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World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

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Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#61

Post by wnkrshm »

themodelplumber wrote: post #20
vouaobrasil wrote: post #13

When was a mathematician, I worked as hard as I could until I was mentally exhausted. I actually calculated how much I worked per week over a period of two years. On actual "hard thinking", like working through logic, I spent about 7 hours. There was another 7 hours writing and clarifying topics, and another 6 hours or so on classes, seminars (sort of like meetings, but productive). That gives a total of 20 hours per…

That reasoning is complicated IMO by the fact that many jobs involve projects and tasks that are perceived as very important, yet will never be started, let alone continued, let alone completed. That's a pretty big deal as-is. It can easily make the boss feel justified--OK this employee said we need to do this thing, they said they want to take it on, but it's not being done. The boss is in the loop and may feel like…

So much about work is about the perception of what you do and not about what is really being done. Add to that, that even when one is actually providing lots of value, it may not be perceived as important by whoever you report to - but the firefighting du jour is.

Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#63

Post by DiggyJohnson »

dheera wrote: post #55
vouaobrasil wrote: post #13

When was a mathematician, I worked as hard as I could until I was mentally exhausted. I actually calculated how much I worked per week over a period of two years. On actual "hard thinking", like working through logic, I spent about 7 hours. There was another 7 hours writing and clarifying topics, and another 6 hours or so on classes, seminars (sort of like meetings, but productive). That gives a total of 20 hours per…

There's also that we once had a society where one person in a household worked 8 hours a day and one did house chores (including raising kids) for 8 hours a day. In a modern, fair society, that should translate into both people working 4 hours a day and house chores 4 hours a day. Unfortunately the reality right now is we're pushing both people to each work 12 hours a day AND do 4 hours of chores on top of that.

Who is pushing for people to work extended hours? Assuming you’re talking about the tech industry and US market.

I find this sentiment to be pretty rare.

Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#64

Post by xyzelement »

bachmeier wrote: post #6

> The rest were convinced by revenue gains, drops in turnover and lower levels of worker burnout that four is the new five when it comes to work days. This is not surprising. The 20% of time that's getting cut is probably the 20% that shouldn't have been done anyway. Telling workers they can cut the 20% of the crap they hated doing is obviously going to lead to better results.

Do you make the same interpretation when companies cut 20% of the workforce instead?

Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#65

Post by myroon5 »

kevingadd wrote: post #45
Invictus0 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get healthcare 7 days a week but only work for 4. Salary is only one component of compensation

Health insurance isn't THAT expensive. This is ridiculous

American employers pay ~$22k/yr for those that prefer numbers:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/employers-family-health-insuran...

Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#66

Post by lumost »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #13

When was a mathematician, I worked as hard as I could until I was mentally exhausted. I actually calculated how much I worked per week over a period of two years. On actual "hard thinking", like working through logic, I spent about 7 hours. There was another 7 hours writing and clarifying topics, and another 6 hours or so on classes, seminars (sort of like meetings, but productive). That gives a total of 20 hours per…

It’s Curious, I wonder if as the portion of time people spend on hard problems increases the rate of burnout increases.

10 years ago a much larger percentage of my day was spent on non-taxing activities that have since been automated.

Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#67

Post by hahamrfunnyguy »

cooperadymas wrote: post #51

Something I've never understood is why four days? Is it simply because it's an incremental improvement over the current five day week, a stopping point toward the next target, or is it the target?

Having worked a 3-day week for a couple of years, I will second the notion that it possible to lose continuity by being off for four days in a row. Part of that might be that everyone else is still on the 5-day schedule, the other part of that is I would get wrapped up in other matters during the 4 days and then need to refocus attention on something completely unrelated back at work.

I ended up leaving myself notes on what I was working on before I left on Thursday and what to do first. This was a big help in getting the continuity back and not feeling like I missed a beat when I resumed working again on Tuesday.

Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#68

Post by dheera »

DiggyJohnson wrote: post #63
dheera wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also that we once had a society where one person in a household worked 8 hours a day and one did house chores (including raising kids) for 8 hours a day. In a modern, fair society, that should translate into both people working 4 hours a day and house chores 4 hours a day. Unfortunately the reality right now is we're pushing both people to each work 12 hours a day AND do 4 hours of chores on top of that.

Who is pushing for people to work extended hours? Assuming you’re talking about the tech industry and US market. I find this sentiment to be pretty rare.

> Who is pushing for people to work extended hours? Assuming you’re talking about the tech industry and US market.

US tech industry can have some bad hours, but other industries in the US can be much worse. Talk to some nurses, Wall Street people, delivery drivers, they all have it much worse than most tech people.

As for other countries, China's unofficially standard work schedule in tech is now 996 (9am-9pm, 6 days a week), Japan's finance work schedule has been 9am-midnight for a long time, most other Asian countries aren't much better.

Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#69

Post by skellington »

xyzelement wrote: post #64
bachmeier wrote: post #6

> The rest were convinced by revenue gains, drops in turnover and lower levels of worker burnout that four is the new five when it comes to work days. This is not surprising. The 20% of time that's getting cut is probably the 20% that shouldn't have been done anyway. Telling workers they can cut the 20% of the crap they hated doing is obviously going to lead to better results.

Do you make the same interpretation when companies cut 20% of the workforce instead?

There is no doubt that most companies (and the government) could cut 20% with no effect on their productivity. It's just no practical to ride the razors edge of leanness and it also would probably harm morale.

Twitter cut 80% of it's workforce and is becoming MORE productive.

Re: World’s largest four-day work week trial finds few are going back

#70

Post by hinkley »

Invictus0 wrote: post #30
Vinnl wrote: post #28

It's the one thing I miss most from working for Dutch companies: being able to take a 20% pay cut and work 20% less. Theoretically, that should be a great deal for my employer: the extra rest, and just the way productive work is usually spread out across the week, means that my productivity definitely was not down 20% compared to now, so I was cheaper per hour. Yet even that culturally seems to be a hard sell in a ma…

You get healthcare 7 days a week but only work for 4. Salary is only one component of compensation

That's only a problem if you believe that the 33rd hour is as productive as the 23rd hour, which isn't the case. We're talking about 4 day work weeks, not 4 hour work weeks.
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