6 ms·

If someone gave me the chance of a 30-hour work week, I would rather work 4 days of 7,5 hours than 5 days of 6 hours. Just the hassle of getting up early, dress

by skrause 12y ago

If someone gave me the chance of a 30-hour work week, I would rather work 4 days of 7,5 hours than 5 days of 6 hours. Just the hassle of getting up early, dressing up for work, commuting etc. isn't really worth it when I'm only going to work 6 hours anyway. I'd rather take an extra day off.

girvo 12y ago
I agree entirely. I don't care about saving an hour and a half a day, that doesn't help me much as I lose so much time commuting and getting ready/winding down each day. Being able to work 4 days instead? A god-send. I couldn't think of anything I'd like more. Thankfully, my current job gets me part of the way there -- I work 4 days in the office and one day at home (where I do just as much work but either condensed or spread out during the day depending on the current project workload).
showsover 12y ago
Yes, but the article is about 6-hour days, not mix-and-match-hour days. It will be interesting to see what differs from 8-hour days, both in free time, shopping, traffic, and more. Imagine that the 6-hour day is successful, and we can make shifts. Some people go to work from 8 - 2, others from 12-6. That could lighten some traffic jams I venture.
- espennilsen 12y ago
  Not only traffic jams. Everything will be open until 6, and if you get off at 2 you no longer need to take time off to visit dentist/tax office/bank/etc.
- blencdr 12y ago
  I'm not sure that a small businesses can afford to make shifts (or 4 days week) if the company must be reachable by a client.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    It won't make any difference from the employers perspective other than that they'll have to do a better job of sharing the knowledge required to do the work across more employees. This is a good thing anyway. The number of fte's remains the same. The number of people fulfilling those fte's goes up but payroll will remain roughly unaffected.
    - ajuc 12y ago
      > The number of people fulfilling those fte's goes up but payroll will remain roughly unaffected. That's only assuming there are no constant(independent of how long he work) costs to employ someone. In many countries it's not true.
tonfa 12y ago
For me would depend on a lot on how much commute there is.
iamtew 12y ago
This is a fairly common thing here in the Netherlands actually, four day work week. Most of my colleagues I know who does this to have some extra time with their family/kids. Usually it's a split in the middle of the week or something, for example my manager doesn't work tuesday's, it's his "papadag" as he then spends time with his kids and don't have to send them off to day-care or get a nanny. Another colleague of mine dropped his contract from 40 hours a week down to 32 hours so he would have an extra day to work on his music career and an upcoming album. Obviously these arrangements will affect your salary as you work less.
- nl 12y ago
  I had a few meetings in the Netherlands when I was there on business, and was very impressed with the flexibility and number of people working less than 5 days. I worked 4 days a week for a year when we had a child, and that was somewhat unusual (for a man in Australia). I'd much prefer increased flexibility over less hours.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  That's not the whole story. For single parents going from 40 to 32 hours per week can be a net-neutral operation from a money perspective. The various tax breaks will increase with just about the same as your net salary drops. In rare cases you'll even end up with net a bit more than before. Going from 32 to 24 might still be the same, below that the balance shifts and you end up with less. I just ran the numbers with one of my employees in NL and we came to this exact conclusion so she decided to work one day less. In countries with a strong social net the equation is not always as simple as time*hourly rate, your situation should be taken into account as well.
  - Cthulhu_ 12y ago
    So you're saying you earn the exact same net amount working 32 vs 40 hours? brb talking to the boss.
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      As a single parent, in a country where you get subsidies for things like rent, child care, health insurance and so on, yes, it can work out like that. So what works for my employee would not work for me (because our social situation is different).
lmm 12y ago
I suspect this is better for employers though. Honestly I don't think I can code effectively for more than 6 hours a day anyway - when working 8 hours the extra 2 hours will be spent either on meetings and other overhead or on slowing down so I don't burn out.
hkmurakami 12y ago
On the other hand, I have a friend who would rather work 7 days a week at a little over 4 hours/day, so I think it really is up to our individual preferences (though I'm sure there's some kind of nonuniform distribution!)
Cthulhu_ 12y ago
Yeah, 3 day weekends are awesome. I had a 36-hour contract at my previous employer, which meant if I worked 8 hours a day I could take fridays off every two weeks.
silverbax88 12y ago
I agree with you, but living in the U.S., I'd take four 10 hour days over five 8 hour days for the same reasons. Working for someone else pretty much takes up the whole day.

