Ask HN: Would you rather work 4 days per week for 80% salary?

I believe he is saying that most jobs say one thing about hours and then often do another thing entirely. So in that world, taking a lower paying job for a theoretically better work life balance probably isn't going to pan out.

4 days for 80%, maybe. It depends greatly where you are in life.

But as you also state, i wonder if, due to Parkinson’s Law, that it would be mutual beneficial for all both employers – and employees – to work 4 days for 90% of the pay?

I currently work 32 hours / week at 80% pay and have done so for some time. On paper we agreed on 5*6,4 hours per week, but it is really flexibel. In practice I work somewhere between 32-40 hours a week and additionally take a couple of days off per month.

For me, it's the best arrangement I've ever had. If I don't feel like it or need to take care of some other stuff, I just work for a couple hours a day. Other times I really enjoy it and work 8-10. Additionally I get long weekends without having to use any holidays.

I also think my employer gets a better deal this way. Being productive 8 hours a day is more or less wishful thinking. I think the reality is somewhere between 4-6 hours for normal people. Hence I'm still almost as productive asif I were working 40h/week, but at 80% the cost for my employer. Everybody wins.

YES! And I have been doing it for the last 9 years.

In fact I recently went down to 3 days a week for 60% salary and that's even better (although I do use the other day for other work sometimes if it's something I'd like to do).

Main benefit has been increased time with my daughter.

My 2 cents for anyone trying it:

1) Take Monday off - everyone is still getting stuff together on Monday so it won't be so disruptive. Plus, you won't hate Mondays anymore :)

2) Be very strict with the day off. Never compromise on it, at least for the first few months. Make sure everyone understands that you are absolutely not working and cannot work that day and things will be OK. If you don't it will cause confusion and many problems.

My sense is, it's one less day, but not necessarily 20% less productivity. That is, 4 days on and 3 off helps to refresh the mind and the body.

So at 80% the employer is probably getting 85%, perhaps more.

Finally, it's worth considering, for companies that honor the standard Monday holidays (in the USA and UK) those are already 4 day weeks. If that's 10 holidays, we're now only talking 40-ish days. If days were 8.5 hrs not 8 That's another ~10 days. Now you're around 30 days.

Maybe that's a number you can sell? I'm certainly trying to do so.