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Comment by perfunctory | Hacker News Reader

I personally first tried 4-day workweek about 10 years ago and still love it. That was one of the best decisions I made in my life.

Especially in software industry, it's not that hard to arrange I believe. Even easier if we do it collectively. And when more and more people do it and it becomes a norm, the income will just readjust and return to the current levels.

But even today, when it's still not a norm, and I have a reduced income compared to my fulltime working peers, I still consider it a bargain. Extra free day is totally worth it. I am basically paying for some extra happiness.

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3 day work weeks are best.

Most well paid developers would gladly take a 20% reduction in income for 50% more weekend right? So 4 days it is!

Well why stop there? I’ll take another 25% reduction for 33% more weekend. So 3 days it is!

But only the rich or a fool would then take an additional 33% reduction for a measly 25% bump to your weekend.

3 day work weeks are best. QED

For me 6 months on and 6 months off would be incredible. But of course by the time 6 months goes by, someone has learned how to do my job and maintain all the shit I built, and I'm no longer valuable. Also I lose my health insurance and probably seniority. But man would it be sweet if I could make it work.

This would be my dream setup as well. Heck I would do 7 days a week 12 hour days (with a few mental health days built in) for 6 months if it meant not having to think about work for the other 6. I'll even live on a cot at the office during the work 6!

This is something that will never happen in India because no matter how bad you want 4 day work week theres always someone who will do full 5 days a week and do additional work over the weekend.

Really sucks that economic systems built on the ability to exploit surplus labor can persist. Lots of work left to be done. A bug to be patched.

The hard part is convincing the people who see that bug as a feature

Sounds like the US should introduce similar legislation to what India did with the on soil stuff.

> theres always someone who will do full 5 days a week and do additional work over the weekend

Good for them. If the quality bar holds, they deserve to be rewarded.

Based on personal anecdata, the quality bar does not hold. Not in India, nor anywhere else.

Why employers can't see this on the balance sheet is a different discussion.

> Why employers can't see this on the balance sheet is a different discussion.

Because it isn't on the balance sheet. The job gets done, the overtime is unpaid.

They assume that if the hours reduce, the job won't get done, they don't see each hour of less hours being productive because they've but been convinced to try the fewer hours option.

Yeah some of the best times of my life have been on 4-day work weeks. Added bonus, they were 10 hours days so we not only got our 40 hours a week but a chunk of that was OT!

Usually the point is to reduce the total hours per week as well, i.e. 32h instead of 40h.

Oh yeah I totally get it, but we were hourly rather than salary so it was the best of both worlds. We were working out of town so what's a couple extra hours a day on the site getting paid when your alternative is primarily the hotel room. For us the killer benefit was driving home Thursday night (avoiding all that extra Friday traffic) for a full extra day home with our families

Like defragging your weekly rhythm. I get it.

You've dated yourself with your magnetic hard drive :)

I've switched to 90%, working a total of 36 hours, and spreading that to 9 hours per day. Not even much of a difference on work days, as I used to work more Monday through Thursday to have a shorter Friday. So it's basically 30 minutes more, and a day off. And only 10% less pay instead of 20%.

> the income will just readjust and return to the current levels.

hahaha, good to see some hopeful people around. But the MBA people will never let this happen.

They already reduce your salary based on location of your home (when remote), as if it matters if you do your work in office or whenever.

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