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Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

reuters.com

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Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#71

Post by austincheney »

Less work would not solve the problem for me. I enjoy solving problems and creating tools. I like it so much I do it outside of work and possibly inside when I have nothing else to do.

What I find stressful is stupid people. This really burns me out. I can understand a lack of experience and mistakes in code. We are always learning and in need of mentorship.

What I can’t stand are cowardly people who aren’t learning. These are people who refuse to write original code to save their lives, or their careers. It seems common to avoid code by hoping some Maven or NPM package will easily do your job for you. These are the people who need multiple frameworks and 10mb of dependency code for what could be accomplished in about 12 lines of original code. It’s a hatred of craftsmanship. These people make me hate coding and life in general.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#72

Post by itamarst »

amatthew wrote: post #58
mark_l_watson wrote: post #48

For decades, I almost always worked four days a week, 32 hours/week total. Since I was working for mostly large companies, I didn’t make any sort of special deal to do this, I simply took a 20% pay cut. Well worth it. Looking back over the last 35 years, I don’t regret working less at all, with the extra time off spent with friends and family, and giving me time to write several books.

How did you manage to negotiate that? Especially for earlier career jobs?

It's harder earlier in career, but the guy I interviewed (mentioned in separate comment) successfully did it as his first job (https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/01/08/part-time-programmer...). He was:

1. Existing employee, so he was valuable to them, and had proven he could work shorter hours since he'd been there part-time initially when he was in university.

2. Willing to quit. In fact, what actually happened is he said "I quit", they said "but we don't want you to quit" and he said "how about 4 day workweek".

This is not a very reproducible method, but I've interviewed another person (for my book - https://codewithoutrules.com/3dayweekend/) who was somewhat early in his career. Again, he did it at his current job, with willingness to leave if necessary.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#73

Post by kgwxd »

I don't think this would help a ton in tech. The people that get burned out the hardest can't stop thinking about work if they're on the clock or not. They'll just have another day to stress about not getting stuff done or how much more they'll have to do when they get back.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#74

Post by combatentropy »

godDLL wrote: post #51
mark_l_watson wrote: post #48

For decades, I almost always worked four days a week, 32 hours/week total. Since I was working for mostly large companies, I didn’t make any sort of special deal to do this, I simply took a 20% pay cut. Well worth it. Looking back over the last 35 years, I don’t regret working less at all, with the extra time off spent with friends and family, and giving me time to write several books.

I could never negotiate that, so I quit the industry after 10-ish years and went into "leaner life-style, honest day's work" type of deal. Best thing I did with my life. Oh, and Wim Hof breathing. Just the breathing, for now.

I'm curious what kind of job you got after quitting the tech industry. Maybe I'll try it some day. :)

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#75

Post by combatentropy »

From the article: "companies around the world that have cut their work week have found that it leads to higher productivity".

I'm disappointed that the article does not even explore the question, at what point does productivity decrease? It says that going from 5 to 4 days brought about an increase. The natural question is, what would happen if you went to 3? To 2? 1?

Certainly at 0 days per week, productivity will decrease. And I know it will be a long time before even a 4-day week is the norm. But at least as an academic exercise, why is no one asking the question? What is the fewest number of hours per week that yields the same amount of productivity as 40? (Such a study would have use averages, of course.)

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#76

Post by tekproxy »

fhbdukfrh wrote: post #59
anoncoward111 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with you, but it's physically impossible for all developers to merely find a better job. Some can, but not all can, because of the limited number of companies out there. As a result, we really should force employers to treat us better rather than viewing us as replaceable. They also need to learn that their way shouldn't be the only way.

How do you force employers to treat you better, some sort of artificial regulation? We've never had greater labor mobility, remote options or demand for software developers; I question your premise of limited number of companies.

Just legislate that everyone has to be nice and give you lots of money. The intent of the law is all that matters if reality is any approximation of the truth.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#77

Post by _RPM »

scarejunba wrote: post #33
_RPM wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to work from home when there isn’t much work to do, so then I can have my laptop. It’s common for us to have a code freeze, where we do not have any items in our backlog.

