181–190 of 351 posts
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Belgium is missing as well, by law you are allowed to choose a 4d work-week and many, many people do it, including myself :-).
If you can choose to work %20 fewer hours dor the same pay, who doesn't choose to do so?
I've been working 4 day workweeks for well over a decade now, took the pay cut myself. As for the goal to maintain 100% productivity whilst cutting back on hours, I'm confident that they will succeed. In fact, they'll succeed in this without requiring some kind of brilliant plan, as this recalibration happens automatically. When you start working one day less, nobody will reduce your workload by 20%. You'll have the…
Until you fix the institution you can't change the hours.
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Quick phone calls are often more efficient than emails. For status updates, downloads of information, sure email works. But if you want a back and forth exchange of ideas, talking is often much faster.
Talking is indeed faster but if you're not recording the result in some document to share with others not on the call there's risk that valuable information will be lost.
This is escalating like the Gilette wars (3 blades, 4 blades...12 blades). Soon you'll only stand out by announcing the 3 day work week. ...and get killed by a team that just outworks you. How many pro-sports teams have switched to less and less training :) I do hope all our competitors switch to 0 day workweeks...
Pro sports is flipped, and often each week the athletes are learning new tactics/counter-tactics based on their opponent, or adjusting their existing patterns to perfection, or grinding out exercise routines to be able to demand more from their body. Drills are required to "train" their body into being able to do these routines reliably on-demand, and new exercise routines are often the best at forcing your body to adapt and grow.
That said, even pro-athletes have rest periods once the season is over. Also, many of them incorporate rest into training routines as well. An NFL player usually will rest after game day for 1 or 2 days.
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It was the fatal shift from "personnel" to "human resources".
At my company they aren't hiring "people" anymore but "resources". Even when looking for somebody internally to help out with a project, managers try to "find a resource", not "finding somebody".
Or why people keep using it?
I refuse to refer to people as resources. I won't willfully dehumanize people by treating them as raw materials or as machines.
I've been working 4 day workweeks for well over a decade now, took the pay cut myself. As for the goal to maintain 100% productivity whilst cutting back on hours, I'm confident that they will succeed. In fact, they'll succeed in this without requiring some kind of brilliant plan, as this recalibration happens automatically. When you start working one day less, nobody will reduce your workload by 20%. You'll have the…
When I was working before my retirement I routinely had to work 60 hr weeks since I was lead (went to every meeting) and wrote code full time along with my team. Most of our projects started with a hard deadline (estimates were only used for budgeting, the time was predetermined) and constant change was endemic during every project. No way this would fit in 32 hr weeks. Yet we still had sprints (which assumed 40 hrs…
If they're doing this to compete for talent, go ahead by all means. I suspect they need to do something like this also because they're a UK SaaS company (so lower wages to start) serving the low-end of the non-profit market (price sensitive buyers). And they don't have the enterprise features to compete with Salesforce and CRM for the high-end segment.
I wish them luck. I understand their need to have folks in the office, and this is one way to make that more attractive. But it is only one factor. Good management, strong teams, and a whole lot of "soft" stuff is even more important than beanbag chairs and foozball tables. The "good management" part is where most companies go pear-shaped. I wouldn't want to go to Buckingham Palace every day, if I hated the people I…
> I understand their need to have folks in the office, I don't. Can you explain what it is about every single job there requires 8 hours of 100% availability?
That's the problem, there. One-size-fits-all approach.
Every job is different. A lot of it is up to the management. If they get it right, things are shiny. If they get it wrong, they're sitting on their beanbag chair, alone, waiting for the movers to take the furniture away.
But every company (and internal culture) is different. Some, I intensely dislike, but have to admit, they get results. Others, I like the culture, but I don't feel they get much done.
Also, every employee is different. I know people that dress up in bespoke suits for work, in a cube farm, every day, and absolutely love it.
I know people that hate remote work, and can't wait to get back into the office.
Different(folks).different(strokes)
Good managers, especially first-line managers, are worth their weight in gold, and are usually disregarded by upper managers.
A good manager can make an open-plan or cube farm job an absolute joy, and a bad manager can make a corner office career a nightmare.
I like to think I was a good manager. I kept really good employees for decades, in a pretty banal environment, and for a fairly low salary. They could have gone anywhere, and they knew it, but they stuck around, anyway.
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Quite the contrary. My aim is at those opinions that tell _me_ what to do, essentially not respecting my own opinion. I am more than happy for people to return to the office if that's _their_ wish but I am not returning to an office to be someone’s substitute for a normal life. To each his own, basically. As i said, there are valid reasons but not at my own freedom’s expense.
If you only said you don't want other's needs to affect you, that would be a valid opinion. (Albeit not very altruistic) But what you're saying is also that those wanting to be at the office are friendless, need this as a substitute for a normal life etc. That's unnecessary, and just you being a total dick. Please present your arguments here in a better way.
Is this better than a results oriented work week? And figure out your own schedule as individual or team.
What is a results oriented work week? How do you measure? If its "I said I would get X done" then yes, a four day work week is much better.
Likely this doesn't work well on a team, or for more open-ended work. Never seen any organisation aside from private contractors who actually do this though.
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I was very pro home-office (and even Anti-Office) before and during the pandemic. Now that restrictions are more or less gone, I'm glad to be working in the office again. Being in the office for the first time in my career showed me that there are definitely upsides, especially when you get along with your team really well. Though 100% mandatory office time is BS.
>Now that restrictions are more or less gone, I'm glad to be working in the office again. In the US, COVID cases are five times higher than this time last year, and the CDC estimates that 1 in 5 will result in long COVID.
This scolding "I'm not sure exactly how, yet, but you'll be sorry!" any time anyone admits that they're no longer hiding inside & wiping down every banana with bleach is getting a little tired.