4 ms·

I think the four hour/day jobs are something you have to navigate yourself towards. At my current job I've automated almost everything with bash, Perl, PHP, La

I think the four hour/day jobs are something you have to navigate yourself towards. At my current job I've automated almost everything with bash, Perl, PHP, Latex, Prolog, Powershell and way too much VBA. Whenever I had a spare moment I would spend it automating something. I've now reached a point where I only need work 30 minutes to 4 hours/day. But of course, since I'm getting paid for a full day and I would feel guilty reading HN all day, I end up in this positive feedback loop where I continue to automate which gives me more time to automate. My next step is to start using Selenium to automate those tasks for which 'external partners' have not provided an API. My contract is coming up and I'm going to negotiate for slightly less money in exchange for a four hour work day. It's not in my employer's natural inclinations to permit this, however they would have to hire several unskilled workers to do my work or another programmer for 8 hrs/day. The tl;dr is: Make yourself indispensable so that a 4hr/day position is an option.

asdfologist 12y ago
If you're indispensable, you should ask for a raise, not a pay cut.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  A raise and a 3/5ths reduction in expected hours would be one hard sell.
  - bshimmin 12y ago
    I once managed a 50% raise and a reduction to a four day working week, with one of those days remote. I patted myself on the back a lot for achieving that, but I was cheating, a bit, because I went from permanent to contract with the same company. Not very strangely, the reasons that I wanted to leave my permanent position at the company in the first place - terrible, confused, and often obnoxious management - still hurt just as much even on more money and with fewer days. I quit again for good after another three months.
  - asdfologist 12y ago
    Only if they find someone cheaper and equally productive.
    - coldtea 12y ago
      You'd be surprised what stupid managers would do. They could just fire him out of spite, and hire 2 people to do his work clumsily but "keep proper hours".
      - asdfologist 12y ago
        Those aren't the kinds of managers you'd want to work for anyway.

asdfologist 12y ago

If you're indispensable, you should ask for a raise, not a pay cut.

sliverstorm 12y ago
A raise and a 3/5ths reduction in expected hours would be one hard sell.
- bshimmin 12y ago
  I once managed a 50% raise and a reduction to a four day working week, with one of those days remote. I patted myself on the back a lot for achieving that, but I was cheating, a bit, because I went from permanent to contract with the same company. Not very strangely, the reasons that I wanted to leave my permanent position at the company in the first place - terrible, confused, and often obnoxious management - still hurt just as much even on more money and with fewer days. I quit again for good after another three months.
- asdfologist 12y ago
  Only if they find someone cheaper and equally productive.
  - coldtea 12y ago
    You'd be surprised what stupid managers would do. They could just fire him out of spite, and hire 2 people to do his work clumsily but "keep proper hours".
    - asdfologist 12y ago
      Those aren't the kinds of managers you'd want to work for anyway.