1. Yes. For me it's more about focus. I can dive deep on work then dive deep on family time.
2. Maybe? 'Murican healthcare is quite the yoke.
Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
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Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#121. Yes. For me it's more about focus. I can dive deep on work then dive deep on family time. 2. Maybe? 'Murican healthcare is quite the yoke.
Yep on #2 I was assuming benefits don't change and hoping they were covering 100%.
Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#13By law, in the Netherlands, employees are allowed to reduce their work hours. Allegedly, unless there is a clear, critical business need for you to work the entire week, the company is not allowed to deny your request.
I would love to work fewer days per week, and use the extra time to focus more on my personal development & side projects. However, at my current level of discipline, I'd be fooling myself if I said I would use the time productively.
That said, the idea is still very tempting and I intend to do it in the next couple of years. In the meantime, I fully enjoy all of my 24 PTO days and make use of our policy for getting 5 extra unpaid days without justification.
Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#141. Yes. In a second. I find it tough to do all of the things I want to do with the activities I have outside of work with the amount of free time I have available.
2. Yes. Less pay for less work makes sense to me. My productivity would likely go up, but at the same time, I'm just more concerned about not having my work take over my life. If 80% of my pay is what it takes to get there, then it's a trade off I'm willing to make.
Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#15Absolutely. I am too tired in the evening during the work week to do anything and places on weekends are always packed with people. Spreading that out over three days would help a lot.
Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#16Yes, absolutely, 100%, no hesitation
Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#17I worked four days a week, taking a 20% pay cut, for about a dozen years while working at SAIC and Physical Dynamics. It was well worth taking a pay cut for three day weekends every week.
Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#18#1) Yes, definitely. The industry where I work does not require me to be on-call. Anything I have access to do is not immediate, and can only be done after business-hours. Further, I am completely comfortable with indirect chats, and digital meetings. Despite this, along with the fact that our company is only a few years old, we can't work from home - at all. It feels incredibly restrictive, especially considering the fact that many employees work around this rule. It feels like management doesn't trust us to do our work. Having just an extra day would make things so much easier
2) Maybe if I lived in Europe, but I'm in the US, and I quite like being able to afford a decent home + benefits
Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#191. Yes I totally would love it and think all Americans should go to a 10-hour, 4-day work week. Two days off is not enough. The Europeans have far more vacation time than us. What's disheartening is that we spend more days at work than not - at least this would even the playing field a little. It feels like your whole life is there then. I would be in favor of someone starting a movement to change this across the U.S…
Would you ever want to do less than 40 hours, so 4 days of 8 hours for 32 hours a week?
40 hours has been historically used to determine full-time status (and full-time benefits) like health insurance. It's one of the reasons I think this schedule is so hard to get away from.
Re: Ask HN: Would you switch to a 4-day-a-week schedule if you could?
#20In your scenario 1, refusing is basically accepting to work an additional day for the same comp? Why would someone accept that?