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Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#121

Post by volkk »

ryanmercer wrote: post #110
hellllllllooo wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, you can't understand it? You've never had to work long hours at an unfulfilling, repetitive job you hate just to pay the bills and survive without being able to save anything? You're lucky, a lot of people in the US are not so lucky.

>Really, you can't understand it? You've never had to work long hours at an unfulfilling, I've literally dug graves for a living. I've thrown trucks for a living in 90F heat in 80%+ humidity. I've worked 40 hours for a company and 40-50 hours a week for myself trying to get ahead some. I've been working since I was 12 years old just to help make ends meet. Sitting at a desk doing 'unfulfilling, repetitive' work is th…

i think your argument of "just be happy that you're not in grueling conditions of working hard labor outside" doesn't really apply to the argument of "work less and be more efficient."

its the same argument of saying "yeah well someone in a insert 3rd world country has it way worse than you so your problems dont matter."

you need to step back and understand that people in white collar jobs are allowed to be miserable regardless of whether theyre breaking their back or not, and if that misery can be subsided by having an alternate schedule to work to produce efficiency, then why is that such a crazy ask? because that's just "the way things have always been done"? when was the last time that argument has ever worked out well?

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#123

Post by rpiguy »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #95
RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say you or your dependents have a medical condition, and your health insurance is provided by your employer. Your most powerful tool in negotiating with your employer is to threaten to resign. Even with COBRA, paying for your own health insurance can be a substantial burden for many people in the US. If resigning from your job poses substantial risks to your health and life, your employer holds all the cards. A workf…

> Even with COBRA Why are COBRA prices as crazy as they are? I pay $200/mo for medical insurance, yet COBRA quoted me $800/mo+ I believe.

That is what your employer paid for your insurance. You might be able to get a cheaper plan on Obamacare/ACA. Companies pay large portion of your insurance that you never see. COBRA brings it all to light.

There is a movement to count medical benefits as income, which would shed light on this (in fact that was part of Obamacare/ACA, but politicians keep putting it off because they know no wants to pay taxes on their healthcare...)

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#124

Post by saiya-jin »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #51
ChrisLomont wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why there is no national healthcare - money, someone makes a ton of it by preventing nationalization of healthcare system It could also be that things cost money, and taxpayers don't want to pay for some things. The Democrats have decided that the rich must pay for it. Republicans have decided that it's too costly. By splitting the crowd, we have reached an impasse. We could do what every other country has done, and…

> The Democrats have decided that the rich must pay for it. My only question to that is: what level of rich ($200k/yr? $400k/yr?), and how much must they pay percentage wise, etc. When will poorer people ever be ok with how much / how little billionaires give? I feel like the mindset is "it'll never be enough".

People would be OK if all their basic needs would be covered. If they didn't get ruined by single complicated health issue. If they knew that social system will help them out a bit in case they lose a job - not too much, just to help them bridge the gaps between jobs. If they knew that their kids are getting a decent education for free. None of this needs to be worlds best, just good enough.

Have this, and you have a satisfied population that won't revolt against rich no matter how little rich pay in their taxes. But from what I read here over and over, US currently has none of this for below-medium/median income.

I think the thing keeping poorer US population from revolt is this common mentality that success comes only from hard work, and if you're not successful, well you just didn't work hard enough. Rags to riches ideal, which as we know is rather a myth due to real social (im)mobility. But repeat a myth a thousand times and it will become a rule.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#125

Post by hogFeast »

notus wrote: post #2

> In contrast, Jack Ma, co-founder of Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba, has championed 12-hour working days. In April 2019, he described the "996" pattern, in which workers do 09:00-21:00 shifts, six days a week, as "a blessing". Yikes, that sounds depressing. > A report commissioned by the Labour Party in the UK suggested a four-day working week would be "unrealistic". The report seems to be missing the point o…

