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Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

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Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#2
Source for the article:

“Younger workers want a 4-day workweek — and some would give up remote work or higher pay for it” https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/younger-workers-wa...

> Close to 8 in 10 Gen X and baby boomer workers (or 78 percent for those between the ages of 43 and 77 combined) support a four-day workweek.

> But younger workers indicate they’re willing to go to greater lengths for the schedule, and it sets them apart. More than 9 in 10 of Gen Z and millennial workers who prefer a four-day work week (or 92 percent) would still be willing to work that schedule if it meant giving something up, versus 86 percent of Gen X and baby boomers.

> The steps those younger workers say they would be willing to take include working longer hours (48 percent), changing jobs or companies (35 percent) and coming into the office or working fully in person (33 percent) to have three days off a week. Some would even be willing to take less vacation time (20 percent), accept a pay cut (13 percent) or take a step back in their careers (12 percent) for it.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#3
I took a $50k job in my late 20s just for full remote with no calls/meetings, just Github issues and a chat app for synchronization.

I felt pathetic accepting the offer especially after my counteroffer was rejected (imagine your bluff failing here, lmao), but I remembered sitting in meetings for a higher paying job fantasizing about how I'd give half my salary away just to have no meetings and living on a beach surfing in the mornings. And that's what I did.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#4
post #2

Source for the article: “Younger workers want a 4-day workweek — and some would give up remote work or higher pay for it” https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/younger-workers-wa... > Close to 8 in 10 Gen X and baby boomer workers (or 78 percent for those between the ages of 43 and 77 combined) support a four-day workweek. > But younger workers indicate they’re willing to go to greater lengths for the schedule, a…

The title makes it sound like they'd sacrifice allot but when you look at the percentages it's mostly just I'd like to work 4-10s.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#6
If there's one thing that has truly happened with the pandemic, it's that it has exposed the psychopathy of grinding in corporations, and made people more aware of the value of their own lives. Thus, leading to large masses of people not caring about the corporate and management nonsense.

For folks who are concerned about younglings not working hard enough or China will take over or some other boomer ideology, this is even happening among youth in developing countries.

Solution: People want to be treated with respect and dignity. That's it. As long as companies treat people as fungible factory workers, companies will be in a constant churn of employees - especially as the newer generations are smaller in size.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#7
Young people don't want to work hard because there's little incentive.

No matter how hard you work, unless you're in the top 5%, you're far priced out of most places most people want to live.

You can afford everything comfortably beside housing & health care (which you don't need much of when you're young) on a relatively low wage in the US.

So you've pretty much given up on housing. What's the point in working hard?

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#8

I took a $50k job in my late 20s just for full remote with no calls/meetings, just Github issues and a chat app for synchronization. I felt pathetic accepting the offer especially after my counteroffer was rejected (imagine your bluff failing here, lmao), but I remembered sitting in meetings for a higher paying job fantasizing about how I'd give half my salary away just to have no meetings and living on a beach surfi…

How long ago was this? & where?

My first job in 2012 was 30k/year, after that 25k/year in 2015. & these are CAD, not USD. I didn't feel pathetic, I felt lucky getting to stay inside during the winter instead of working 12/hr flooring

Guess it's harder when you've had the higher salary already. For me I'd skipped college, so was building a resume

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#9
In my experience working at a 4DWW company I saw the opposite.

The happiest were the oldest, most established workers, because they had already ticked off all so many life goals, had a house, a dog, kids, etc and so less money and more time was great.

In contrast the youngest workers had no stable housing, and wanted more money more than they wanted time, because they wanted an ability to buy themselves some of those lifestyle things the older workers already had (read: stable housing).

In practice the young workers that needed more money simply used the other day for another job, which was their right.

This was in an environment with a dysfunctional unaffordable housing market, so maybe this all just shows how important affordable housing is and how it eventually starts to trumps all other issues.

Re: Young people would sacrifice other perks for a 4-day workweek

#10
One way to think about it is that you’re getting a 20% pay bump. It’s not 1:1 exactly but I’m willing to bet a lot of people would trade certain perks for a 20% bump. But it’s a net loss for society to remove these perks. Being young means you don’t need these perks. You don’t give a damn about healthcare, child care, or life insurance. But you most likely will in a decade and getting it back these perks would be nearly impossible after you trade short terms gains for long term loss.
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