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Comment by baobob | Hacker News Reader

I've worked formal 3 and 4 day week arrangements. Net experience: it's pointless, if you're working 4 day weeks and you're feeling behind, you may well end up working that 5th day without anyone asking.

Similarly in a 5 day week arrangement, I've never felt compelled to actually work the full week especially when I'm ahead.

Ignoring any formality, I think most folk work a 2-3 week if they were honest about it.

I wouldn't sweat having a 3/4 day arrangement as a reason to pick one company over another, especially if the offer is implicitly part of attempting to screw you on salary

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We work 4 days a week (4x7.5) and we have a very strict “policy” that no one works on a Monday. The same way that no one works on a Saturday or a Sunday. It’s easy to see when people work outside of work, and we don’t celebrate it, we try and find out why it happened and to change process to better protect time off. Generally employees working “overtime” is not a failure of them, it’s a failure of process (estimation, workload, support, roadmap etc)

“Most folk work a 2-3 day week” - while this maybe true, don’t let it discount a bonafide 4 day work week. On the extra day off I’m presumed uncontactable and not at my desk. There’s a big difference between that and being at work but not really working.

>>Similarly in a 5 day week arrangement, I've never felt compelled to actually work the full week especially when I'm ahead. Ignoring any formality, I think most folk work a 2-3 week if they were honest about it.

While I agree with you, ya gotta admit that most don’t have the luxury to just say “I got my work done already im just gonna take Friday off.”

Most of us are expected to be available at the least from M-F, 9-5.

Exactly this, and especially with "remote work", you can pretty much regulate your own hours.

> Ignoring any formality, I think most folk work a 2-3 week if they were honest about it.

The real difference maker is if you need to show up to the office or be reachable. I am sure there were weeks where I did 16 hours of work(i.e 2 days) at BigCo but I still showed up to the office 5 days as week. It didn't really matter to me if I was working at the office or just goofing off in the coffee room, I still couldn't go surfing or do something I enjoy.

> if you're working 4 day weeks and you're feeling behind, you may well end up working that 5th day without anyone asking.

If you're behind on a 5 day work week, do you work the weekend? I don't see how this is any different.

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