Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
nytimes.com
Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
1–10 of 73 posts
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#2On the other side of the coin, most Greeks I know would also kill for a four-day week. In fact, they would kill for any work at all.
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#3I work a four day week, 10 hours a day (which I am thinking is different from the article's example) and love it. However, I've seen a dozen plus others try it and all switch back so it obviously isn't for everyone.
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#4I work a four day week, 10 hours a day (which I am thinking is different from the article's example) and love it. However, I've seen a dozen plus others try it and all switch back so it obviously isn't for everyone.
Actually, it does talk about squeezing a whole week's work into 4 days, so it's probably 4 10-hour days as well.
I've considered it, but I know my productivity sags at the 8 hour mark as it is, so I don't think it's a good fit for me or the company.
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#5I work a four day week, 10 hours a day (which I am thinking is different from the article's example) and love it. However, I've seen a dozen plus others try it and all switch back so it obviously isn't for everyone.
Actually, it does talk about squeezing a whole week's work into 4 days, so it's probably 4 10-hour days as well. I've considered it, but I know my productivity sags at the 8 hour mark as it is, so I don't think it's a good fit for me or the company.
I spend about 11 hours in office, 5 days a week. So I would rather prefer 4 working days,10 hours each anyway!
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#6I work a four day week, 10 hours a day (which I am thinking is different from the article's example) and love it. However, I've seen a dozen plus others try it and all switch back so it obviously isn't for everyone.
Years ago, I had a job where I had a four day week. (Actually four days a week every week, and an extra half day one week in three.) The trouble was, the extra couple of hours per day wore me down; after four days on, I needed an extra day just to get over the cumulative fatigue before I could enjoy the weekend.
The best single thing you can do to reduce working fatigue is to minimize your commuting time. If you commute an hour each way to work, then over a five day week, you've racked up an extra 10 hours -- not to mention the extra expense, and the aggravation periodically inflicted by traffic jams or public transport problems -- and the worst part of it is that it's mostly dead time. (I'll make an exception for commuting to work on foot or by bicycle, as part of an exercise regime.)
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#7Can we please boycott articles that need a freakin login?
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#8I work a four day week, 10 hours a day (which I am thinking is different from the article's example) and love it. However, I've seen a dozen plus others try it and all switch back so it obviously isn't for everyone.
Actually, it does talk about squeezing a whole week's work into 4 days, so it's probably 4 10-hour days as well. I've considered it, but I know my productivity sags at the 8 hour mark as it is, so I don't think it's a good fit for me or the company.
Actually, I wonder at which point you guys notice that your productivity drops. Very often my productivity drops noticeably after 7 hours, already, but it can come back in the evening.
Also, it often drops after lunch, but this also depends on when we have lunch. It's significantly worse if we have lunch around 12:00 than around 13:30-14:00. Our research group loves to go at 11:30 (!!!) which destroys the whole day for me, so a few of us have just stopped eating together with them.
Update: I've added a poll: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2052007
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#9The best job I ever had (schedule-wise) was when I worked 30 hours/week at home.
My normal day would be: get up at six and start work answering emails. Around eight I'd rustle up a quick breakfast and eat it at my desk while I started making the calls I needed to make. Done at noon.
If the 6 AM start time seems horrible, consider this: my commute from bed to desk was less than 30 seconds and being done before noon was a powerful motivator.
However a large portion of my job was traveling to different meetings throughout the state. Depending on the location, these trips could take three to five hours. So, if I had two meetings a week, I'd cut back my "office time" the day before or the day after.
Regardless of how much travel I did, I was done for the week when I hit 30 hours. I was done before Friday 90% of the time.
For about four months of that time, my fiancee (who also worked from home) was living with me. We would often go have lunch together or see a matinee.
Re: Oooh - I'd kill for a four day week...
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, it does talk about squeezing a whole week's work into 4 days, so it's probably 4 10-hour days as well. I've considered it, but I know my productivity sags at the 8 hour mark as it is, so I don't think it's a good fit for me or the company.
Actually, I wonder at which point you guys notice that your productivity drops. Very often my productivity drops noticeably after 7 hours, already, but it can come back in the evening. Also, it often drops after lunch, but this also depends on when we have lunch. It's significantly worse if we have lunch around 12:00 than around 13:30-14:00. Our research group loves to go at 11:30 (!!!) which destroys the whole day f…
I telecommute as well and basically have the first six hours of everyday by myself, so I feel very productive during that time. After lunch it drops some, but luckily that is also when meetings are so I feel it doesn't matter as much. If I still have time left and don't feel very productive (which happens maybe one day a week, sometimes more though) I usually have some work that doesn't require much mental effort (like administrative or light maintenance) and work on that. If I couldn't define my schedule like this it would probably be harder.