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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

This seems a bit silly. The employer's objective is to spend capital on keeping employees extra- rested and extra- content, in order to maximize productivity and minimize turnover. If you try to nerd your way out of their plan, they'll meet the objective some other way; for instance, they can simply demand that everyone show up to the office on day 5.

A 32 hour work week is such a huge benefit that I can't imagine anyone actually working on such a team trying to subvert it. It's totally reasonable to have side projects and even to work a second job. I think a reasonable person stuck in the situation of wanting a second job while working for the 4-day company would simply leave the team.

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Haven't anybody noticed it's actually 36 hour work week, not 32?

M-F 9am-6pm = 4 x 9

They likely take lunch.

True, but in a salaried job in the UK, it's typical to include those hours in your total (though not if you're paid by the hour). At least in my experience. So if you're "at work" 9-5 M-F, that's still a 40 hour work week.

Status quo for a "40 hour week" at my current employer is 8-5 M-F with an hour lunch. I tried it for six months and decided it was a bad idea.

I was able to renegotiate things to 9-5, but my manager acted like it was this really unusual request and wasn't I lucky that they were willing to let me work "less than 40 hours."

That left me wondering, what do other people consider full time in this industry?

A full hour of lunch? Here it's usual to have half an hour of lunch (09:00 to 17:30 for a 40 hour work week).

Depends on the place -- at least where I've worked around here, lunch breaks have largely coincided with either individual preference, and the proximity to nearby (fairly quick) eateries.

If you're in a part of town, for example, where it takes a 10 minute metro ride to get to the nearest restaurant, it seems illogical to enforce a half hour lunch.

I don't want to argue in multiple threads, but you may well have clarified one thing for me, in that it's a 32 hour work week. Honestly, I was thinking it was a 4 day work week of 10 hour shifts, which I generally prefer as it keeps me from having to break when I'm in the middle of something.

Still though, you really brought your argument home when you said that (paraphrasing) "If you don't accept the trade, you shouldn't work there," because that is absolutely right. But... is it fair? If my company imposed a 'no alcoholic beverages allowed on weeknights', it's the same sort of proposition, and you're free to accept or decline it as part of the job offer, but does that make it RIGHT?

I don't mean to imply that Carsonified is doing anything illicit, or immoral, and I'm sure they have great reasons for it -- but without knowing exactly where the line is drawn, it's hard (for me) to say.

From my reading, it's a 40-hour workweek in which the last 8 hours are paid rest. If they weren't paid, they would have no legal basis for banning the workers from working on Friday.

However, the workers may do as they like over the weekend--including working.

That simply isn't true! Even in California, where anti-moonlighting clauses are very difficult to enforce, there are circumstances (conflict-of-interest being an important one) where you can't work two jobs. In many other states, all anti-moonlighting clauses are considered "reasonable" restrictions on your right to work.

Sorry for the stridency, but the logic that carries you to that conclusion is dangerously faulty. The law simply doesn't see most employment, by default, as an exchange of a set number of hours for a set amount of money. The enforceable parts of your contract can make the situation far more complicated than that. For examples, see: intellectual property and trade secrets, noncompetition, conflict of interest, overtime for salaried exempt employees, anti-moonlighting, accidentally representing your company on Twitter, and so on.

This stuff is very relevant to startups, as it's an easy way to torpedo yourself before you even pick a name for the company.

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