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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

#161

Post by wonderwonder »

realbarack wrote: post #35
drakythe wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm gonna borrow OP's mindset for a second: Fuck this. In the United States the benefits of full time employment are mandatory if you want to live a much less stressful life. Tying benefits to employment has given employers far too much control over their employees lives, without a huge savings or secondary income source anyone without insurance is one bad day away from bankruptcy (and too many people /with/ benefits…

I agree with your sentiment regarding benefits in the U.S. Couldn't companies provide the important benefits (healthcare, 401k matching) to employees who worked a 4-day week as well? One potential issue is that I think there are fewer legal requirements, but competitive employers already provide benefits that exceed the legal minima.

Employers should not be involved in the health care game at all. It should be a universal right provided by the government as it is in many other countries. This would lead to a healthier population as a whole. It would also lead to a reduction in costs associated with poor people who put off going to the doctor due to inability to cover even co-pay ending up in the emergency room and defaulting on a ~50k bill. In addition government could negotiate for vastly cheaper medications as they would essentially be the only game in town.

This would also allow industry to focus on what industry does which is make money. They no longer would have to spend on expensive Cadillac health care plans in order to compete for employees. Governments job is to keep its populace safe and healthy, that is not the job of private industry.

The only reason we don't have this is due to lobbyists.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#162

Post by bobly_today »

czbond wrote: post #71
throwawayforme1 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADHD is considered a mental illness. That's why.

Yes - it can have that stigma. ADHD is present, however, in many entrepreneurs. It can also be a hindrance in SaaS startups, I'm mentioning it as a help. Pre-plan to have someone help with the details and keep someone on track. You either focus on opportunity, or have a project manager. I am not ADHD/ADD, but have interacted with a few in this situation..

As someone with ADHD, this is strikes me as overblown. I certainly wouldn’t require dedicated personnel to compensate for my ADHD. Especially if medicated.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#163

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

deathhand wrote: post #135
ryanmercer wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I am overwhelmingly more productive and valuable now as a specialized, highly educated, experienced engineer than I would have been as a subsistence farmer. I've got some news for you, many manual labor jobs aren't just picking up a shovel and digging a hole or picking up a box and setting it back down. Your first sentence, to me, reads "I'm more valuable than you because I know thing, so I want more resources for l…

>"I'm more valuable than you because I know thing, so I want more resources for less effort" Congratulations you just described capitalism.

That's not even true - it's "I'm more valuable than you because I have more resources". That's literally it - sometimes it matches up with knowledge, but many times it doesn't.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#164

Post by kbenson »

throwawayforme1 wrote: post #50
izolate wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why do you feel it necessary to use a throwaway? I echo your thoughts entirely and feel strongly enough about them to attribute them to my name. I think we (as a society/industry) need to start publicly having this discussion.

ADHD is considered a mental illness. That's why.

For what it's worth, the people I know that have ADHD tend to be very quick at picking up stuff when they can focus on it (i.e. it interests them). I have a pretty healthy opinion of my capabilities, and I do feel a bit awed at points.

Regardless of how it's classified, I tend to think of it more as just a different way the mind works, and not necessarily an inferior one (even if our society seems to make it harder to thrive at a young age when that's how your mind works[1]). Given the number of people I've seen that seem to leverage this aspect of how they function to good success as adults, I definitely wouldn't consider it a disability.

1: My daughter has ADHD and takes medication because the structure of school and the constraints it puts on the people in it doesn't really allow for other options that don't result in her failing or one of her parents devoting ourselves to her education. I have complex feelings about this, but believe it's beneficial at least for now.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#166

Post by bernierocks »

treyfitty wrote: post #157
metalliqaz wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to have a startup that doesn't demand life-consuming overtime? I find that hard to believe.

I know plenty of non unicorn startup founders that don’t work overtime, and they net about $1Mm per year. Sure, not a path to billionaire status, but not too shabby either.

That doesn't sound like a startup. It sounds like they are running a lifestyle business, which isn't a bad thing.

Startups, by definition, try to scale up quickly..which means lots of money (investors) and lots of time (overtime and long hours).

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#167

Post by darrenf »

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…

I presume almost everyone with school age children would, during term time at least, prefer to keep weekends as they are.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#168

Post by therealdrag0 »

raphaelj wrote: post #140

I've been working 4d/week for the past 2 years as a software engineer, and it would be very hard for me to go back to a full time position. I'm pretty sure I'm making more right now compared to how much I was when working full time. I explain this by having had more time to become a better engineer, as I've been able to spend time on side projects (learning new things), distancing myself from my professional duties (…

There's a sub-set of engineers who would provide serious value (to employers) by having regular 20% freetime to work on what they wanted.

I sorta "steal" (do without asking permission) 10% of time to work on what I want (stuff not PM sanctioned bugs/features), and not only is it GREAT for mental health, it often turns out to be greatly appreciated by others at work. There's always stuff that many people wish for but never gets prioritized. Or just me cross-training myself in other languages and frameworks so I can support a larger set of code-bases also provides a lot of value.

But not everyone works like this. Many people just take any extra slack they can get and use it to chill. :shrug:

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#169

Post by strictfp »

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

Guilt tripping much? Also, that work ethic attitude isn't exactly healthy, just a chimera confusing bullheadedness with productivity.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#170

Post by [deleted] »

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...

[deleted]
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