Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday • Hacker News Board

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#31

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 8:52 AM UTC

easytiger wrote: post #23

bartkappenburg wrote: post #22

I'm Dutch and I work 4 days a week. My productivity in my startup is the same. This is what researchers say about our average number of hours per week: For example, Dutch workers are on par with American workers in terms of productivity per hour. They pay higher taxes and earn less than Americans. But on average, they work roughly 11 weeks less than their American counterparts each year, have access to government-fun…

For the day off does the entire company not work or do different people take different days off. My reasoning is because if you are working supporting a 24x5 or 24x7 platform then you need full time cover.

[deleted]

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#32

Post by lmm » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 8:55 AM UTC

skrause wrote: post #7

If someone gave me the chance of a 30-hour work week, I would rather work 4 days of 7,5 hours than 5 days of 6 hours. Just the hassle of getting up early, dressing up for work, commuting etc. isn't really worth it when I'm only going to work 6 hours anyway. I'd rather take an extra day off.

I suspect this is better for employers though. Honestly I don't think I can code effectively for more than 6 hours a day anyway - when working 8 hours the extra 2 hours will be spent either on meetings and other overhead or on slowing down so I don't burn out.

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#33

Post by Numberwang » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 8:55 AM UTC

justnotsure wrote: post #17

The innovative US economy will make it all irrelevant anyway by introducing more and more work from home jobs. Work from home is almost common in the US and basically non-existent in Europe. I wouldn't trade Swedish 6-hour workday with my American-based 8-hour while working from my coach at home. Somehow socialists are always one step behind Mother Nature, i.e. free markets.

Maybe it simply is not possible for us swedes to work from home like that because of our smaller houses?

I certainly wouldn't know where to put the chemistry lab or the industrial robots. I barely have room for the mine-shaft.

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#34

Post by Bootvis » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 8:56 AM UTC

easytiger wrote: post #23

bartkappenburg wrote: post #22

I'm Dutch and I work 4 days a week. My productivity in my startup is the same. This is what researchers say about our average number of hours per week: For example, Dutch workers are on par with American workers in terms of productivity per hour. They pay higher taxes and earn less than Americans. But on average, they work roughly 11 weeks less than their American counterparts each year, have access to government-fun…

For the day off does the entire company not work or do different people take different days off. My reasoning is because if you are working supporting a 24x5 or 24x7 platform then you need full time cover.

I don't know of any companies that completely shut down. People take a fixed day off but it's a different day for everyone.

As you might conjecture this can lead to some friction where people only meet between Tuesday and Thursday. This leads to slight inefficiencies but in my experience these are small in well managed teams.

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#35

Post by mcv » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 8:58 AM UTC

symmetricsaurus wrote: post #25

justnotsure wrote: post #17

The innovative US economy will make it all irrelevant anyway by introducing more and more work from home jobs. Work from home is almost common in the US and basically non-existent in Europe. I wouldn't trade Swedish 6-hour workday with my American-based 8-hour while working from my coach at home. Somehow socialists are always one step behind Mother Nature, i.e. free markets.

"Work from home is almost common in the US and basically non-existent in Europe." It is not non-existent in Sweden. "Somehow socialists are always one step behind Mother Nature, i.e. free markets." The free market has nothing to do with "Mother Nature" (animals and plants don't trade at all). Sweden has a free market economy, much like the US. Not exactly sure what is meant by socialists here. Anyone who advocates sh…

Work from home for 1 day a week is pretty common in Netherland. I've had coworkers who were only in the office for three days a week because they had one day off and one work from home day.

Personally I've become less of a fan of working from home, because you see the people you work with less. Particularly the daily standup in Scrum emphasizes the problem with people working from other locations. But if you don't work in a team, working from home is a great option.

On socialism, Sweden is generally seen as a really nice mix between the good part of capitalism (free market), and the good parts of socialism (equality, workers' rights).

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#36

Post by _delirium » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 8:59 AM UTC

justnotsure wrote: post #17

The innovative US economy will make it all irrelevant anyway by introducing more and more work from home jobs. Work from home is almost common in the US and basically non-existent in Europe. I wouldn't trade Swedish 6-hour workday with my American-based 8-hour while working from my coach at home. Somehow socialists are always one step behind Mother Nature, i.e. free markets.

I wouldn't say that working from home is particularly common in the United States. It exists, but it's a very small minority of jobs. There are more if you include "occasional work-from-home": some companies will let you work from home one day a week, and come into the office the rest. The web-tech startup scene is probably the place fully working from home is most prevalent, and even there it's not a very large proportion of jobs.

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#37

Post by hkmurakami » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 8:59 AM UTC

skrause wrote: post #7

If someone gave me the chance of a 30-hour work week, I would rather work 4 days of 7,5 hours than 5 days of 6 hours. Just the hassle of getting up early, dressing up for work, commuting etc. isn't really worth it when I'm only going to work 6 hours anyway. I'd rather take an extra day off.

On the other hand, I have a friend who would rather work 7 days a week at a little over 4 hours/day, so I think it really is up to our individual preferences (though I'm sure there's some kind of nonuniform distribution!)

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#38

Post by glormph » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 9:00 AM UTC

mcv wrote: post #30

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #4

And once again the Netherlands shows up on the bottom of that list, so I'll say it once more: we have a high participation of women in the work force, but most of those only work part-time, often in stereotypically "women's jobs" (receptionist, secretary, kindergarten). Makes the stats look much more progressive than reality, even though 32/36 hour work weeks are common.

Even so, just the reactions from Dutch people here on HN show that a lot of them are working 4 days a week. I do it too. My brother does it. Many of my neighbours do it. A 4 day work week is particularly popular with parents.

I'd love to work 4d/week, but how does it affect retirement fund buildup?

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#39

Post by homakov » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 9:04 AM UTC

Why does government set N hours at all? It's must be up to business! E.g., if I have a software company, I want my employees to work 20 hours a week. Isn't it obviously better way for everyone?

Re: Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday

#40

Post by Tenoke » Tue, Jun 03, 2014, 9:10 AM UTC

I wonder if the government workers, who will still work 8 hours a day will have a loss of productivity due to a conscious attempt to help the move to six-hour workdays.