Amazon did 60-hour weeks at the start, and paid the equivalent of $3/hour. If you create an "elite" culture, ironically, you can sucker employees into working for peanuts.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#126

Post by ryanmercer »

volkk wrote: post #121
ryanmercer wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Really, you can't understand it? You've never had to work long hours at an unfulfilling, I've literally dug graves for a living. I've thrown trucks for a living in 90F heat in 80%+ humidity. I've worked 40 hours for a company and 40-50 hours a week for myself trying to get ahead some. I've been working since I was 12 years old just to help make ends meet. Sitting at a desk doing 'unfulfilling, repetitive' work is th…

i think your argument of "just be happy that you're not in grueling conditions of working hard labor outside" doesn't really apply to the argument of "work less and be more efficient." its the same argument of saying "yeah well someone in a insert 3rd world country has it way worse than you so your problems dont matter." you need to step back and understand that people in white collar jobs are allowed to be miserable…

>"work less and be more efficient."

This doesn't apply to MANY jobs, unless you're talking about replacing humans with robots with superior strength and agility that do not need to rest.

The majority of HN, and silicon valley types in general, are incredibly myopic. The vast majority of people here automatically assume everyone else in a thread works in CS, they assume everyone has a degree, they assume everyone hammers away at code in a comfy office all day.

The vast majority of the world is not sitting at a computer coding for 6 figure salaries with great benefits and profit sharing.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#127

Post by macspoofing »

Very skeptical about these kinds of studies that claim great productivity gains by cutting work hours by significant amounts. What is the cut-off point here? Why not make it a 3-day week and get even more productivity gains? Obviously, there are diminishing returns, what are they?

And how do they differ per industry? I can tell you right now, the vast majority of jobs do require the current hourly investment (and then some). Are there industries that would see productivity gains from a 6-day or 7-day workweek (not that we want to change to that schedule - but it's worth a contrast)? Many businesses will pay out over time even though it means paying out 1.5x or 2x or even 2.5x base pay - they aren't stupid. Clearly, there is SOME benefit.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#128

Post by edf13 »

ponsin wrote: post #75
_hn_throw_away wrote: post #12

(This is a duplicate of a story posted this past weekend. I want to copy my comment from it for greater visibility.) Fuck everything about 5 day work weeks. I'll gladly switch to any job that offers a 4 day work week. It's one of the best perks. As someone with ADHD, work days are entirely spent getting work done. There isn't any extra slack or allotment for personal tasks. They're 100% owned by the employer. Weekend…

Be careful starting a startup. It will be hard to find an investor willing to invest in a company whose founder only works 4/7 days a week

Not every startup seeks investors

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#129

Post by earenndil »

koonsolo wrote: post #88
notus wrote: post #2

> In contrast, Jack Ma, co-founder of Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba, has championed 12-hour working days. In April 2019, he described the "996" pattern, in which workers do 09:00-21:00 shifts, six days a week, as "a blessing". Yikes, that sounds depressing. > A report commissioned by the Labour Party in the UK suggested a four-day working week would be "unrealistic". The report seems to be missing the point o…

You should check out the youtube video with Jack Ma and Elon Musk. Anything that comes out of his mouth is complete bullshit and crazy. It puts anything he says in perspective. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/videos/comment...

Non amp: https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/cy40bc/when_elon_mu...

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#130

Post by denni9th »

jackcosgrove wrote: post #85

We should switch everyone to rolling weekends. It makes no sense that everyone gets the same two days off. It is such a hassle scheduling doctors appointments, receiving repairmen, going to the DMV, etc. on a weekday. The only reason we have the same two days off is for historical religious reasons. And a rolling schedule could still accommodate that for those who care. For everyone else, just put them on a rolling s…

Rolling weekends are problematic because it limits all social events to the evening. If no one has a shared day off, then daytime events which involve groups of people aren't possible.

A 2-day weekend, with one day/half day off during the week for appointments, would be a much better system. The employee could select the day themselves to suit their preferences.

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