I switched to doing the opposite.

I am now working 7 days a week (freelancing), but then I try to stick to roughly 4 hours a day.

Except for when I want to take vacation with friends or family, I realized that I did not really need 2-3 days off every week.

Waking up around 8am and working until 1pm gives me a lot more joy.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#148
I’m a contractor working 4 days per week for a well known YC startup. I indie hack on Fridays and weekends.

I found the job on Twitter, almost by mistake. The 4-day workweek was a non-negotiable for me because the indie hacking part is so much fun, and it’s making me around $60-70k/year, and I’d very much like to keep on developing the business.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone working 4 day week here, as an employee?

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is amazing, good for you! Do you mind sharing your job, how long the process took/how many different companies you interviewed?

I'm a software engineer. I'm working at a startup now after basically refusing to work at start-ups, or any kind of tech company, my entire career prior. I always worked at normal stable trustworthy non-tech companies that happened to need software engineers. I would still prefer to go back to the non-tech non-startup industry, but the offer was too good. The process took less than a year. I entertained pitches from…

> I would still prefer to go back to the non-tech non-startup industry.

As someone who has spent > 15 years in the tech-only industry, both in massive corporations and startups, I'm curious to know how someone finds these roles. I think I'd quite like something like this when I am ready to move on from my current (startup) role.

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