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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#81

Post by _flat20 »

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…

> 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.

Not how it happened when going 6 to 5 days. People made it happen. And OP is one of them.

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

#82

Post by jrumbut »

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…

No one from September 2019 would believe you if you told them about the work from home policies in place right now for millions of people who were expected to be seated at their desk at 9:00 (or 8:30) until 5:00 three years ago.

The world isn't static, tradeoffs can change.

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

#83

Post by coding123 »

Apreche wrote: post #67

I do have a three day weekend. This weekend is actually a four day weekend because of Labor Day on Monday. I negotiated for it. See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32544658 If enough other people do the same, eventually it will become expected, and more people will get it without having to fight. Either negotiate it yourself, or join a union to negotiate for it on your behalf. It's not just going to be han…

I also have a 4 day weekend this week, but we didn't negotiate directly. Instead people were quitting because we all got pay cuts (in the form of not getting raises for 2 years). I wonder if this long weekend is a good time to prep the old resume.

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

#84

Post by lostcolony »

thombat wrote: post #52
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…

Many customer-facing occupations provide for extended opening hours, Saturdays and even Sundays. Personally I'd be thrilled if half the organizations I deal with went beyond Mon-Fri 9-5, and to do so they'll need some extra staff.

Even those that are only open 9-5 M-F are not that hard to keep operational with a 4 day work week. As soon as you have five people, every person gets a different day off during the week. Plenty of people will be happy to have days other than Monday and Friday as well; that breaks up the work week so you have it easier to recover, AND it lets you use that day for errands while everything is open.

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

#85

Post by duxup »

I wonder if the issue is the folks who do have unofficial 3 day weekends ... don't "officially" have them and don't want to expose that "hey we're doing that already"?

I worked at a place where it was painfully obvious that the only folks showing up (when everyone was in the office) on Fridays consistently were the tech support guys. Try and get a hold of anyone else? Chances are nope ...

So some folks have it already and sure as hell don't want to fight for it if they've got it without asking already.

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

#86

Post by HomeDeLaPot »

I've never had a full workday of getting absolutely nothing done. Maybe working 1 day less per week would boost productivity even in the long run, but there would be no going back, so I imagine employers are hesitant to take the risk.

It's also because we consume more. Instead of working less than our great-great-grandparents, we drive big cars, live in huge houses, etc.

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

#87

Post by _flat20 »

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.

Choosing life over work isn't slacking.

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

#88

Post by x86x87 »

n8cpdx wrote: post #77
x86x87 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why rest at all? I mean we are all machines and our goal in life is to work!

I encourage you to read the rest of the comment, where I lay out alternatives to arbitrary day-based systems that allow _more_ rest for people who want that and _more_ flexibility for everyone.

Read the comment. The point was not flexibility. The point was that we could be a post scarcity society where we don't have to work. At all.

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

#89

Post by dsugarman »

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

>The way the post is worded right now seems to be phrased in a way that 3-day weekends are blindingly obvious

Seems like all anti-work propaganda (ie: r/antiwork) to me, there's no meat. You could turn this post into an inductive proof saying it is so obvious that having X-1 days is better than X days of work until you get smacked in the face trying to hand wave that 1->0 will have no impact on productivity.

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

#90

Post by ml_basics »

> And beyond that we can see that increases of productivity has not led to increase of leisure time, maybe the opposite.

Something that is often overlooked when this is debated is the fact that people are living longer, but not retiring much later. Combined with the fact that people generally start working later due to longer studies, taking the long view over a full life time, I think we are experiencing a decrease in the fraction of time spent working.

Example with rough-and-ready numbers: 100 years ago, the median male in the UK might have started working aged 14, worked until 65, and died shortly after. In contrast, today they might start working aged 20, retire at 65, and live until 80.

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