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We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

beaconcrm.org

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Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#51

Post by matsemann »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #20

Quick refresher on productivity in economic terms: decreasing inputs = decreasing outputs UNLESS tech or technique improves. During supply and/or debt driven inflationary periods (eg. now), increased productivity = increased supply and/or decreased debt. What do these maxims of economics mean for a 4 day work week? At Beacon, nothing*. But implement this at Tyson Foods, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Waste Management, the…

> and you get 2-6% productivity declines & some amount of increased supply-driven inflation unless you offset with new technology (eg. software, robotics) or techniques.

People worked 40 hours a decade or two ago as well, and since then there's been enormous technical improvements. Why not use that improvement to work less and enjoy life, instead of chasing higher throughput in various industries?

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#52

Post by jacquesm »

In quite a few countries the 32 hour workweek is already very normal, it creates a bit of extra scheduling work but nothing you can't handle in a larger organization. For smaller companies this is a bigger problem because they don't usually have the headcount to fill the resulting gaps and things tend to rely more on personal relationships.

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#53

Post by anon2020dot00 »

ginko wrote: post #48
john_the_writer wrote: post #2

Four days in the office :( I mean you do you, but Bleck. "You don't have to come to work on Friday but we still want you to spend 12 hours a week crammed onto a bus or train." How else could you possibly write code or sit in front of a computer all day?

>we still want you to spend 12 hours a week crammed onto a bus or train Your commute is 3 hours per day?!

Common in countries in SEA like the Philippines

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#54

Post by adamhp »

matsemann wrote: post #51
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #20

Quick refresher on productivity in economic terms: decreasing inputs = decreasing outputs UNLESS tech or technique improves. During supply and/or debt driven inflationary periods (eg. now), increased productivity = increased supply and/or decreased debt. What do these maxims of economics mean for a 4 day work week? At Beacon, nothing*. But implement this at Tyson Foods, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Waste Management, the…

> and you get 2-6% productivity declines & some amount of increased supply-driven inflation unless you offset with new technology (eg. software, robotics) or techniques. People worked 40 hours a decade or two ago as well, and since then there's been enormous technical improvements. Why not use that improvement to work less and enjoy life, instead of chasing higher throughput in various industries?

Because capitalism.

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#55

Post by ginko »

anon2020dot00 wrote: post #53
ginko wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>we still want you to spend 12 hours a week crammed onto a bus or train Your commute is 3 hours per day?!

Common in countries in SEA like the Philippines

That's crazy. My "commute" is 30 minutes of walking each way. Could do it in 10 if I took the bus but I like the workout.

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#56

Post by omginternets »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #20

Quick refresher on productivity in economic terms: decreasing inputs = decreasing outputs UNLESS tech or technique improves. During supply and/or debt driven inflationary periods (eg. now), increased productivity = increased supply and/or decreased debt. What do these maxims of economics mean for a 4 day work week? At Beacon, nothing*. But implement this at Tyson Foods, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Waste Management, the…

thankfully, life isn’t about maximizing productivity.

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#57

Post by gms »

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #34
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #20

Quick refresher on productivity in economic terms: decreasing inputs = decreasing outputs UNLESS tech or technique improves. During supply and/or debt driven inflationary periods (eg. now), increased productivity = increased supply and/or decreased debt. What do these maxims of economics mean for a 4 day work week? At Beacon, nothing*. But implement this at Tyson Foods, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Waste Management, the…

5 day week, no-flex also has costs, it's a matter of value and perspective. So what if productivity decreases by a few % if it means we all get better work life balance. Change is not easy but over time equilibrium can be found which is not dependent on this paradigm of infinite growth.

Because then prices go up and the poor especially are hurt. Governments also get less revenue so are less able to assist the poor.

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#58

Post by Rayhem »

christophilus wrote: post #39
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #20

Quick refresher on productivity in economic terms: decreasing inputs = decreasing outputs UNLESS tech or technique improves. During supply and/or debt driven inflationary periods (eg. now), increased productivity = increased supply and/or decreased debt. What do these maxims of economics mean for a 4 day work week? At Beacon, nothing*. But implement this at Tyson Foods, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Waste Management, the…

There’s a balance somewhere. I guarantee my 8/4 workers will outperform your 24/7 workers. Your workers will be worthless 20 hours into their eternal shift, and dead from sleep exhaustion after a few days. It’s obvious that the relationship is not as simple as one input, one output. If you work your employees 8/5, and I do the same, but with a gym break with a company-provided trainer, my employees will work fewer ho…

> It’s obvious that the relationship is not as simple as one input, one output.

Yes. It's easy to say "if we assume everything is linear...". Justifying that assumption and demonstrating that it's valid is another, significantly more difficult, thing entirely.

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#59

Post by JamesAdir »

michaelmior wrote: post #38
JamesAdir wrote: post #29

I really can't wrap my head around this four-day week trend. If the organization is focused on KPI's so why does it matter if people work one day or four-days? If the organization is focused on time spend no work (either in office or remotely) how can work be done in 80% of the time? Really don't understand how it works in day-to-day. It resembles the unlimited vacation days policy which was later found out to be unh…

> If the organization is focused on KPI's so why does it matter if people work one day or four-days? Arguably it matters in how you KPIs are set. I think it's reasonable to expect a full time employee to work more than one day a week. If you can meet all your KPIs with everyone working one day a week, then maybe you're aiming too low. Of course, if you require everyone to work 60 hour weeks to hit KPIs, that's an eve…

KPIs can be change continuously so that's why I'm baffled by this trend. Companies can just say - we measure only by KPIs, work whenever you want. Something like this signals a much better workspace than four-days workweek, since the latter still measures time instead of output.

Re: We're moving to a four-day work week at Beacon

#60

Post by cjg »

ginko wrote: post #48
john_the_writer wrote: post #2

Four days in the office :( I mean you do you, but Bleck. "You don't have to come to work on Friday but we still want you to spend 12 hours a week crammed onto a bus or train." How else could you possibly write code or sit in front of a computer all day?

>we still want you to spend 12 hours a week crammed onto a bus or train Your commute is 3 hours per day?!

That was easily my commute when I was working in London. I'd drive to the train station, take the train into London, then the tube within London and walk the last 10 minutes to the office. On a normal day it would take 1h40 each way. On a bad day it could be much longer.

That's nearly 17 hours over a 5 day week assuming no problems.

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