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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

#211
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not for everybody, but if you can find a way to not play the rigged game, you can get ahead. I moved from a high cost of living city in North America to Latin America. I bought a two floor penthouse overlooking the ocean for less than the price of a two bedroom apartment back where I came from. My mortgage is -$2000 / month. That's right, negative $2000 because I save the full mortgage payment plus an extra $200…

Your solution is to be the top 5% in some other cheaper economy while continuing to get paid a US comp package. Not sure how that's better. In fact, this is exactly the thing that's going to drive down all of our comp over time. If you can work effectively in Costa Rica, why won't I just hire good English-speaking talent in Costa Rica (more likely Brazil) at a tenth of your expected comp?

> why won't I just hire good English-speaking talent in Costa Rica (more likely Brazil) at a tenth of your expected comp?

you can try! but you'll find that this is basically impossible -- the folks that are good enough aren't going to take 1/10th of the comp they could be making.

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

#212
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP's point is that the extra money has little value, because your spending options are becoming bimodal in distribution: all the trinkets are priced at "approximately anyone with a job can afford some of it", while the important bits like housing are priced at "an order of magnitude more than people typically earn", and this gap just cannot be crossed by working hard to get salary raises.

Let's consider some actual numbers, though: In 1999 I got my first "corporate" job at a starting salary of $50K. I was paying $800 a month for a two bedroom apartment, and what was left over was enough to comfortably support me and my wife. Entry level salary for the same job is now about $120K, meaning someone in that position can easily afford to pay $1920 a month for rent. According to Zillow, that same apartment…

You used a single personal data point and then pulled numbers completely out of nowhere and are comfortable making general statements about housing affordability on that basis? Bold.

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

#214

I give myself a fixed number of "hands on keyboard" hours that I need to meet each week and track my time to the second. If I hit my number in four days, hey, three day weekend. If I don't hit it by Friday, I'm working Saturday. I love it. I want to keep doing this for as long as I can.

Mind me asking how many hours that is? Does it include meetings?

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

#215
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And offshore jobs (china, india) growing simultaneously.

source for this? what I've seen suggests that this trend isn't growing more than it historically has been.

I did not mean necessarily offshore jobs like tech call centres but capital which is sent into 'growing/emerging economies' creating various manufacturing jobs in india/china/SE Asia where human resources can be used 'efficiently'.

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

#216
post #140
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asking for more pay with their standard PTO and as-needed UTO (Unpaid Time Off) might have been more successful.

I could do that. I'd rather have it officially on the books rather than hack something together that could be used against me later, ie "This guys seems to be out of office more than usual."

What makes you think having and fully using "official" PTO wouldn't get used against you for the same reason? People don't say stuff like that because they like seeing your face.

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

#217
post #53

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?

To be clear - you can read the crystal ball much like the whole generation in terms of whats going to happen in the future? I'm glad everyone knows how the future is written, I for one don't know and am quite curious.

You sound dismissive, not curious.

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

#218

Degrowth ironically growing in popularity.

I'm not sure "growing in popularity" is exactly the right phrase for "coming to accept the inevitable consequences of living on a planet with finite resources," but it's good to hear it anyway.

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

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sweat, let me just go back to school and learn to be a healthcare professional.

I never said it would be easy: most things in life that are important are not easy. The point is that there are many different types of jobs with a variety of benefits, including non-traditional scheduling. If that is something important to you, why not work towards it? Healthcare is just one example. It’s not perfect either, there are problems for sure. But that is ok for some people who value something like a 3-4 d…

There's "not easy," and there's "so costly and difficult as to be nonviable." Stop conflating the two.

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

#220

I've seen some strange criticisms after a friend of mine transitioned to a 4-day week. Like whether he has any ambitions, doesn't want to work etc. He is a very committed, good programmer really kinda keeping the company running. I bet he gets more stuff done in 4 days than others in 5. But he has a very active private, social life. He goes a lot on vacations, has hobbies or is just actively enjoying life. He's also…

I work 4 days a week and never received this criticism.
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