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Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

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Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#41

Post by pwinnski »

overlordalex wrote: post #13

To maybe throw the question back - what have you done to make 3 day weekends a reality? The way the post is worded right now seems to be phrased in a way that 3-day weekends are blindingly obvious, but if you look at the history of labour rights I dont see why anyone expects it to just happen without a massive amount of organising

Most advances in labor rights came about as a result of hard work: blood, sweat, and tears. Not, it turns out, this particular one!

The five-day work-week came about because Henry Ford declared it to be so in 1926, and wasn't made any sort of law until 1939.

Ultimately, the decision to move to four-day work weeks can only be made by CEOs or equivalents, and while some have, most haven't. At my previous company, the head of HR proposed it, the CTO agreed, and it went to the CEO, who said no. He didn't want the CTO org to have benefits the rest of the company didn't have, and didn't want to extend a four-day work week to all departments.

When they continue to have trouble filling open job positions because they aren't competing will in the market, perhaps he'll change his mind.

https://www.4dayweek.com

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#44

Post by pwinnski »

panzagl wrote: post #40

What I want to know is how 'salaried' turned into ">=40 hours a week"

It was the other way around. Works weeks were 48 hours or more until Henry Ford enacted a five-day 40-hour week in his factory in 1926[0]. Later, in 1939, laws were passed that officially established the new only-40-hour week as the norm, with 32 hours as the official mark of full- vs part-time, and anything over 40 being deemed "overtime."

At least in the United States, that's the trend.

0. https://www.truthorfiction.com/henry-ford-invented-the-5-day...

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#45

Post by Grim-444 »

How did you arrive at 3 days? Why not 2? Why not 1? Why work at all when we can just print ourselves money until it all collapses? Do you own a business where you've allowed your employees to work different sized workweeks and were able to evaluate the changes in productivity? What data do you have to back up any of your viewpoints that's more substantive than just believing whatever people on reddit or elsewhere on the internet told you is true?

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#47

Post by swagasaurus-rex »

sudden_dystopia wrote: post #38

They aren’t just going to give you a free day off. There would be a commensurate decrease in your pay. I don’t find the 5 days/week to be “irrational”, “irrational” to whom? It’s completely rational from an employers perspective that they have a job to fulfill and it requires employees to complete the job. If they have people working 4 days /week, they need coverage for the other days. It’s not rational for the custo…

> they will just make everyone part time.

The implicit threat here is withdrawal of benefits - specifically health care insurance

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#48

Post by n8cpdx »

gnulinux wrote: post #30
codegeek wrote: post #15

"And we know many people who work barely a fraction of the week, yet need to maintain this kind of presenteeism." I don't disagree with you necessarily but the people who game it now, will game it with 4 day week as well. Slackers are always going to slack. 5 day or 4 day.

I do not consider myself a slacker, in fact I consider myself a miracle worker in terms of the output I generate (in terms of code, business organization, end product, $$$ generated in the long term); but I do not "work" even a fraction of a 5 day work week, I would even admit this to my manager. Do you have any evidence to suggest programmers/engineers/managers who are productive work every moment of a 9AM-5PM day?…

There’s a lot of background thinking that happens with knowledge work. Spending 3 hours at a desk and 5 hours milling about in the office isn’t necessarily “not being productive”. It’s pretty often that I’ll get stuck on a problem, distract myself on HN for a few minutes, then pump out a solution in minutes or otherwise have an epiphany.

Similarly, talking to coworkers, even (especially) at unrelated parts of a company can be super valuable, even if it codes as “unproductive time wasting”.

TLDR your definition of work might be too constrained.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#49

Post by slively »

pwinnski wrote: post #41
overlordalex wrote: post #13

To maybe throw the question back - what have you done to make 3 day weekends a reality? The way the post is worded right now seems to be phrased in a way that 3-day weekends are blindingly obvious, but if you look at the history of labour rights I dont see why anyone expects it to just happen without a massive amount of organising

Most advances in labor rights came about as a result of hard work: blood, sweat, and tears. Not, it turns out, this particular one! The five-day work-week came about because Henry Ford declared it to be so in 1926, and wasn't made any sort of law until 1939. Ultimately, the decision to move to four-day work weeks can only be made by CEOs or equivalents, and while some have, most haven't. At my previous company, the h…

Attributing the 5 day work week to Henry Ford is not placing the credit correctly. He may have been the first big CEO, but it was the work of labor rights activists and unions. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/sep/09/viral-imag...

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#50

Post by [deleted] »

sudden_dystopia wrote: post #38

They aren’t just going to give you a free day off. There would be a commensurate decrease in your pay. I don’t find the 5 days/week to be “irrational”, “irrational” to whom? It’s completely rational from an employers perspective that they have a job to fulfill and it requires employees to complete the job. If they have people working 4 days /week, they need coverage for the other days. It’s not rational for the custo…

[deleted]
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