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Actually, many of us do. My company has been trying 4 day weeks twice a month since 2022 without salary decrease, the trial have been mostly conclusive, and we
by jraph 2y ago
Actually, many of us do.
My company has been trying 4 day weeks twice a month since 2022 without salary decrease, the trial have been mostly conclusive, and we'll probably move forward and have 4 day weeks all weeks at some point. That's the stated goal anyway. The main difficulty is probably the fact that customers don't have 4 days and expect support all week. A partial answer to this is people have been able to pick 2 additional days off each month no questions asked, and not everybody like the same days off so it has been working out.
Studies show productivity is kept at the same level when companies switch to 4 day week, but people are happier and feel more rested (which is why there are more productive, there's probably also the fact you don't have to worry about life stuff as much at work since you can do many things that need to be done during the week during the off day). Since we produce the same amount, I don't see why the full salary should not be kept.
- dkyc 2y agoIf productivity is kept at the same level, and people work a day less, you wouldn't produce the same amount.
- jraph 2y agoI meant productivity overall is constant. Productivity "per hour" is better.
- netdevnet 2y ago> I meant productivity overall is constant That's a huge statement there. Do you have any evidence that this is the case for everyone at every company no matter what?
- jraph 2y ago> Do you have any evidence that this is the case for everyone at every company no matter what? Of course not, you are asking for the impossible. But we have evidences that 4 day weeks boost productivity at least in some settings. If you are interested in the topic, look up "4 day week productivity" on a web search engine, or "4 day week" / "4 day workweek" on HN [1,2] if you want previous discussions about this. The topic is not new here. You'll find many posts where companies think it works. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=4+day+week&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=4+day+workweek&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- netdevnet 2y agoI love it when people post studies just because it agrees with their worldview. For full disclosure, I support the 4 day week but I know to be objective. None of those links contain references to proper RCT with control groups or a variety of office roles so there is really no evidence for it. Trial plus survey is a better term as it carries no scientific connotations. You are not really going to get your average companies to participate in those kind of studies anyway. Those companies want warm bodies and it has nothing to do with empirical evidence
- ekianjo 2y agowhy not 2 days a week with full salary then? where do you stop?
- jraph 2y agoIf we can show that productivity is not affected, why not indeed? Spending time at work is not a goal. I have not seen study stating this though.
- lukan 2y ago"Spending time at work is not a goal." Of course it is. Too many people with free time will just get bored and stray away from the path of the righteous so that would be a direct way to hell. (too many people actually believe that, see the discussions about unconditional basic income)
- foldr 2y agoIn principle, at the point where productivity actually starts to decrease.
- jraph 2y agoWe can even relax this to: let's stop at whatever amount of work that is necessary and not more. A good start would be to stop producing so much junk. (edit: downvoters: interested in what you think, please develop. I think we produce a big amount of useless stuff, and that keeps many human beings pointlessly busy - what's the positive here?)