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Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?

politico.com

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Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?

#121

Post by dutchCourage »

gregdoesit wrote: post #21

The Netherlands is arguably one that heavily embraces the 4-day workweek. In this country, employees can request a shorter work week (4 days) for proportionality less wages (so eg for 4 days get 80% of wages). More than 80% of working moms utilise this option and around 10% of dads. [1] Among my friends I have parents where both of them work 4 days, taking the 5th day off on separate days, and their kid goes to dayca…

The outrageous cost of daycare means that as a young parent switching to 32h, you're giving up 20% of your pay but saving a few hundred euros a month in daycare costs. So the pay cut ends up being closer to 10%, depending on their income.

Then the kids grow up and go to school and the parents, if they have enough money, have essentially no incentive to work more hours.

Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?

#122

Post by nine_k »

nine_k wrote: post #105
Syonyk wrote: post #13

I've "corrupted" (from the point of view of GDP productivity and such) a lot of people into asking for (and mostly getting...) a 32h/week work schedule. I've been doing it for almost 8 years now, and at this point, it's simply a non-negotiable in any sort of employment discussions (that, and not carrying a pager). I work Mon-Thu, 8h/day, and I'm generally unreachable Fri/Sat/Sun (doesn't mean I won't put in a long we…

I'd be tidally fine working 40h a week in four 10h days. A whole new free day is such an improvement that longer hours on other days can't hope to outweigh it.

s/tidally/totally/; talk about creative autocorrect!

Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?

#124

Post by xboxnolifes »

thegrim33 wrote: post #109

Is there any argument that can be made for a four-day work week that couldn't also be made for a three-day work week? Or a two? I guess I'm trying to get at where's the line? If everyone switches to four-day, will the next rally cry be for three-day after that? What argument is there for why four-day in particular is the "right" amount and not three or five or some other number?

I think we can look back and ask why we went from a 6 day to a 5 day. And then we can ask: are we happy with the outcome?

Maybe one day it will be time to push for a 3-day workweek. Then maybe 2. Then 1. And maybe the post-scarcity, automated society will actually exist and we have 0.

Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?

#127

Post by ska »

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #32
savanaly wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not even in the anti-WFH camp, but notice you've selectively omitted the most sympathetic camp (what is this argument tactic called? Strawmanning?). People who think teams will be more agile and innovative when they can have impromptu face-to-face conversations. I personally think that's true, but not a big enough deal to make me favor RTO. But it's not good to summarize an issue in such a way that the other side…

> what is this argument tactic called? Strawmanning? Yeah, think like how you challenge yourself in deliberate practice. Putting up a "straw man" to fight doesn't really help one learn to fight.

Hence the idea of Steelmanning.

Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?

#128

Post by kaoD »

Syonyk wrote: post #13

I've "corrupted" (from the point of view of GDP productivity and such) a lot of people into asking for (and mostly getting...) a 32h/week work schedule. I've been doing it for almost 8 years now, and at this point, it's simply a non-negotiable in any sort of employment discussions (that, and not carrying a pager). I work Mon-Thu, 8h/day, and I'm generally unreachable Fri/Sat/Sun (doesn't mean I won't put in a long we…

I'm currently working 32h/w and will possibly need to start job hunting for remote. I was prepared to go back to 40h but... I really don't want to. It was life changing.

Wondering if I should just hunt for 32h/w offers, if I could potentially miss on great 40h opportunities, etc. What's the success rate of asking for 32h/w in offers not advertised as such?

Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?

#130

Post by secfirstmd »

Syonyk wrote: post #49
ketzo wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do for work? Where are you in your career?

Senior enough, and skilled enough in particular low level arts, that I can set my own terms. And I do "weird low level crap." Generally if I'm interacting with the kernel, it's from below. Think introspection, emulation, hypervisors, "state analysis of a running kernel," firmware weeds, security analysis, etc. If you know a bitter mid-to-late-40s sort who's been in the deep weeds and the security weeds long enough to…

So you work for the government?
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