Perhaps have release branches and hotfix there, merging into master? May be a more enjoyable development cycle.

Unfortunately we only branch on release. We don’t have separate branches. Consider it as everyone working on master, and no merges m, just code reviews.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#78

Post by twblalock »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #57
twblalock wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If fire drills are the norm rather than the exception, you should find another job because you are working at a poorly run company. There is always a tension between delivering features and delivering quality, but that's no excuse for constant fire drills and notifications. It's possible to handle the tradeoff better than that.

Agree with you, but it's physically impossible for all developers to merely find a better job. Some can, but not all can, because of the limited number of companies out there. As a result, we really should force employers to treat us better rather than viewing us as replaceable. They also need to learn that their way shouldn't be the only way.

I don't think there has ever been a better time to be on the job market as a software developer. There are more software companies than there have ever been, and job openings and salaries for developers are at an all-time high.

Even if you're happy where you are, if you started more than 5 years ago, you'd be shocked to hear what kinds of salaries are on offer now if you're willing to switch companies. That's a sign that companies view developers as scarce resources rather than replaceable commodities.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#79

Post by EForEndeavour »

godDLL wrote: post #51
mark_l_watson wrote: post #48

For decades, I almost always worked four days a week, 32 hours/week total. Since I was working for mostly large companies, I didn’t make any sort of special deal to do this, I simply took a 20% pay cut. Well worth it. Looking back over the last 35 years, I don’t regret working less at all, with the extra time off spent with friends and family, and giving me time to write several books.

I could never negotiate that, so I quit the industry after 10-ish years and went into "leaner life-style, honest day's work" type of deal. Best thing I did with my life. Oh, and Wim Hof breathing. Just the breathing, for now.

EDIT: for anyone curious, here is the official guide on Wim Hof breathing, copy-pasted from https://www.wimhofmethod.com/breathing-exercises

---

Never practice the breathing exercises in a place where it could be dangerous to faint.

Step 1: Get comfortable

Before you start practicing the breathing exercises, it is important to get as comfortable as possible. Sit in a comfortable posture in which you can expand your lungs freely. To make sure that you can expand your lung for the fullest, it is recommended to practice the exercises on an empty stomach.

Step 2: 30 power breaths

For this first breathing exercise, imagine that you are blowing up a balloon. While using your midriff fully, inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Use short and powerful bursts. Close your eyes and repeat 30 times. You can become light-headed during this exercise or experience a tingling sensation. This is normal.

Step 3: Retention after exhalation

After your 30 power breaths, fill your lungs to maximum capacity, but don’t force it. Exhale and hold for as long as you can. Hold your breath without forcing it, until you experience the gasp reflex.

Step 4: Recovery breath

Inhale to maximum capacity and feel your chest expanding. When your lungs are full, hold your breath for 10 seconds. Release the breath, and begin a new round. Repeat 3 to 4 times.

Step 5: Enjoy the feeling

Take your time to enjoy the feeling that the breathing exercises invoke. This feeling is similar to the effects of meditation and will get more powerful when you practice more often.

Re: Burnout, stress lead more companies to try a four-day work week

#80

Post by optimusclimb »

twblalock wrote: post #78
anoncoward111 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with you, but it's physically impossible for all developers to merely find a better job. Some can, but not all can, because of the limited number of companies out there. As a result, we really should force employers to treat us better rather than viewing us as replaceable. They also need to learn that their way shouldn't be the only way.

I don't think there has ever been a better time to be on the job market as a software developer. There are more software companies than there have ever been, and job openings and salaries for developers are at an all-time high. Even if you're happy where you are, if you started more than 5 years ago, you'd be shocked to hear what kinds of salaries are on offer now if you're willing to switch companies. That's a sign…

... if you want to live in the Bay.
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