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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

#101

Post by statquontrarian »

op00to wrote: post #92
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?

I didn't mean to give the impression that I was boasting or that I bring this up with him or my management, but just that there's a somewhat objective relative measurement that shows that it's possible to keep up high output for some jobs. I was surprised that my _total_ output stayed so high after transitioning from 40 to 20 hours.

No backlash or retaliation so far after more than 2 years.

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

#102

Post by piva00 »

lzmibes wrote: post #90
malux85 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except most employers just do what everyone else does - and one might say “the market forces them to” but that’s total nonsense. Look at remote work, it was fairly uncommon in programming and very uncommon outside of programming. Then everyone was forced to do it with Covid and now it’s much more common because it works. Everyone was free to negotiate at any time before and after Covid, but anything that was even mil…

Did remote, partially remote, 3, 4 and 5 day weeks before COVID. It was always there. Did you ask? Do you need a union to ask for you?

No one said there wasn't, what was stated is that it wasn't common.

Great for you to manage to find those gigs, it's not representative of the more general trend.

It was always there, for a very few select opportunities. I only got 2 remote gigs for very early stage startups without an office before COVID (and I've been in this industry for 20 years), after it's been 70% of offers from recruiters telling me "we're remote friendly".

Do you understand the difference? If you don't like unions, don't join one, you're free to do it, as others are free to associate and be part of one. If you don't like a unionised place you can always move to another job, it will always be there for you, no worries.

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

#103

Post by statquontrarian »

Almondsetat wrote: post #99
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?

I'm working 1/2 the time (7 hours Monday & Tuesday, and 6 hours Wednesday), and, yes, it even surprised me that my total productivity is about the same as when I worked 40 hours per week. It's even possible that my total productivity is actually greater than before but we don't have sufficiently precise metrics off of which to judge that.

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

#104

Post by statquontrarian »

glenjamin wrote: post #96
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?

Probably, yes, but I suspect that it's so hard to find this arrangement (20 hours per week, full benefits, and still very good pay despite it being 50% of total), that I'm just very content with the arrangement.

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

#105

Post by lzmibes »

piva00 wrote: post #102
lzmibes wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did remote, partially remote, 3, 4 and 5 day weeks before COVID. It was always there. Did you ask? Do you need a union to ask for you?

No one said there wasn't, what was stated is that it wasn't common. Great for you to manage to find those gigs, it's not representative of the more general trend. It was always there, for a very few select opportunities. I only got 2 remote gigs for very early stage startups without an office before COVID (and I've been in this industry for 20 years), after it's been 70% of offers from recruiters telling me "we're re…

Wasn't hard to find. Repeatly. Coincidence perhaps...

"Do I understand the difference?"

Sure, the free market is favourable for some. Others stand to benefit more from collectivisation.

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

#106

Post by glitchcrab »

switch007 wrote: post #93
ActionHank wrote: post #6

I can't wait for companies to use this as a way to drive down pay

I think that’s exactly the driver behind it

Not necessarily - I work for a company which went down to a 4 day work week about 2 years ago and the goal is entirely to improve employee wellbeing. Salaries have not changed and will not change.

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

#107

Post by bombcar »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #100
mrguyorama wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ad…

Companies (currently) compete by offering more money - if the pool of applicants dried up enough, perhaps they'd begin competing by offering more time.

The problem is if they pay you $x per year, they don't care how many hours you work, as long as the job gets done. So something that makes their life a bit more annoying (no replies on Friday) but makes your life amazingly better won't get done.

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

#109

Post by hananova »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #34
bongodongobob wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For knowledge workers, being 100% productive for 8 hours a day 5 days a week is a lie. I don't think anyone can truly deep focus 8 hours a day without burning out at some point.

>For knowledge workers, being 100% productive for 8 hours a day 5 days a week is a lie. Of course, but if this is a known fact, why are we still working 5 days a week as the norm and not 4? Clearly inertia is more important to companies and legislators than facts. Or that probably not all jobs are so leisurely and inefficient, that 5 days of actual productivity can be don in less.

Many of us only work 5 days a week officially, there's many of us that deliberately and knowingly slack off one day a week. Others will just slow down a little to fill the five days. Yet others will use WFH as an opportunity to do a 4 day work week.

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

#110

Post by m3kw9 »

They love it because while everyone works 5 days they work 4. Once everyone has 4 they will be back to square one just like everyone is now (5 days a week). Humans are like that, they compare what others have to see if they have it better. Where do you think we got the term, grass is always greener on the other side?
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