Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 94 posts

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#11

Post by aviv »

alexashka wrote: post #6

It'd help to avoid lumping all jobs into a single pile and proceeding to suggest a planet-wide remedy. A software developer has different needs from a convenience store employee. I hope that's obvious. I don't understand why this is even on HackerNews, because this article contains no news at all. It's just pandering to those who feel that working fewer hours is a good idea for them, nothing more. ps. if you're in a…

> ps. if you're in a job that involves using your brain, you're not working more than 3-4 hours/day max

This (not necessarily the quoted part, more so the article concept in general) is non-sense. People don't work enough. The problem is not the long hours, it's that people no longer have the stamina (mental, physical and emotional) to sustain a long work cycle so they think they "burn out".

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#13

Post by parthdesai »

AltruisticGap wrote: post #3

Monday morning off sounds like an awful idea. First off, even when I lack sleep, I'll function better in the morning if I force myself out of bed, and I'll have a big slump in the afternoon. If I sleep in instead to supposedly catch up sleep, I'll do OK.. but I won't feel any better in the afternoon.. I'll be a little off because of getting up late. Secondly, afternoons are more depressing. I'd rather get out of bed,…

>Monday morning off sounds like an awful idea. > First off, even when I lack sleep, I'll function better in the morning if I force myself out of bed, and I'll have a big slump in the afternoon.

On the other hand, i work better in afternoon no matter what. 2-5 are my most productive hours. Maybe how you feel isn't how everyone feels. A better solution would be to allow employees to choose their half a day/ a day off.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#14

Post by kadendogthing »

aviv wrote: post #11
alexashka wrote: post #6

It'd help to avoid lumping all jobs into a single pile and proceeding to suggest a planet-wide remedy. A software developer has different needs from a convenience store employee. I hope that's obvious. I don't understand why this is even on HackerNews, because this article contains no news at all. It's just pandering to those who feel that working fewer hours is a good idea for them, nothing more. ps. if you're in a…

> ps. if you're in a job that involves using your brain, you're not working more than 3-4 hours/day max This (not necessarily the quoted part, more so the article concept in general) is non-sense. People don't work enough . The problem is not the long hours, it's that people no longer have the stamina (mental, physical and emotional) to sustain a long work cycle so they think they "burn out".

>People don't work enough.

Based on what metrics?

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#15

Post by jshowa3 »

rationalfaith wrote: post #4

As long as you're productive and meeting deadlines, I couldn't care less about the "hours" you're in the office. Also, the market well balance itself. If someone is more productive they'll be rewarded more. I just don't want the "equal outcome" crowd to start enforcing equal pay when most of them are clocking in minimum hours and others are over-delivering. This is for merit based companies, which personally I can't…

Last I checked, reality doesn't operate based on merit at all. If it did, wages would rise with productivity, but they don't, at least not in the US.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#16

Post by malux85 »

parthdesai wrote: post #13
AltruisticGap wrote: post #3

Monday morning off sounds like an awful idea. First off, even when I lack sleep, I'll function better in the morning if I force myself out of bed, and I'll have a big slump in the afternoon. If I sleep in instead to supposedly catch up sleep, I'll do OK.. but I won't feel any better in the afternoon.. I'll be a little off because of getting up late. Secondly, afternoons are more depressing. I'd rather get out of bed,…

>Monday morning off sounds like an awful idea. > First off, even when I lack sleep, I'll function better in the morning if I force myself out of bed, and I'll have a big slump in the afternoon. On the other hand, i work better in afternoon no matter what. 2-5 are my most productive hours. Maybe how you feel isn't how everyone feels. A better solution would be to allow employees to choose their half a day/ a day off.

We used to have 9-6 working hours, but +- 2 each way, it was funny, almost everyone chose to come in early, and do 7 to 3, except the programmers who all decided to do 10 to 7 or 11 to 8,

It worked well though

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#17

Post by scarejunba »

_RPM wrote: post #5
onetimemanytime wrote: post #2

I have a feeling that if you can work 5-6 hours a day you've more than earned your salary. So, if a company can figure it out and let thew workers stay at home instead of browsing the internet at "work" more power to them.

So then I have confirmed it. I read about browsing the internet and generally no one working 8 hours a day it they work in software. Some days I literally don’t have work to do, so I browse the internet. Sometimes it’s nice to work on tasks around the home if I am working from home that day. Management must know this. I consider it an unwritten/not talked about fact of working as a software developer.

Why would you bother staying at work if you have nothing to do. Take your laptop home and VPN for OC issues if that’s why.

But I can’t unders how you can have nothing to do. If you feel like doing nothing, that I understand. Some days just don’t work. But having nothing to do is quite surprising.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#18

Post by cpuguy83 »

It's not the number of days but the constant fire drills, everything is always top priority, notifications coming at all hours... and at least with software dev very rarely is it a priority to fix poor quality things thereby making even more fire drills.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#19

Post by Sharlin »

parthdesai wrote: post #13
AltruisticGap wrote: post #3

Monday morning off sounds like an awful idea. First off, even when I lack sleep, I'll function better in the morning if I force myself out of bed, and I'll have a big slump in the afternoon. If I sleep in instead to supposedly catch up sleep, I'll do OK.. but I won't feel any better in the afternoon.. I'll be a little off because of getting up late. Secondly, afternoons are more depressing. I'd rather get out of bed,…

>Monday morning off sounds like an awful idea. > First off, even when I lack sleep, I'll function better in the morning if I force myself out of bed, and I'll have a big slump in the afternoon. On the other hand, i work better in afternoon no matter what. 2-5 are my most productive hours. Maybe how you feel isn't how everyone feels. A better solution would be to allow employees to choose their half a day/ a day off.

Yep. I’ll spend most of the morning waking up anyway. I can do it at work or I can do it at home, either way I’m not going to be very productive before afternoon.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#20

Post by Sharlin »

assblaster wrote: post #10
AltruisticGap wrote: post #3

Monday morning off sounds like an awful idea. First off, even when I lack sleep, I'll function better in the morning if I force myself out of bed, and I'll have a big slump in the afternoon. If I sleep in instead to supposedly catch up sleep, I'll do OK.. but I won't feel any better in the afternoon.. I'll be a little off because of getting up late. Secondly, afternoons are more depressing. I'd rather get out of bed,…

I function by trying to work 7 days a week, without taking time off for vacation. What I've found is that I'm in general much happier having to wake up at a specific time every day with specific work goals. I feel like I'm in a sweet equilibrium with fewer disruptions from going on and off vacation. I make more money, I'm happier at home and work, and I feel better all around.

That probably makes you quite an outlier.
Post reply on HN