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Is there any company that has a six hour day? Not a contractor or contracting agency, but a regular white-collar business that has full-time employees. Unfortu

Is there any company that has a six hour day? Not a contractor or contracting agency, but a regular white-collar business that has full-time employees. Unfortunately, until we see a company be successful while breaking the rules (not eight hour days, no open workspaces, etc), the world will continue the same. Maybe when we HNers start a company or startup we should actually do what we post about constantly. I believe that eight hours is too much. Working eight hours a day (plus commute, however short it may be) leaves you little time for leisure when you add the chores of daily life. I rarely care about how the company is affected, so I am glad studies like these exist.

wslh 10y ago
My company has a six hour day since its inception in 2003. We are more than 12 people and we always thought that a eight hour day doesn't add to the productivity. We have an employee who wants to work eight hours and he brings some kind of development support so that works in this context. There are days where people work longer hours because of a deadline but this is very rare and we always optimized to taking care of our team health. Also, our headquarters are in Buenos Aires, Argentina where a whole team working 6 hours per day is unusual.
- slyzmud 10y ago
  Hi, I am from Buenos Aires. What's your company? I haven't heard anybody doing something like that here, congratulations!
  - wslh 10y ago
    You can check my HN profile (I co-founded two companies). I know other companies here that have optional flexible hours like http://www.7puentes.com http://www.7puentes.com, a data science company.
slm_HN 10y ago
I believe that Amazon advertises a job on the HN Who is Hiring that is 30 hours a week. Although I don't know if it is broken down to 6 hours a day five days a week.
Periodic 10y ago
Two examples: You'll find a lot of part-time workers that work 30-35 hours/week, including in IT, because that is the most they can work without being entitled to benefits. The difference in the nature of that work and the benefits may hide any significant differences due to total hours. There are also plenty of companies where the employees only work a few hours per day but are in the office for 8-10 hours. Take Google, for example. It's fairly easy between gym, meals, massage, sports league, etc to only actually have 30 hours/week allocated for work, even though a person is in the office for 8-9 hours. However, it may be a huge psychological difference to be trying to fill your work day vs. having full control over time.
- mtberatwork 10y ago
  > There are also plenty of companies where the employees only work a few hours per day but are in the office for 8-10 hours. I think that pretty much describes every company that's primarily composed of white-collar jobs. Realistically, a company is only going to get ~4 hours a day of actual productivity from an employee at the office.
  - mjevans 10y ago
    Or maybe a number ever closer to the Office Space number. I think I recall the main character saying that once all of the distractions, needless interactions with other employees, and 'spacing out' (I took that as low quality sleep with eyes open) were removed only about an hour of actual, real, work was being done. Particularly for what are really creative arts, a more relaxed day and better quality of life /outside/ of work are probably important positively correlated factors in performance.
nommm-nommm 10y ago
A lot of (many?) big companies have a 30 hour week option for white collar employees. The 30 hour option comes with a proportional reduction in pay. Of course, most are still regular full time employees.
- pdubbs90 10y ago
  Do you have any examples of this? This is the first I've heard of it.
  - nommm-nommm 10y ago
    The last two places I worked as a software engineer (both big American corps) had some 30 hour a week employees. I'd say less than 15%. Neither employer really advertised it though both had well defined and written corporate structure/policies/benefits in place for it. My current employer doesn't offer it.

wslh 10y ago

My company has a six hour day since its inception in 2003. We are more than 12 people and we always thought that a eight hour day doesn't add to the productivity. We have an employee who wants to work eight hours and he brings some kind of development support so that works in this context. There are days where people work longer hours because of a deadline but this is very rare and we always optimized to taking care of our team health. Also, our headquarters are in Buenos Aires, Argentina where a whole team working 6 hours per day is unusual.

slyzmud 10y ago
Hi, I am from Buenos Aires. What's your company? I haven't heard anybody doing something like that here, congratulations!
- wslh 10y ago
  You can check my HN profile (I co-founded two companies). I know other companies here that have optional flexible hours like http://www.7puentes.com http://www.7puentes.com, a data science company.

slm_HN 10y ago

I believe that Amazon advertises a job on the HN Who is Hiring that is 30 hours a week. Although I don't know if it is broken down to 6 hours a day five days a week.

Periodic 10y ago

Two examples: You'll find a lot of part-time workers that work 30-35 hours/week, including in IT, because that is the most they can work without being entitled to benefits. The difference in the nature of that work and the benefits may hide any significant differences due to total hours. There are also plenty of companies where the employees only work a few hours per day but are in the office for 8-10 hours. Take Google, for example. It's fairly easy between gym, meals, massage, sports league, etc to only actually have 30 hours/week allocated for work, even though a person is in the office for 8-9 hours. However, it may be a huge psychological difference to be trying to fill your work day vs. having full control over time.

mtberatwork 10y ago
> There are also plenty of companies where the employees only work a few hours per day but are in the office for 8-10 hours. I think that pretty much describes every company that's primarily composed of white-collar jobs. Realistically, a company is only going to get ~4 hours a day of actual productivity from an employee at the office.
- mjevans 10y ago
  Or maybe a number ever closer to the Office Space number. I think I recall the main character saying that once all of the distractions, needless interactions with other employees, and 'spacing out' (I took that as low quality sleep with eyes open) were removed only about an hour of actual, real, work was being done. Particularly for what are really creative arts, a more relaxed day and better quality of life /outside/ of work are probably important positively correlated factors in performance.

nommm-nommm 10y ago

A lot of (many?) big companies have a 30 hour week option for white collar employees. The 30 hour option comes with a proportional reduction in pay. Of course, most are still regular full time employees.

pdubbs90 10y ago
Do you have any examples of this? This is the first I've heard of it.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  The last two places I worked as a software engineer (both big American corps) had some 30 hour a week employees. I'd say less than 15%. Neither employer really advertised it though both had well defined and written corporate structure/policies/benefits in place for it. My current employer doesn't offer it.