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Comment by tobyhinloopen | Hacker News Reader

"Perhaps the Dutch are happy because they know that one works to live, and that living to work is a perverse waste of life."

This is exactly my statement when I told my boss I wanted to work part-time. Now, I only work around 20 up to 32 hours a week. Also, I feel I'm way more productive this way: I only work when I "feel like working". Because of that, I'm way more productive when I work.

I have dreams for my future. Doing a day-to-day office job isn't one of them. In my "spare time", I'm converting my hobby and passion into my own company so I can, hopefully, earn money with my hobby and stop working completely.

Yes, I'm from the Netherlands.

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I have a friend who does hiring in Berlin for a tech company. He's complained about not being able to find full-time employees. Lots of talented people, surprisingly few want to be locked in for 40-50h/week, especially when they have 4 other quasi-work commitments (playing in a band, working behind a bar once a week, etc) as well.

That's because experienced software developers know they can only be productive for 4-5 hours a day and any attempt to forcefully extend this time results in lower quality work and hidden bugs. Then you get a senseless situation on your hands - you first waste a few extra hours to make things bad then you spend additional time to correct your mistakes. You might as well just go home and enjoy extra personal time, to come back fresh and energized the next day. In 20-25 hours per week you can actually accomplish a lot. A 40 hour week will wear you quickly. A 50 hour week can bring you one step closer to a burn-out and possibly damage your health in a long run.

Additionally, there might me some cultural issue involved. A few years ago I worked in Germany and the one thing I didn't like about the German workspace is that companies didn't really want their workers to be productive and efficient, they just wanted them to put in all of their official working hours and complete all of the formalities involved, while also frowning upon any activities outside work. That was one of the reasons why I eventually moved out. I wanted to accomplish things and grow, the companies I interviewed at wanted me to stay 9-5 and be satisfied with their routine. I grew to dislike this attitude and eventually made other plans for myself.

If that is what your friend is really complaining about, he might want to expand his talent pool outside of the hipster scene?

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