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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

#171

Post by TedShiller »

mrmincent wrote: post #3

I’ve gone down to 4 days, taking Fridays off to look after my son, and I certainly won’t be going back to 5 days until he’s in school. Looking after a toddler all day isn’t exactly a day off, but it is extremely rewarding, and something I’d recommend to any parent thinking about dropping down a day. It definitely has some downsides however, I’m the only one in the team that’s off that day, so there’s usually meetings…

I don't see any downside to a 4 day work week. Workers should expect to get paid 4/5 of what they made before, but it could be well worth it.

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

#172

Post by lettergram »

mobiledev2014 wrote: post #129
lettergram wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually work 6 days a week (only Sunday off) noon until midnight with a two hour break 5-7pm. That’s 60 hrs of work a week, but I get to spend every morning 7am-noon with my kids. It’s been a great change of pace for me personally. We have a garden we do as a family, I can do doc appointments, some field trips, etc. while still working extremely hard. It’s not for everyone, but that schedule has been great for me…

That’s baffling. Nobody should have to work 60 hours a week and be happy about it, doesn’t matter when the hours are

Lol for almost all human history working all a day was the norm.

I don’t necessarily have to do that much work, but I want to get ahead. Most people I grew up with work 40-70hrs a week, often two to three jobs.

It’s natural for me to work that much. I don’t even blink at it. What else would you do? Play video games, watch tv, “party”? I can accomplish and build things and spend the rest of the time with family and friends. It’s a good life imo

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

#173

Post by wonderwonder »

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.

If you just factor in an hour commute each way that many people have that's already 10 hours. In most professional jobs its not great to be the guy in the door at 9 and out at 5 on the dot if you want a promotion. So that 8 hours turns to 9 and add in the commute you are at 10 or 11 hours of work.

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

#174

Post by [deleted] »

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

[deleted]

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

#175

Post by wes-k »

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?

Going from 5 work days to 4 is a 20% cut in work/pay and a 50% increase in weekends (2 to 3).

4 to 3 is a 25% cut and a 33% increase in weekends (3 to 4).

3 to 2 is a 33% cut and a 25% increase in weekends (4 to 5).

Thus we see, 3 work days a week is mathematically optimal.

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

#176

Post by ghiculescu »

Frost1x wrote: post #89
standardUser wrote: post #50

I think it's worth considering that, in the US, the ultimate leap from 5 to 4 day work weeks would require a change in labor laws to mandate full-time status and overtime pay cutoff at 32 hours/week. Close to 60% of US workers are hourly. I can't predict all of the ramifications from that kind of change, but I have to imagine it would largely benefit workers. I wish we had a major political party that was at least wi…

>We all know this "40 hours" nonsense is just historical happenstance, not some ideal or even well-reasoned number, let alone balanced in the interest of the overwhelming majority (working people). The more and more I see cases like this that exist, the more I feel it's yet more supporting evidence that the US is a failing democracy. We can point fingers and play responsibility games, we can claim its minority protec…

To make this claim about the US is to overlook that basically all western countries have 40 hour work weeks.

Are they all failing democracies too?

Its a shame how many Americans are too busy hating America to look outside the border and see how good they have it, but also how most of their “uniquely American” problems are not unique at all.

(My perspective is as an Australian living in America. And my comment doesn’t apply to guns.)

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

#177

Post by mobiledev2014 »

lettergram wrote: post #172
mobiledev2014 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s baffling. Nobody should have to work 60 hours a week and be happy about it, doesn’t matter when the hours are

Lol for almost all human history working all a day was the norm. I don’t necessarily have to do that much work, but I want to get ahead. Most people I grew up with work 40-70hrs a week, often two to three jobs. It’s natural for me to work that much. I don’t even blink at it. What else would you do? Play video games, watch tv, “party”? I can accomplish and build things and spend the rest of the time with family and fr…

I hear what you’re saying but since this is hacker news we’re mostly white collar and we’re not talking about all human history, we’re talking about 2023+.

I spend my entire weekend with my kids for one thing. Don’t you miss out on things? And yes I play video games or do literally anything other than work before bed. If you’re including side projects you actually want to build in your 60 hours, that’s totally different of course. And I also don’t mean to judge, as the people working those 2-3 jobs NEED to do it. Nobody wants to.

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

#179

Post by AndrewKemendo »

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…

>I feel the only reason why we have 9-5, Monday to Friday jobs is because of infantile narcissists who have no other purpose in life than to go to work and push people like machines.

Hanlon's razor applies here.

As does Chesterton's Fence for that matter

The 40 hour work week was won in actual blood from labor activists long before any of us were conceptions. The fact that we still live within it, is simply a proof of counter-revolution being pervasive such that the world has structured itself around this.

We should continue to demand the value that efficiency has brought us go where it rightfully sits, with labor.

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

#180

Post by lukevp »

mettamage wrote: post #135
mrmincent wrote: post #3

I’ve gone down to 4 days, taking Fridays off to look after my son, and I certainly won’t be going back to 5 days until he’s in school. Looking after a toddler all day isn’t exactly a day off, but it is extremely rewarding, and something I’d recommend to any parent thinking about dropping down a day. It definitely has some downsides however, I’m the only one in the team that’s off that day, so there’s usually meetings…

In the Netherlands I also take a 20% gross pay cut. So net, that's more like a 10% pay cut. It doesn't pay to work 5 days in NL.

This doesn’t make sense to me unless it moves you into a lower tax bracket or something. Eg. If you made $100k and were taxed at 30%, you’d get paid net $70k. If you took a 20% gross pay cut, you’d get paid $80k gross and $56k net. 56k is 20% less than 70k.
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