4 ms·
These recurring 4-day work week discussions on HN show how non-European this site is. 4-day work weeks have been completely normal for lots of people in Europe
by bboygravity 7y ago
These recurring 4-day work week discussions on HN show how non-European this site is.
4-day work weeks have been completely normal for lots of people in Europe for decades. In the Netherlands it's almost the norm to chose whether you want to work 4 or 5 days. 4 day work weeks are not always accepted everywhere, but usually they are in most places.
In France the standard work week has been 35 hours for the past 2 decades, which may or may not equate to a 4 day work week depending on how you organize your work days.
The Netherlands and France are still alive and kicking. They have plenty of successful businesses.
Conclusion: no, 4 day work weeks will not destroy your country, economy, business or lifestyle. The one and only reason to have 5 day or longer work weeks is: greed. IMHO.
Having said that IMO a more important factor in time savings would be remote working or not. Assuming a commute of an hour a day to and from work (2 hours total per day, reality for lots of people) you waste 10 hours per week of your life commuting. Unpaid.
5 days a week without commute = -10 unpaid hours spent on work related things (vs with commute)
4 days a week with commute = -2 unpaid hours spent on work related things.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- SnowProblem 7y ago> The Netherlands and France are still alive and kicking. They have plenty of successful businesses. Are they? I can't think of a single technology company coming out of either.
- nmd 7y agoBooking.com, TomTom GPS are both from Amsterdam. As is Adyen, the payments provider used Linkedin, Uber, Spotify, Microsoft. Philips is also from the Netherlands.
- nlitened 7y agoAre any of them on 4-day work week?
- jorkro 7y agoMost likely not. Contrary to what was being said, 40 hours is still very much the norm in The Netherlands. Some people choose to work less (36 or 32 hours is common), but that obviously also means less income. Source: I'm from The Netherlands.
- SnowProblem 7y agoBooking.com - sold in 2005. TomTom - dying since smartphones. Philips - an old appliance company. Ayden - hadn't heard of it, but granted. I hear of new companies from China all the time.
- the-dude 7y agoPhilips is succesful in pivoting into medical.
- tdons 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding
- the-dude 7y agoGitlab
- breakintheweb 7y agoI'm sure you have just didn't realize they were French. Schneider Electric, Technicolor, Atos, etc.
- hylaride 7y agoThe famous French 35 hour workweek only applies to certain categories of workers though. And even then it’s only where overtime kicks in. Every French white collar worker I’ve known (probably about a dozen or so) was on salary and had similar working hours to me (in Canada). Also, French productivity can be overstated in statistics. They have relatively high unemployment amongst youth and the low-skilled. This essentially removes the least productive from the stats, making it look higher. Not to say that a 4 day week would be bad, but careful what you base it on.