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I've only met one person who wasen't for a four day 10 hr/day work week. He was a Electrician acquaintance of my father. He was beyond a odd duck. His idea o

I've only met one person who wasen't for a four day 10 hr/day work week. He was a Electrician acquaintance of my father. He was beyond a odd duck. His idea of a fun weekend was painting his house. I'm not kidding. I used to talk to my father a lot over a four day work week. His union almost got it, but they backed out at the last moment. I still think it was a payola thing from the contractors! It just makes so much sence in certain fields. Most of my work life has been construction in San Francisco. Just getting to, and back, from the job site is a hassle. A four day work week would be grand. Even though the work is back breaking, working ten, or eight hours did not affect productivity, or at least with me. I would still be an union electrician making twice what I do now if they offered a four day work week. (This mainly goes for union construction, and office jobs. Non-union jobs work their employees to hard. I don't know how most of those guys even last 8 hours. If you happen to read this, and are in construction try to get into a union. Just trust me.)

paulcole 5y ago
> I've only met one person who wasen't for a four day 10 hr/day work week. Now you’ve met 2! I hate working 8 hours a day. 0% chance I’ll ever work a schedule of 10-hour days. Who downvotes this lol?
- brian_cunnie 5y ago
  ten hour days are hard for me—I start fading at the 7th hour I do love a four-day work week, but with 8-hour days, and I've been lucky enough to pull that off for the last 15 years. There's a downside though: it makes switching jobs much more difficult because few companies want to hire someone who only works 4 days/week.
  - paulcole 5y ago
    Yeah I’ve told employers who’ve asked about 4-10s that I’d just phone it in (at best) the last 2 hours of the day. My thing is that I’m an early riser and have a chronic illness that means my most productive hours are 6AM to 2PM. Works great at my current job — about one week a month I shift things a bit for more meetings between 2 and 4, but I don’t know how easy it’d be to find another similar situation.
- handrous 5y ago
  I've done light-to-moderate physical work and would prefer 4 10-hour days for that. Office work in front of a computer, including programming, I can't realistically manage 5 five-hour days of actual, productive work. Not week after week, consistently. With more rest and an interesting task, yeah, I can do 8-10 hours in a day, for-real. Every now and then if I just happen to have a great day, yeah, maybe. Otherwise, god, it's draining as hell, in a way "boring" or repetitive non-back-breaking physical work just isn't (for me, anyway). Story may be different for the really body-destroying physical labor, but the lighter stuff is less tiring than office work, to this particular worker, and cutting it from five days a week to four with the same number of hours would be my preference if I were back in jobs like that. Meanwhile I'd love a 4-day 6-hour schedule for programming. Maybe I'd actually manage to do focused work all the scheduled hours, that way.
Hydraulix989 5y ago
What brings you to Hacker News, if I may ask?
- _benj 5y ago
  I’m also quite interested in what brings you to HN. Don’t get me wrong, welcome! But it’s quite interesting seeing somebody here that is not the stereotypical tech/business/startup type
  - hellbannedguy 5y ago
    I've been here forever. I'm glad some of you put up with me. I'm pretty lonely, and this is my only social outlet. I have had many careers. I've gone to Chiropractic School until I realized it was basically Placebo. I've been a Electrician. I've been a telecommunications guy. I've been a state security guard. I've been a Mechanic whom specialized in electrical problems. I had a used car lot. I was even a Realator for three days. I've been a General Contractor. I sold nuts, and candy to convince stores. I also worked in a rare book shop, as a partner. I am now a Watchmaker. I have never employed more than two people though. I have always been interested in Electronics, and Computing, and have a Bachelor's degree in Businees Administration.(which was a joke.) I bought my Atari 1040st in college, but told no one because I felt like I was cheating. (I used it for word processing basically.) I also had a nervous breakdown in the late 80's, and if not getting lucky with Amazon stock; I would be homeless right now. I am not a developer. I have a few websites, and use ROR, and Javascript a fair amount. To the the question is what can I add? Not much-- I have had a lot of jobs, and many were terrible low wage jobs. I know what it feels like to be poor, and overworked with no future. I have had older (40-50 ish) friends who were Programmers, and if they were offered the luxury of learning a new language/platform, they would have been all over it. I can't imagine anyone turning down a four day work week. My goodness that extra day of learning/relaxing, or planning for a new career, or same one seems like it would be great?
    - _benj 5y ago
      putting up with you? nah, I'm glad you are here! HN can sometimes sound like an echo chamber. I hear you, I've been through a few careers myself before landing on software engineering, but at the end of the day I've come to realize that there's no heaven in this earth and software engineering is certainly not one. For me is more like what I do for a living, but definitively not my life (although some employers would like it to be) About adding, come on, having a different and varied perspective in invaluable to the community. Again, glad you are here sir and if there's something you think a software engineer can help you with shot me a message, email on the profile.
RHSeeger 5y ago
10 hour days can be complicated for people with families. Dropping the kid(s) off for school, picking up, getting dinner ready, helping with homework. Heck, even just spending family time together. All of those things are more difficult with 2 less hours of personal time each day.

