3 ms·

I've found the 10 hour day concept (or 4/40 as it's called in HR circles) to have unintended negative consequences for both sides of the equation. On the side

by SamAtt 17y ago

I've found the 10 hour day concept (or 4/40 as it's called in HR circles) to have unintended negative consequences for both sides of the equation. On the side of the employer it's just as you say: employees who are less productive because those last 2 hours are almost worthless. On the employee side you end up doing 2 hours or so of additional work on your "off day" because everyone else is still in the office and they tend to need things from you. The idea that I've found is better is the "Friday Meeting Day". Schedule all your meetings on Fridays and if the meetings progress quicker than expected give your employees the rest of the day off. It speeds up meetings (which is where employees tend to screw around) and ends up giving the staff an early weekend almost every week.

greyman 17y ago
I don't understand. In your off day, you are not in the office, are you?
duck 17y ago
If you allow people to contact you on your off day (and it could Sat/Sun too, not just Friday), people will contact you... but if set the precedence that you won't reply/answer then those same things will be asked on Thursday. I've worked a 4/40 for three years now and never had this issue. In regards to being productive, that really depends the person and the work they do. I tend to do half development and a mixture of sysadmin and PM work the other half, so the day flies by. Plus, how I see it a lot of people work 9-10+ hour days on a regular schedule. I use to do that and I still do, but now I get an extra day off.
- enjo 17y ago
  It really depends on where your at, and honestly how pivotal you are to what the team is doing. As the boss, it would be nearly impossible for me to achieve this. I do run a results-oriented shop. We have some guys who essentially work a 4 day work week (I have no idea how many hours they put in). They do try to make themselves available on fridays to answer questions or give quick input into problems we're having. Something like 5-15 minutes on an average Friday. I, on the other hand, work a solid 5 day week. I do have a hard(ish) cap on my time at 8 hours every day however. I find that if I'm managing myself and my team properly that a 40 hour work week is plenty. Even at a boot-strapped startup like ours.

by SamAtt 17y ago

greyman 17y ago

I don't understand. In your off day, you are not in the office, are you?

duck 17y ago

If you allow people to contact you on your off day (and it could Sat/Sun too, not just Friday), people will contact you... but if set the precedence that you won't reply/answer then those same things will be asked on Thursday. I've worked a 4/40 for three years now and never had this issue. In regards to being productive, that really depends the person and the work they do. I tend to do half development and a mixture of sysadmin and PM work the other half, so the day flies by. Plus, how I see it a lot of people work 9-10+ hour days on a regular schedule. I use to do that and I still do, but now I get an extra day off.

enjo 17y ago
It really depends on where your at, and honestly how pivotal you are to what the team is doing. As the boss, it would be nearly impossible for me to achieve this. I do run a results-oriented shop. We have some guys who essentially work a 4 day work week (I have no idea how many hours they put in). They do try to make themselves available on fridays to answer questions or give quick input into problems we're having. Something like 5-15 minutes on an average Friday. I, on the other hand, work a solid 5 day week. I do have a hard(ish) cap on my time at 8 hours every day however. I find that if I'm managing myself and my team properly that a 40 hour work week is plenty. Even at a boot-strapped startup like ours.