One other minor perk of working fewer hours is lower taxes. The first hour you work in a week is taxed much lower than the last hour you work. (In countries with progressive tax systems.)
What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
91–100 of 111 posts
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also the theory that if you are doing something illegal, improper, or incompetent, having your assignment covered by another individual for a bloc of time increases the likelihood of revealing any problematic issues.
That sounds like a grotesque lack of trust and set of priorities. If I ever found out an employer used my absence in such ways, I’d immediately start looking for new work.
It appears to be strongly encouraged by the FDIC in the US as a mandatory banking policy. Websearching "mandatory vacation" will turn up other examples.
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could never understand why would someone accept these jobs. What's so great about becoming a manager and work 60h/week? How's that better than 40 a week as a subordinate and letting someone else worry about all the office drama?
It's just a different set of skills and you create value/feel rewarded in a different manner. It's not better or worse, it's just different and appeals to different kind of people. Take some other example from video games: - Why would anyone pick a healer in an MMO group ? What's so great about becoming a healer ? How's that better than playing a DPS, actually contributing to killing the boss and letting someone else…
Also healers get placed in the dungeon ASAP - high priority because there are so few. I play a tank, and feel similar status effects.
I want to know the analogy of healers that rage quit (they do so more than DPSs or Tanks) with the entire manager/subordinate thing ;)
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's also the theory that if you are doing something illegal, improper, or incompetent, having your assignment covered by another individual for a bloc of time increases the likelihood of revealing any problematic issues.
That sounds like a grotesque lack of trust and set of priorities. If I ever found out an employer used my absence in such ways, I’d immediately start looking for new work.
You should probably take it up with regulators then who, especially in the financial services industry, recommend or require it. e.g. https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/1995/fil9552.html
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I could never understand why would someone accept these jobs. What's so great about becoming a manager and work 60h/week? How's that better than 40 a week as a subordinate and letting someone else worry about all the office drama?
It's just a different set of skills and you create value/feel rewarded in a different manner. It's not better or worse, it's just different and appeals to different kind of people. Take some other example from video games: - Why would anyone pick a healer in an MMO group ? What's so great about becoming a healer ? How's that better than playing a DPS, actually contributing to killing the boss and letting someone else…
That's a fantastic analogy!
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#96My $0.02. I've been working a 4 day/week schedule for 1.5 years now. Initially, I took the time off to lead a nonprofit volunteering project but quickly got burned out (4 days work, 1.5~2 days nonprofit work = 5.5~6 days/week). I've since reallocated the extra day to hobbies and am quite happy with the setup. As I've explicitly taken an independent contributor role at work, I feel no need to be 100% available, and my…
How did that conversation go with your manager when you first wanted to reduce your hours? I had a similar conversation about 8 years ago, moving from 5 days to 4 days. My boss at the time wasn't too happy with the proposal, and suggested it might just be easier for them to replace me with someone who wanted to put the full effort expected in.
Typical response is never "awesome, let's do that" because... why should they? They'd prefer you to work 5 days a week. So they'll push back.
But, as an existing employee you're valuable: you know a lot of things that take a lot of effort for new employee to learn. And so quite often the answer is just "yes", or stalling but "fine, ok, yes" if you push at it.
Of course, some places the managers have no respect at all for employees or understanding of your value. You probably don't want to work those places at all, and if you do this won't work.
If you want a detailed howto, I wrote a book about it: https://codewithoutrules.com/3dayweekend/
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#97Related: "How to become a part-time programmer" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17131691
I would love to be in a position where 20% off my salary is not something to worry
If you can't cut your expenses, getting better at negotiation will help you with both parts. Given how much Google and the like pay at the top tier, and the availability of remote work across geographic zones, it's highly unlikely you're at peak pay for your experience level.
So you can:
1. First, get a higher salary. 2. Then, go down to 4 days and take the 20% cut.
Example: when you get a job offer, merely by saying "can you do better?" you can quite often get a 10% higher offer, because usually initial offer is at the bottom of the pay range.
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#98I've often felt that a 5 day work week is about availability , not raw productivity. I could easily compress all of my weeks work into 30 hours or less, but that's not what my managers and clients value. What they value is the fact that I'm making progress on my tasks, and that my reachability is not preventing anyone else (people above me or below me) from making progress on their tasks
The problem is that the actual limited resource for workers is not time or effort, but attention. If you're available at work, you're spending that resource.
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#99I've often felt that a 5 day work week is about availability , not raw productivity. I could easily compress all of my weeks work into 30 hours or less, but that's not what my managers and clients value. What they value is the fact that I'm making progress on my tasks, and that my reachability is not preventing anyone else (people above me or below me) from making progress on their tasks
> is about availability
That's what I've found especially with my current job.
I can sit for a whole long time doing Nothing. I mean literally Nothing. I could tap out to see a 2.5h movie, come back, and nobody would have noticed.
But "I'm available". Oh but of course, I'll press this button for you. Let me refer you to the "subject matter expert". And no, there's nothing explicitly for me to actually do.
I can't wait for this contract to be over.
Re: What I Learned from Working 32 Hours a Week
#100Different people can function under different workloads, and there is no magic formula that will make everyone happy.
I've been clocking in ~50h/week for a couple of years now as a contractor and it's worked well for me. Working remotely helps a lot as there's no commuting and I can start being productive 15 minutes after waking up. I'm also able to distribute the weekly workload as I please (except daily standups). Some days I'll clock in 12 hours, and other days work barely at all.
All clients were happy with this kind of arrangement so far.