Even with a 40-hour week, I would love if the work day was shifted to allow one to get sunlight for a few hours each day.
I have had that experience for years. It can be quite disheartening to see the sun set while you are on your way home. I do not mind the cold in the winter, but the darkness can literally be depressing.
Last year, after some health issues, my boss surprised me (in a good way), when he offered me to reduce my working hours to 30 hours a week. That went along, of course, with a proportionate cut in my salary, but I was surprised to find it is actually worth it.
I start working at the same time as before, which means I still have to get up at 05:30[1] in the morning, and in winter it is still dark when I arrive at the office. But I get to leave at 14:00 now, and even in the deepest winter, the sun is still up when I get home. I also am less exhausted when I get home, so keeping up with housework is much less of a chore now. I could shift my work time to start later and finish later, but having the afternoon to myself is worth getting up early to me. In summer, it is much easier anyway, because the sun is already rising or up when I get up. And in spring and fall, I get to watch some gorgeous sunrises, which is not a big deal in the greater scheme of things, but amazing nevertheless.
Also, at this point, imagine me ranting about DST, which gives me an hour's worth of jet lag without traveling, twice a year.
I have had that experience for years. It can be quite disheartening to see
the sun set while you are on your way home.
The shitty thing about living in the north isn't the cold, it's the combination of cold and dark, but mostly it's the dark...
Throw in the rain with lack of UV in Seattle - unless you live in Wales there's not many other places that get this many consecutive days of rain and low to no UV during winter.
We're both miserable. Sounds like we should get a beverage or two and bitch about weather together. Cheers.
The weather in winter is close to summer in Scotland during the day, but by the time I was out of the office it was dark.
The difference between a refreshing chill and a harrowing cold can just be an extra sweater under your coat and a good attitude. As long as it isn't very windy, it's easy to make 14 comfortable.
Below a certain temperature, it hurts to be outside for any nontrivial amount of time. That is a strong disincentive to go outside, no matter how many sweaters you're wearing.
Now I'm usually talking about over -10C (14F) but a lot of people seem to think even that is too cold but just don't wear proper clothing.
No, no it is not.
And I say this as someone who enjoys the cold. No matter what, if it's 14 degrees outside, I'm only going out if I absolutely must. There's no hanging out in the parking lot during lunch in that kind of weather.