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Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

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Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#91

Post by mrguyorama »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #39
bombcar wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be decently hard to find an argument against the 4 day workweek that would not ALSO apply to the 5 day workweek (compared to 6) - perhaps the only real one is "it's what everyone does".

But then why work 4 day/week and not 3, when 4 days/week becomes the new normal that burns people out? And then why not work 2 days instead of 3? And so on. How do we decide which model is the sustainable one?

Because at a certain point it will be impossible to argue that "Knowledge workers can get as much done in X-1 days as in X days" because it's trivially untrue. The problem is that the brain is a muscle and gets really really tired solving knowledge problems all day because it is optimized to avoid doing that at as much as possible because it is energy intensive and the ancient human who solved everything perfectly rationally died of starvation while the one that relied on imperfect heuristics and belief got to eat.

Solving super hard Sudoku puzzles 40 hours a week will take a toll on your brain that solving super hard Sudoku puzzles 1 hour a week empirically cannot.

>How do we decide which model is the sustainable one?

Through the exact science you say you "don't buy" because you seem to believe companies operating in a flawed market are better at finding ground truth than literal science.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#92

Post by op00to »

statquontrarian wrote: post #89

I've been doing a 20-hour 3 day work week (50% of total pay) for a few years now and I love it. I'm outperforming a full-time colleague in total output. Edited to add that the 3 day work week totals 20 hours.

What does your full time coworker say about that? Are you concerned at backlash or retaliation?

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#94

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF »

bb123 wrote: post #73
jjcm wrote: post #71

There's no doubt that there's a benefit to the employee, but for corporations to adopt this there has to be a measurable benefit to the company as well. I do think there is one clear benefit as measured in the article - employee retention. It's an extremely strong incentive to stay with the current company, and domain knowledge gained over decades really is a competitive advantage if your employees commonly have it.…

I’d happily take a 20% pay cut for a 4 day work week, if it was offered.

I would too but only after I raise my base rate by 25%. If I'm on a salary and have project deadlines it's the same thing anyway.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#95

Post by jart »

quaintdev wrote: post #38
perfunctory wrote: post #31

I personally first tried 4-day workweek about 10 years ago and still love it. That was one of the best decisions I made in my life. Especially in software industry, it's not that hard to arrange I believe. Even easier if we do it collectively. And when more and more people do it and it becomes a norm, the income will just readjust and return to the current levels. But even today, when it's still not a norm, and I hav…

This is something that will never happen in India because no matter how bad you want 4 day work week theres always someone who will do full 5 days a week and do additional work over the weekend.

[flagged]

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#96

Post by glenjamin »

statquontrarian wrote: post #89

I've been doing a 20-hour 3 day work week (50% of total pay) for a few years now and I love it. I'm outperforming a full-time colleague in total output. Edited to add that the 3 day work week totals 20 hours.

If you're producing more than a full-time colleague, does the 50% pay cut seem a bit harsh?

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#98

Post by op00to »

heikkilevanto wrote: post #70

Union meeting 2124: "Mr. President, do we really have to work every Wednesday?"

If we get so efficient that we can meet all our needs working once every 14 days, spending the rest of our time exercising and enjoying life, why is that bad?

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#99

Post by Almondsetat »

statquontrarian wrote: post #89

I've been doing a 20-hour 3 day work week (50% of total pay) for a few years now and I love it. I'm outperforming a full-time colleague in total output. Edited to add that the 3 day work week totals 20 hours.

Maybe I'm getting this wrong but... you're working 3/5 of the time, you're getting 1/2 of the money and you are earning the company > 100% than full time?

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#100

Post by FirmwareBurner »

mrguyorama wrote: post #91
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then why work 4 day/week and not 3, when 4 days/week becomes the new normal that burns people out? And then why not work 2 days instead of 3? And so on. How do we decide which model is the sustainable one?

Because at a certain point it will be impossible to argue that "Knowledge workers can get as much done in X-1 days as in X days" because it's trivially untrue. The problem is that the brain is a muscle and gets really really tired solving knowledge problems all day because it is optimized to avoid doing that at as much as possible because it is energy intensive and the ancient human who solved everything perfectly ra…

>Through the exact science you say you "don't buy" because you seem to believe companies operating in a flawed market are better at finding ground truth than literal science.

I'm saying companies believe in science that leads to profit, as the market can stay irrational longer than companies can stay solvent.

Same how science showed switching to EUV lithography is better than sticking to DUV and then all companies adopted that, if science would also show workers working 32h per week results in more profit for them than 40h, then they would all switch in a heart beat to capture all that money left on the table by their competitors still stuck in their ancient 40h workweek.

But that hasn't happened.

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