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World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

independent.co.uk

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Re: World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

#101

Post by manmal »

paxys wrote: post #77
tobr wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the purpose of school is for parents to have somewhere to store their children when they’re at work, so you can’t have a four-day school week until a four-day workweek is norm.

I'm also willing to bet that most parents who get the extra day off would actually prefer that their kids stayed at school.

I'm not so sure about that, but yeah, maybe. Where I live, teacher unions are very strong, so I don't think teachers would get left out of the four day work week for a long time.

Re: World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

#102

Post by justshowpost »

paxys wrote: post #75
justshowpost wrote: post #14

I don't get it. Hours cut by 20% and no wage cut means 25% man-hour production gain for «success». Did they achieve this? ---- Okay, okay, I stand corrected, 10% hours cut requires only +11% to production to stay on par. Still quite much, but not impossible (I think).

You are making the assumption that 1 unit of time spent on the clock maps exactly to 1 unit of productive output, which I'm willing to bet is very far from the case.

Very likely. Chances what this whole experiment was initiated by the studies confirming what employees are slacking at Fridays anyway.

Re: World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

#103

Post by mwarkentin »

qeternity wrote: post #86
alephnan wrote: post #80

It will be hard to extrapolate the findings to other countries. Iceland has a very different import/export structure by virtue of the the geography, farming and natural resources. This in turn significantly affects the price of certain goods and services, such as restaurants and dining out culture, for example. Ultimately people will have a drastically different basket of consumer goods /desires than in other develop…

This is always the issue with these small pilots around very important issues (UBI being another that comes to mind). It’s difficult to convey to people just how big the US is in terms of population and geography, and within those two groups how heterogenous it is. Iceland has the population of a small US city. And 1% of Icelanders participated. This means a few thousand people. You cannot extrapolate any of this to…

And yet, this was still the largest ever test. Perhaps it paves way for bigger ones in the future?

Re: World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

#104

Post by hellbannedguy »

_benj wrote: post #23
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What brings you to Hacker News, if I may ask?

I’m also quite interested in what brings you to HN. Don’t get me wrong, welcome! But it’s quite interesting seeing somebody here that is not the stereotypical tech/business/startup type

I've been here forever.

I'm glad some of you put up with me. I'm pretty lonely, and this is my only social outlet.

I have had many careers.

I've gone to Chiropractic School until I realized it was basically Placebo.

I've been a Electrician. I've been a telecommunications guy. I've been a state security guard. I've been a Mechanic whom specialized in electrical problems. I had a used car lot. I was even a Realator for three days. I've been a General Contractor. I sold nuts, and candy to convince stores. I also worked in a rare book shop, as a partner. I am now a Watchmaker. I have never employed more than two people though.

I have always been interested in Electronics, and Computing, and have a Bachelor's degree in Businees Administration.(which was a joke.) I bought my Atari 1040st in college, but told no one because I felt like I was cheating. (I used it for word processing basically.)

I also had a nervous breakdown in the late 80's, and if not getting lucky with Amazon stock; I would be homeless right now.

I am not a developer. I have a few websites, and use ROR, and Javascript a fair amount.

To the the question is what can I add? Not much--

I have had a lot of jobs, and many were terrible low wage jobs. I know what it feels like to be poor, and overworked with no future.

I have had older (40-50 ish) friends who were Programmers, and if they were offered the luxury of learning a new language/platform, they would have been all over it.

I can't imagine anyone turning down a four day work week. My goodness that extra day of learning/relaxing, or planning for a new career, or same one seems like it would be great?

Re: World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

#105

Post by machinehermiter »

koch wrote: post #54

It's so weird to me to see people argue against a shorter work week. > I enjoy working 5 days a week, it gives me more time to ... Ok, by all means, keep doing that? If you have this position you are probably already working on the weekend anyway. You can live (thrive, even!) in a society that has a 4 day week and still work 5 days. Go for it. > It'll never happen / It's a pipe dream So was women's rights, civil righ…

IMO there is an equilibrium problem.

I really have no problem working 45 hours a week.

I am not changing to 36 hours a week while a co-worker works 45 and then the co-worker is the one who ends up getting promoted.

I am not working in a coal mine or digging ditches that my body is breaking down after 35 hours. I am perfectly capable of 45 high quality hours a week of mental work a week that I enjoy doing. That is what I am looking to trade in the market place and be compensated for.

Most people I know don't do much besides play on their phone when off anyway. What you need an additional day a week to get in more social media?

Re: World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

#106

Post by machinehermiter »

akersten wrote: post #31

Take a minute to think, on this Sunday night, about how much personal time you've had this week. You've most likely spent 5 of the last 7 days making someone else richer, at the expense of an incredible toll on your body and mind: an artificially early wake-up to an alarm, a late-night frozen pizza dinner because there's no time to cook and clean up for yourself, and you're finally sitting down getting ready to relax…

The average American spends 2 hours and 3 minutes a day on social media.

Is that not enough? Would 3 or 4 hours be better?

Maybe the problem is you need to get the distracting nonsense out of your life?

Re: World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

#107

Post by 12ian34 »

drumhead wrote: post #95

It doesnt work for people who want to get things done, a key colleague will be away or unavailable when you need them so everything gets slowed down, sometime its like trying to solve the three body problem making sure everyone is on on the sameday to get it done.

Perhaps it can be a forcing function for improved context-sharing and reduced key-person dependency.

Re: World’s largest ever four day week trial in Iceland ‘overwhelming success’

#110

Post by [deleted] »

sandworm101 wrote: post #7

I work in a field (military) where "overtime" isn't a thing. We can and do work 24+hour shifts without any extra pay. Even during peacetime, if we need to work 16-hour days every day for a month we can do that without any financial cost. We can also be sent home at noon every day without diminishing our wages a penny. That absolute flexibility does not reduce stress. With no standard office hours we face constant neg…

[deleted]
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