4 ms·

I have had friends and family that work 4x10s or even 3x12s and they all vastly prefer the trade-off of more hours per work day for fewer days.

MBCook 2y ago
I’d still likely take the option, I just think it’s unnecessary. Productivity is ridiculously up since the 8 hour day was established, even since just two decades ago. Tasks expand to take up the available time, even if usefulness doesn’t. I suspect you’d see little loss in cutting down to 32/hr/week, and I suspect it would be more than made up for by the gains of giving people that extra day. So it may be a net positive. I guess my main concern is that a lot of companies (not speaking about Japan here, just the US) might decide to use four days a week as a way to make people crunch four days thinking that having three days off would make up for that. And things wouldn’t really be any better.
- bsimpson 2y ago
  That's the unfortunate bit about salaries. If you took a 4x per week job, you'd usually get a 20% pay reduction; however, many jobs could be compressed to 4 days without any loss in productivity.
rqtwteye 2y ago
I did 4x10 and I found it horrible. During the four days, I didn't get to do anything other than work and commute. And the stupid thing was that my output (and that of my coworkers as far as I could tell) was not really higher with 10 hours than with 8 hours. Three day weekends are nice though.
notatoad 2y ago
i've worked 10s before, and it's alternately amazing and terrible. at an office job, answering emails and going to meetings, 10hrs is completely beyond my tolerance level. but if you've got a project, and you can just put your head down and work, then 10s are really nice.
- FigurativeVoid 2y ago
  I agree. It's nice if you have something you can get into flow on. The biggest issue with 10s is commute time. If you work 10s with an hour+ commute, that's just awful.
  - elijaht 2y ago
    Wouldn't 10's be better for a longer commute? Need to do it 4 vs 5 days?
    - notatoad 2y ago
      less overall commute time, yeah, but it means your day might be literally nothing but work and sleep. probably not long-term sustainable.
  - toast0 2y ago
    10s may help the commute, depending on duration of local rush hour. I've worked places where leaving at peak meant an hour drive home, and waiting an hour (or two) meant a 30 minute drive home. Otoh, if you take mass transit, waiting an hour or two may put you into all stop trains which could increase your commute time.

MBCook 2y ago

I’d still likely take the option, I just think it’s unnecessary. Productivity is ridiculously up since the 8 hour day was established, even since just two decades ago. Tasks expand to take up the available time, even if usefulness doesn’t. I suspect you’d see little loss in cutting down to 32/hr/week, and I suspect it would be more than made up for by the gains of giving people that extra day. So it may be a net positive. I guess my main concern is that a lot of companies (not speaking about Japan here, just the US) might decide to use four days a week as a way to make people crunch four days thinking that having three days off would make up for that. And things wouldn’t really be any better.

bsimpson 2y ago
That's the unfortunate bit about salaries. If you took a 4x per week job, you'd usually get a 20% pay reduction; however, many jobs could be compressed to 4 days without any loss in productivity.

rqtwteye 2y ago

I did 4x10 and I found it horrible. During the four days, I didn't get to do anything other than work and commute. And the stupid thing was that my output (and that of my coworkers as far as I could tell) was not really higher with 10 hours than with 8 hours. Three day weekends are nice though.

notatoad 2y ago

i've worked 10s before, and it's alternately amazing and terrible. at an office job, answering emails and going to meetings, 10hrs is completely beyond my tolerance level. but if you've got a project, and you can just put your head down and work, then 10s are really nice.

FigurativeVoid 2y ago
I agree. It's nice if you have something you can get into flow on. The biggest issue with 10s is commute time. If you work 10s with an hour+ commute, that's just awful.
- elijaht 2y ago
  Wouldn't 10's be better for a longer commute? Need to do it 4 vs 5 days?
  - notatoad 2y ago
    less overall commute time, yeah, but it means your day might be literally nothing but work and sleep. probably not long-term sustainable.
- toast0 2y ago
  10s may help the commute, depending on duration of local rush hour. I've worked places where leaving at peak meant an hour drive home, and waiting an hour (or two) meant a 30 minute drive home. Otoh, if you take mass transit, waiting an hour or two may put you into all stop trains which could increase your commute time.