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Comment by svec | Hacker News Reader

It's not quite all the way to a 4-day workweek, but we've got something close at iRobot:

At iRobot we have "summer hours" during (surprise!) the summer. Fridays are half days as long as you get in your 40 hours by noon on Friday, which many people do. I love it!

Want to work here (Boston, MA or Pasadena, CA)? Check out our available jobs (we're hiring software engineers!!!) (http://www.irobot.com/us/Company/Careers.aspx) and then email me: csvec@irobot.com

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That's not anything close to a four day week, that's a five day week with long hours on four out of five days.

That stinks if you have a long commute. Still having to commute that fifth day.

>Fridays are half days as long as you get in your 40 hours by noon on Friday

You keep track of hours? Aren't you salaried professionals? Who cares how long you work if you get your work done.

I do. If my work refuses to pay me more than for 40 hours, why should I work more? I already have enough work for 3 people.

Because you're not hourly. You're not paid to work for 40 hours, you're paid to fulfill certain obligations and be held accountable for them. That means sometimes you might have to work more than 40 hours, and sometimes you might work less.

This is not unique to software, you might have to wake up and fix something in the middle of the night the same way a doctor might have to take a call w/ a patient on a weekend when they're on-call. It's part of the job.

Sue if they want that sort of commitment, they can pay me for it. At the moment they are getting a good deal with the crappy salary I am getting.

It sounds like people are upset that 1. iRobot has time cards at all, and that 2. by giving us the option of a half-day Friday they are somehow taking advantage of employees.

1. Time cards: many companies have them. Not an excuse, just a fact. I don't like time cards, but I like my job at iRobot, so I'll put up with time cards. It's a low-overhead-slightly-annoying part of my week which is far outweighed by the parts of my job I love, which is most of them. If you really hate time cards that's fine - I understand and don't blame you - iRobot is not for you.

2. Half-day: The half-day is optional, so if you want to leave early on a Friday you work a bit more during the week and you're out early. Don't like it? Don't do it. I love it because I'm happy to trade a bit more work Monday - Thursday for an early trip to the beach on Friday. I work about 40 hours every week and consider the Friday "half-days" a good deal.

(Also, some people work from home on that Friday half-day, which solves the commute problem .)

Sounds like you're working 44 hours for 40 hours of pay? (For example: you could have all your hours done by Thursday night, but you still have to come in for a half day on Friday, correct?) If they're going to make you work 40 hours anyway, why the extra half day? Seems fine to me to set the required work time to 40 hours, but that should mean that you can leave once you've got 40 hours in.

"Fridays are half days as long as you get in your 40 hours by noon on Friday" means they're working 40 hours over 4.5 days, instead of 5.

Right, but what if I work 10 hours a day from Monday to Thursday? I've put in my 40 hours but still have to wait until Friday afternoon. In that case they'd probably get paid 44 hours, but it's also possible that they're only getting paid for the 40 hours - which is why I ask if the half day is really necessary.

I can't wait to start filling out time sheets (or maybe you have the convenience of a punch card?) to make sure I "get my hours in".

Fuck off getting things done: we've got hours to complete!

One thing doesn't exclude the other. At one of the best places where I've worked at we had to fill out timesheets. It was actually used to make sure people worked a sane amount of time. If you piled up on extra hours you were told to go home and take a day or two off.

I am moving to Boston in the next few months. I'm originally from Boston but I've been living in Bolivia for the past few years. I'd love the chance to work with a company with these hours.

I've been freelancing with US clients for about 2 years now and my work schedule is always 4 days so I'm extremely used to it by now. :)

Hope we can connect in the future!

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