by skrause 12y ago

girvo 12y ago

I agree entirely. I don't care about saving an hour and a half a day, that doesn't help me much as I lose so much time commuting and getting ready/winding down each day. Being able to work 4 days instead? A god-send. I couldn't think of anything I'd like more. Thankfully, my current job gets me part of the way there -- I work 4 days in the office and one day at home (where I do just as much work but either condensed or spread out during the day depending on the current project workload).

showsover 12y ago

Yes, but the article is about 6-hour days, not mix-and-match-hour days. It will be interesting to see what differs from 8-hour days, both in free time, shopping, traffic, and more. Imagine that the 6-hour day is successful, and we can make shifts. Some people go to work from 8 - 2, others from 12-6. That could lighten some traffic jams I venture.

espennilsen 12y ago
Not only traffic jams. Everything will be open until 6, and if you get off at 2 you no longer need to take time off to visit dentist/tax office/bank/etc.
blencdr 12y ago
I'm not sure that a small businesses can afford to make shifts (or 4 days week) if the company must be reachable by a client.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  It won't make any difference from the employers perspective other than that they'll have to do a better job of sharing the knowledge required to do the work across more employees. This is a good thing anyway. The number of fte's remains the same. The number of people fulfilling those fte's goes up but payroll will remain roughly unaffected.
  - ajuc 12y ago
    > The number of people fulfilling those fte's goes up but payroll will remain roughly unaffected. That's only assuming there are no constant(independent of how long he work) costs to employ someone. In many countries it's not true.

tonfa 12y ago

For me would depend on a lot on how much commute there is.

iamtew 12y ago

This is a fairly common thing here in the Netherlands actually, four day work week. Most of my colleagues I know who does this to have some extra time with their family/kids. Usually it's a split in the middle of the week or something, for example my manager doesn't work tuesday's, it's his "papadag" as he then spends time with his kids and don't have to send them off to day-care or get a nanny. Another colleague of mine dropped his contract from 40 hours a week down to 32 hours so he would have an extra day to work on his music career and an upcoming album. Obviously these arrangements will affect your salary as you work less.

nl 12y ago
I had a few meetings in the Netherlands when I was there on business, and was very impressed with the flexibility and number of people working less than 5 days. I worked 4 days a week for a year when we had a child, and that was somewhat unusual (for a man in Australia). I'd much prefer increased flexibility over less hours.
jacquesm 12y ago
That's not the whole story. For single parents going from 40 to 32 hours per week can be a net-neutral operation from a money perspective. The various tax breaks will increase with just about the same as your net salary drops. In rare cases you'll even end up with net a bit more than before. Going from 32 to 24 might still be the same, below that the balance shifts and you end up with less. I just ran the numbers with one of my employees in NL and we came to this exact conclusion so she decided to work one day less. In countries with a strong social net the equation is not always as simple as time*hourly rate, your situation should be taken into account as well.
- Cthulhu_ 12y ago
  So you're saying you earn the exact same net amount working 32 vs 40 hours? brb talking to the boss.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    As a single parent, in a country where you get subsidies for things like rent, child care, health insurance and so on, yes, it can work out like that. So what works for my employee would not work for me (because our social situation is different).

lmm 12y ago

I suspect this is better for employers though. Honestly I don't think I can code effectively for more than 6 hours a day anyway - when working 8 hours the extra 2 hours will be spent either on meetings and other overhead or on slowing down so I don't burn out.

hkmurakami 12y ago

On the other hand, I have a friend who would rather work 7 days a week at a little over 4 hours/day, so I think it really is up to our individual preferences (though I'm sure there's some kind of nonuniform distribution!)

Cthulhu_ 12y ago

Yeah, 3 day weekends are awesome. I had a 36-hour contract at my previous employer, which meant if I worked 8 hours a day I could take fridays off every two weeks.

silverbax88 12y ago

I agree with you, but living in the U.S., I'd take four 10 hour days over five 8 hour days for the same reasons. Working for someone else pretty much takes up the whole day.