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I worked at a state govt job that allowed for 4 day weeks. Being govt, and with my manager in particular, time was closely managed. It worked, but it was HAR

I worked at a state govt job that allowed for 4 day weeks. Being govt, and with my manager in particular, time was closely managed. It worked, but it was HARD! The difference between an 8 hour day and a 10 hour day is having to find a second wind, on demand, 4 days in a row. Every time I would say I was going to drop, and then the three day weekend hit and I had time to get personal stuff done, time to relax without feeling like I had to prepare to start work again, and then I thought it was all worth it. Then the cycle would repeat. Now I'm in a tech job with far more flexibility. I think a similar schedule would still be hard: some 10 hour days are easy, but to do it on demand, repeatedly?

cybwraith 8y ago
> “We’ve been treated like adults and I think as a result everyone is behaving like adults,” said Tammy Barker, a branch manager who was part of the trial that cut the working week from from 37.5 hours to 30 I imagine most of these studies that pop up, like this one, are referring to an overall total hours cut, not just cramming 5 days worth of 'work time' into 4. 4x 10s can definitely be hard, though there are so many coding jobs out there that 'require' unpaid overtime easily pushing that to more like 5x 10s or even more.
excalibur 8y ago
When I was a young buck, my dream schedule was two 20s (that's a 20-hour shift, followed by a day off, followed by another 20-hour shift, followed by a 4-day weekend). That's not as appealing as it used to be, I seem to require more sleep these days. And my schedule has gotten pretty flexible, which I enjoy. But if I had to go back to something rigid, I'd still take four 10s over five 8s.
stephen_g 8y ago
The article is about dropping the hours to ~32 a week, not working 10 hour days to still do 40 hours in four days. Switching to 10 hour days would be a terrible idea - that’s just asking for burnout. Anyway, I find it really hard to believe more than a small percentage of workers would be able to be actually productive for even two thirds of the day when consistently working that long.

cybwraith 8y ago

> “We’ve been treated like adults and I think as a result everyone is behaving like adults,” said Tammy Barker, a branch manager who was part of the trial that cut the working week from from 37.5 hours to 30 I imagine most of these studies that pop up, like this one, are referring to an overall total hours cut, not just cramming 5 days worth of 'work time' into 4. 4x 10s can definitely be hard, though there are so many coding jobs out there that 'require' unpaid overtime easily pushing that to more like 5x 10s or even more.

excalibur 8y ago

When I was a young buck, my dream schedule was two 20s (that's a 20-hour shift, followed by a day off, followed by another 20-hour shift, followed by a 4-day weekend). That's not as appealing as it used to be, I seem to require more sleep these days. And my schedule has gotten pretty flexible, which I enjoy. But if I had to go back to something rigid, I'd still take four 10s over five 8s.

stephen_g 8y ago

The article is about dropping the hours to ~32 a week, not working 10 hour days to still do 40 hours in four days. Switching to 10 hour days would be a terrible idea - that’s just asking for burnout. Anyway, I find it really hard to believe more than a small percentage of workers would be able to be actually productive for even two thirds of the day when consistently working that long.