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Comment by rabidrat | Hacker News Reader

I've been asking for 80% time for 10 years, and my current company is the only one who has ever approved it. Companies say that only the work matters, and they want to be flexible, and yadda yadda, but corporate culture expects you to be available on Fridays, at least nominally. And this is more true the bigger the company.

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I've also noticed a disturbing trend with pseudo on-call availability, even on the weekends, labelled as "flexible working hours".

Then there's always the "unlimited time off, we trust you".

Yes, the company I'm at now has the 'unlimited time off' policy. Which has been shown to reduce the amount of time off people actually take, and means they don't have to pay out vacation when you leave. And that's on top of the perception that they're being kind to their employees. A triple win for the company.

But that's exactly why I want my 80% time to be officially recognized. I don't want to feel guilty or worry that I haven't justified my existence when I'm not there on Fridays. The contractual 3-day weekend means a lot more to me than an extra 20% salary with strings attached.

What happens if you test that unlimited policy and take say every Friday off?

Your coworkers will resent you, and maybe try to get you on the crap projects.

The only counterpoint I could see is that you have fixed costs (insurance, desk, computer).. so 80% pay for 80% work is a small raise I guess? To make the bean counters happy maybe 75% pay for 80% work would be more fair?

But regardless, seems pretty awesome. I would want employees to get work done, not sit in a chair. I suspect someone working 4 day weeks would get more work done, per hour average, then someone working 5 days a week. Seems a no-brainer for a business to allow.

Now 1-2 day weeks for 20-40% pay? I can see communication is a bit tricky.. but 4 days a week is plenty.

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