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> A 4 day work week today means working 4 days a week for the same money as a person working 5 days a week Sure, but you'll have even less hope for a salary in

> A 4 day work week today means working 4 days a week for the same money as a person working 5 days a week Sure, but you'll have even less hope for a salary increase next year, since this is basically what it is. This was the theory behind France's move to the 35-hour workweek, too. They also expected companies to hire more people to compensate for less work being done. Didn't work out as expected.

ramraj07 3y ago
What happened in France? The way I see it, as programmers we will be far more productive working fewer days per week and just taking more time to relax. If this assumption is accurate you have to do nothing to compensate.
- vladvasiliu 3y ago
  Sure, I think there's a big difference between programmers (and similar) and the situation in France at the time, when most people affected by this were factory workers, who didn't have themselves much influence over how productive they were (aside from the obvious issues of not showing up / slacking off). Basically, "nothing" happened. The expected drop in unemployment never materialized. And although pay rises never were an expected effect of the change (from what I know), they were negatively impacted. I'm not knowledgeable enough in those matters, so I may be off base, but it would seem that companies started to be less "competitive" when the rule started to be applied, in 2000-2002. But from what I've read on the subject, none of the sides (for and against the measure) can prove that it was undoubtedly a good or a bad thing. > The way I see it, as programmers we will be far more productive working fewer days per week and just taking more time to relax. If this assumption is accurate you have to do nothing to compensate. I agree with this. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to make this kind of decision. And it's pretty clear to me that many managers don't think this way, and somehow figure that your productivity is roughly constant and proportional to the time your butt spends in your seat (at least up to a point).
- yodsanklai 3y ago
  Nothing, 35 hours week don't apply to us, but we have 9-10 more paid holiday than before. As for impact on salary, hard to say, it wasn't an A/B experiment. We can only speculate.

ramraj07 3y ago

What happened in France? The way I see it, as programmers we will be far more productive working fewer days per week and just taking more time to relax. If this assumption is accurate you have to do nothing to compensate.

vladvasiliu 3y ago
Sure, I think there's a big difference between programmers (and similar) and the situation in France at the time, when most people affected by this were factory workers, who didn't have themselves much influence over how productive they were (aside from the obvious issues of not showing up / slacking off). Basically, "nothing" happened. The expected drop in unemployment never materialized. And although pay rises never were an expected effect of the change (from what I know), they were negatively impacted. I'm not knowledgeable enough in those matters, so I may be off base, but it would seem that companies started to be less "competitive" when the rule started to be applied, in 2000-2002. But from what I've read on the subject, none of the sides (for and against the measure) can prove that it was undoubtedly a good or a bad thing. > The way I see it, as programmers we will be far more productive working fewer days per week and just taking more time to relax. If this assumption is accurate you have to do nothing to compensate. I agree with this. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to make this kind of decision. And it's pretty clear to me that many managers don't think this way, and somehow figure that your productivity is roughly constant and proportional to the time your butt spends in your seat (at least up to a point).
yodsanklai 3y ago
Nothing, 35 hours week don't apply to us, but we have 9-10 more paid holiday than before. As for impact on salary, hard to say, it wasn't an A/B experiment. We can only speculate.