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Comment by arduinomancer | Hacker News Reader

Curious how HN feels.

If you could work 4 days/week but your salary would be 1/5 less would you do it?

I do and have been now for almost 3 years. Actually, I work 3 days for 60% (on average that is) and oh my god it's so much nicer than when I was working at companies for 80-100% time. And I'm actually learning again, coding for fun, doing a graduate degree, reading SICP, you know .... BEING A HUMAN BEING.

I will tell anyone who will listen in tech to work less, learn more. If you learn the right things, your salary will likely catch up in the long run and you will be happier, healthier, and smarter. I hardly ever sleep until my alarm now.

Is that contract/freelance work or a regular company?

The current one is an ongoing regular position as a 1099 consultant, but I have done it many times before as a contractor, and even twice as an employee. It's surprising how many places will advertise they only want full time but agree to 75-80% if you push on it and you're a really good fit. I just needed to make sure I was producing well enough at that rate to demonstrate that it works.

To be truly accurate, I average 60%, but it swings between 40% to 80% done as 5-6 half days. I think it is much easier to work on a team doing that than 3 days on four days off, so I should have clarified that. When I was an employee I did 5 x 6 hour days, and honestly, if you get your shit done, rarely is anyone going to notice you're in at 10 and out by 4 or whatever. I just didn't play ping pong or fart around on slack.

No, I want to work 4 days/week with only a 12.5% reduction in salary to reflect the improved output per-hour my employer would anticipate due to improved conditions, and I want to keep all benefits, or no deal. I don't want the 4-day workweek to gradually morph into "people as a service", as I have my suspicions it may be intended to lead to.

Definitely.

It even has an extra bonus: I'd effectively get more than one extra week of vacation each year, because despite the number of days being the same, the one extra day a week would mean a week and a half extra off, pretty nice!

One day a week would be somewhere between 48 and 52 days off, that's over a month of time off.

I'm not counting those, I'm counting vacation time. Lets say you get X vacation days right now, this means that you get X/5 weeks off. If the workweek becomes 4 days, while you're still getting X vacation days, the number of weeks off you get is now X/4. This is relevant because vacation time is almost always taken in multiples of week-long periods (ie. "Next year I'll be taking 3 weeks off in August, one in December, one in January and one in June").

Ohhhh I see, you're talking about how many vacation days it takes to fill up a whole work-week, like the commonly seen benefit of extending golden week's 3 days off into a full week using only 2 vacation days. Gotcha.

I'm only 21 and joined the space around three years ago with a 40h work week (no more than 40 hours). The first thing I realized not even three years in: I value time so much more than money. How should I enjoy the good income I make when I'm just working?

That being said, as a software engineer you're usually well above the median income for your age, so sacrificing a cut of your income for a better work life balance is a lot easier than for people who can barely support their families.

You could use the extra day to work on a side project that may produce more than 1/5 of your salary.

Wrong place to ask probably, since I bet most folks on HN are well above the median salary where they live in. It's easier to cut down on your income when you have a lot to begin with.

Japanese median salaries (at least for young workers) are, by all measures, relatively low.

Yes. I actually will do it after my paternity leave. Not sure if I would do it without a kid though but I want to believe I would value "life" more then money.

In Germany you are entitled to part time by law.

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