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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

#171

Post by AhtiK »

moeamaya wrote: post #156
_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…

We do 4-day (32 hour) work weeks at Monograph, and we've been doing it for 3 years now. I believe we're one of the only companies in SF that are advocates for working less, but more productively. Similar to Microsoft, we only have one 45-min meeting each week and then everything else is heads down work. To maintain efficiency, we also have strict Slack protocols in place to keep everyone in deep work throughout the d…

The team behind Todoist came out with a product called Twist, meant for more async and productivity focused approach and directly going against Slack distractions. I wonder if there are companies who have tried it in a bit bigger scale or why isn't Twist more known?

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#172

Post by kbenson »

metalliqaz wrote: post #142
_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…

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

Not everyone thinks of the same thing when they think startup. I think the main difference is that some people also include starting a lifestyle business, or a business that's much less ambitious in scope than being a globally known name. There's nothing wrong with a business that employs less than 20 people, and nothing that necessarily means it has to grow.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#173

Post by hinkley »

EpicEng wrote: post #44
hamandcheese wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever worked in retail or service? I have, and I know people who still do, and it’s hard work. Restaurants, for example, will usually send you home with no pay if there is so little to do that you are warming a chair, and I’ve worked minimum wage retail jobs that do the same.

Yes, for years. It has nothing to do with hard or easy; the business doesn't function without you there. Comparing that to a job like ours makes no sense. Hours worked is directly correlated with output, unlike engineering.

Hours worked matters in software when the project is so mismanaged that there are regular emergency situations. Someone “has to” be around for those events.

There are too many places that function like a firehouse and hours in seat matter at those places.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#174

Post by paco_sinbad »

_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…

Your own startup will probably be 12hr/7day until it's funded or otherwise self-sufficient.

It could be 9hr/4day, and you will do that until you run out of capital after 1800 work hours.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#175

Post by TomK32 »

moeamaya wrote: post #156
_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…

We do 4-day (32 hour) work weeks at Monograph, and we've been doing it for 3 years now. I believe we're one of the only companies in SF that are advocates for working less, but more productively. Similar to Microsoft, we only have one 45-min meeting each week and then everything else is heads down work. To maintain efficiency, we also have strict Slack protocols in place to keep everyone in deep work throughout the d…

Re customer support: A company-wide four-day week doesn't mean that everyone has to work the same four days. Actually, there might be people who'd prefer their weekend to be Sunday to Tuesday for some obscure reason.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#176

Post by volkk »

ryanmercer wrote: post #126
volkk wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hamm…

FYI im not downvoting you, but a large portion of the modern workforce (at least in the US) do have their asses in seats 9-5 at a desk. whether its administrative tasks, finance, law etc. there's a giant world out there aside from CS peeps, and im not even approaching it from the tech angle. either way, you havent addressed anything i mentioned except immediately indirectly attacking the people that visit these forums.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#177

Post by [deleted] »

bumby wrote: post #86

I'm a big fan of non-traditional work schedules but I think it takes strong leadership to implement well. At one company, I noticed Fridays were probably the least productive day as people would take breakfast breaks immediately upon showing up, extra long lunch breaks etc. Everybody was itching for the weekend. When they moved to 4 day work weeks, that same mentality just shifted to Thursday. Leadership wasn't good…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#178

Post by robocat »

tomp wrote: post #81
jacquesm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately, the Labour Party doesn't control businesses and every company is free to negotiate whatever contracts it feels like within the law , so a subset, such as 4 days instead of whatever the legal maximum is is perfectly possible.

Is this entirely true? A lot of state benefits are linked to hours worked, e.g. if you don't work full time, you might not get full state pension, employement insurance, etc... (Although admittedly these benefits are quite minmal in the UK, at least for London.)

Also some professions require so many FTE years experience to progress with professional qualifications (or maintain?).

I know a nurse that needs to do a minimum of 35 hours a week so that they can get full-time experience so that they can meet requirements for the next job.

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#179

Post by buboard »

_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…

OK don't get mad - just work remotely

Re: Microsoft 4-day week boosts productivity and sales

#180

Post by dageshi »

macspoofing wrote: post #113
_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…

>I don't want to spend most of my life working. I feel like a slave, and now my youth is almost gone. That's a first-world problem if I ever saw one. You're going to work most of your life because if you don't somebody else will have to support you. Very few people can provide for their lifestyle without working (it can be done, but it can be very hard and would require a sacrifice of some of the comforts of modern-d…

You missed the AHDH bit, I can't speak for everyone with ADHD but I understand what op is is saying. With ADHD you've got to constantly force yourself to remain focused on whatever task you're meant to be doing while your mind really just wants to wander off. Sometimes you fall into "flow" on whatever you're working on and everything's great until that task is finished then you've got to mentally whip yourself to move onto the next.

For op, chores are basically just more work, more things for him to mentally whip himself to concentrate on.

Op wants a break from that mental process of forcing his concentration but can't because it's the only way he knows to actually make himself do anything useful.

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