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Comment by EZ-E | Hacker News Reader

About work and happiness : the more I think about the reality of being a full time employee, the more I start to believe part-time is actually the right way to work and be happy.

I see little reason to spend something like 70% of waking hours commuting and working for someone else's profits if you can afford to do less. I've become pragmatic and realized the company I'm I work in is just a tool I use to make money while trying to extract valuable experience for my future. The rest doesn't matter

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I recently reduced my weekly hours and am now working only 4 days a week. its so much better.

People are dumbfounded when i tell them, they do not understand that free time is more important to me than money. as long as i can live comfortably and use my new free time i will trade money for time. end goal is 2 days a week - no idea if thats possible, but 3 days is a must.

if you can do it financially and with your job situation i can only recommend it. i still giggle like a little girl every friday because i dont have to go to work

I'm about to ask for the friday off, I'd even pass on the promised 5% raise if neecessary. As a rather young project/product manager I'm a bit worried about carreer prospects though.

A day doesn't sound like much, but a work-day/weekend ratio of 60/40 is so much better than 70/30 I bet.

Boy, I wish I could find part time work that paid even a quarter of what I make supposedly working full time. The reality of course is that I'm at most actually working 15-25% of that time and the rest I'm just piloting a desk and being available for people to pick my brain.

Then there's the health care issue to consider, at least for US residents.

> The reality of course is that I'm at most actually working 15-25% of that time and the rest I'm just piloting a desk and being available for people to pick my brain

Working remote can solve this, I've realized. One day I was stuck at home so I told my supervisor I would work at home for the day. I ended up doing my work in few hours, and was free the rest of the time since I was free from the "stay at desk" requirement.

Sure, if your company isn't actively hostile to the idea like the one I work at is. Lot of places are very butts-in-seats focused.

Don't let the healthcare issue scare you. I've been on high-deductible Marketplace plans for the past few years, having gone through a pregnancy and delivery with complications, among a few other health concerns.

As long as you have the cushion to cover the high deductible (~$6000), there's probably not much to worry about. I had the same deductible at a previous employer, so the current situation feels identical to me.

In Switzerland it's the norm that you can decide how much you want to work on an 80-100% scale (sometimes even 60%). Your vacation days etc. Adjust accordingly.

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