paulcole 5y ago

> I've only met one person who wasen't for a four day 10 hr/day work week. Now you’ve met 2! I hate working 8 hours a day. 0% chance I’ll ever work a schedule of 10-hour days. Who downvotes this lol?

brian_cunnie 5y ago
ten hour days are hard for me—I start fading at the 7th hour I do love a four-day work week, but with 8-hour days, and I've been lucky enough to pull that off for the last 15 years. There's a downside though: it makes switching jobs much more difficult because few companies want to hire someone who only works 4 days/week.
- paulcole 5y ago
  Yeah I’ve told employers who’ve asked about 4-10s that I’d just phone it in (at best) the last 2 hours of the day. My thing is that I’m an early riser and have a chronic illness that means my most productive hours are 6AM to 2PM. Works great at my current job — about one week a month I shift things a bit for more meetings between 2 and 4, but I don’t know how easy it’d be to find another similar situation.
handrous 5y ago
I've done light-to-moderate physical work and would prefer 4 10-hour days for that. Office work in front of a computer, including programming, I can't realistically manage 5 five-hour days of actual, productive work. Not week after week, consistently. With more rest and an interesting task, yeah, I can do 8-10 hours in a day, for-real. Every now and then if I just happen to have a great day, yeah, maybe. Otherwise, god, it's draining as hell, in a way "boring" or repetitive non-back-breaking physical work just isn't (for me, anyway). Story may be different for the really body-destroying physical labor, but the lighter stuff is less tiring than office work, to this particular worker, and cutting it from five days a week to four with the same number of hours would be my preference if I were back in jobs like that. Meanwhile I'd love a 4-day 6-hour schedule for programming. Maybe I'd actually manage to do focused work all the scheduled hours, that way.

Hydraulix989 5y ago

What brings you to Hacker News, if I may ask?

_benj 5y ago
I’m also quite interested in what brings you to HN. Don’t get me wrong, welcome! But it’s quite interesting seeing somebody here that is not the stereotypical tech/business/startup type
- hellbannedguy 5y ago
  I've been here forever. I'm glad some of you put up with me. I'm pretty lonely, and this is my only social outlet. I have had many careers. I've gone to Chiropractic School until I realized it was basically Placebo. I've been a Electrician. I've been a telecommunications guy. I've been a state security guard. I've been a Mechanic whom specialized in electrical problems. I had a used car lot. I was even a Realator for three days. I've been a General Contractor. I sold nuts, and candy to convince stores. I also worked in a rare book shop, as a partner. I am now a Watchmaker. I have never employed more than two people though. I have always been interested in Electronics, and Computing, and have a Bachelor's degree in Businees Administration.(which was a joke.) I bought my Atari 1040st in college, but told no one because I felt like I was cheating. (I used it for word processing basically.) I also had a nervous breakdown in the late 80's, and if not getting lucky with Amazon stock; I would be homeless right now. I am not a developer. I have a few websites, and use ROR, and Javascript a fair amount. To the the question is what can I add? Not much-- I have had a lot of jobs, and many were terrible low wage jobs. I know what it feels like to be poor, and overworked with no future. I have had older (40-50 ish) friends who were Programmers, and if they were offered the luxury of learning a new language/platform, they would have been all over it. I can't imagine anyone turning down a four day work week. My goodness that extra day of learning/relaxing, or planning for a new career, or same one seems like it would be great?
  - _benj 5y ago
    putting up with you? nah, I'm glad you are here! HN can sometimes sound like an echo chamber. I hear you, I've been through a few careers myself before landing on software engineering, but at the end of the day I've come to realize that there's no heaven in this earth and software engineering is certainly not one. For me is more like what I do for a living, but definitively not my life (although some employers would like it to be) About adding, come on, having a different and varied perspective in invaluable to the community. Again, glad you are here sir and if there's something you think a software engineer can help you with shot me a message, email on the profile.

RHSeeger 5y ago

10 hour days can be complicated for people with families. Dropping the kid(s) off for school, picking up, getting dinner ready, helping with homework. Heck, even just spending family time together. All of those things are more difficult with 2 less hours of personal time each day.