Hacker News Reader

Comment by cgag | Hacker News Reader

I'm 22 and I told a couple coworkers at lunch that I wish I could do my job part time, and that I'd give up half my salary to just have all that free time back. They thought I was crazy.

View on HN

I am 60 and I have (almost) always just worked about 32 hours per week. When working for large companies, like SAIC, I would just not come in on Mondays and put 32 hours a week on my time card; same at other companies. I did this for over 30 years. I think in retrospect that this was a great decision.

Kudos to you if you manage half time.

One of my employees is about your age. He works four days a week and uses the spare day to catch up on other things, rest, whatever he wants. Obviously earns a bit less, but that's his choice.

If you want to do it, see if your employer would allow it. Don't regret not doing so ten years down the track.

I for one, wish that we could have one career half the week and a completely different career with no overlap the other half of the week.

I do that. I'm a freelance developer part time, and a freelance musician part time. It's difficult, and way more work than just doing one or the other. You have to constantly guard your ability to do it -- if you let them, people will demand your absolute full time devotion to them. But I've found when you lay out th rules early on, they usually accept that they can't have you body and soul. If not, they weren't a good employer for you anyway.

I suspect that it requires other ancillary skills like negotiation, self-marketing and sheer chutzpah which I don't necessarily have all at the same time.

I like programming, but sometimes I wish I could do it only a few days a week and spend the rest doing something where I wasn't hunched over in front of a box 13 hours a day. Sales! Photography! Helping injured animals! I've never done anything that didn't involve sitting alone a desk all day...

Oh dear Lord God, you are not crazy! I've never understood the sheer insanity of the workaholics I find myself surrounded by.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com