Business & Finance Working less

[JuddsABlue]

Saw this being discussed on TV the other day where the discussion was about 'new age' companies opting for a 4 day work week and giving employees a 3 day weekend. The trade off is employees working 10 hour days or taking less money

The question I pose to bigfooty is, could you accomplish your weekly tasks on a day less a week? I feel a lot of people exaggerate how busy they are because they are fearful of being given more work to cram into their 5 day weeks, but if given the knowledge and freedom that if you could get everything done in 4 days then the 5th day became your own day, all of a sudden people would be as busy as they suggest

This happened to me on a larger scale. After the company I work for went quiet I was given the option to take a pretty big pay cut (30%) but was only asked to work 3 days a welek (mon-wed)

I took this option and havent regretted it for a second. Work life balance is great, I sleep like a baby and feel like I get just enough work done to feel like a member of society but free as a bird. I was also given more leniancy with work times so arriving late etc wasnt an issue, if I feel like working from home for a day it isnt an issue either. Usually now I'll drive in after the traffic has cleared nice and easy and not have to stress about being 5min late etc

My responsibilities over the last year have grown somewhat so I'm often finding myself working from home on a Thursday, but having the ability to work when work needs to be done gives me an outlook I hadnt had before. I went from not liking my job like most people when working 5 days 9-5, to now enjoying the same job with much more responsibilty and freedom over my work schedule and I feel like I'm better at my job because of it.

Id encourage anybody to do this if given the option

 

[nicky]

The question I pose to bigfooty is, could you accomplish your weekly tasks on a day less a week? I feel a lot of people exaggerate how busy they are because they are fearful of being given more work to cram into their 5 day weeks, but if given the knowledge and freedom that if you could get everything done in 4 days then the 5th day became your own day, all of a sudden people would be as busy as they suggest

I believe my output could be outstanding if i worked 3 to 4 hours a day and spent the rest of the day doing whatever it is that i want to do. I could make a commitment to bring my absolute best for 3 hours a day my output would be outstanding. Anything beyond 3 hours and i start to go down hill a bit. At the risk of bragging i get quality results quicker than most people so i don't need to spend all day at work. What would take someone a long time i will complete in a quarter of the time.

I work 9 to 5 pretty much. There is pressure on me to stay back when i first started my job but i completely set that expectation straight by leaving early. My reasoning is sound..... I do yoga every morning and i cook myself healthy food every day which means i need to be home at a reasonable hour and in the morning i'm constrained timewise by spending time doing yoga. These healthy things that i do means my company get a great version of myself. If they want me to work 10 hours a day that would mean i wont have time to do yoga or cook my lunch and dinners which means they would get an inferior nicky. Not only is my output fantastic but i'm extremely switched on and my emotional intelligence is extremely high.

If they could agree to let me only work 3 hours a day that would mean i could fit more time to do some awesomeness which would make my output even better. It makes perfect sense for someone to give me a very high paid job and only work 3 hours a day.

 

[little graham]

Nicky wants one extra day in the mountains on DMT...

 

[The Passenger]

i'd take a four day working week and less pay in a heart beat.

having a good balance in your life is key.

the financial perks of pushing out 10 hours a day doesn't really interest me.

 

[Catfish Alley]

I somewhat get that anyway. I only work until lunch on Fridays for most of the year. If it's quiet and I've done my work I often will go home. Traditional office hours are kind of becoming a thing of the past for a lot of industries.

 

[Simple Jack]

I work 12 hour days. I love it. I can either work 3 a week (close enough to full time hours) and have 4 whole days off or work a standard 5-6 day week for a few weeks and have big blocks of time off.

But for my occupation it's a 24 hour operation and attendance is required, so working less hours for the same output isn't really an option.

 

[ioppolo]

I don't think it'd make much difference for retail workers tbh.

 

[Smiling Buddha]

Excellent story OP. Glad to hear that you had the courage to take the offer and that it has worked out so well for you.

These sorts of topics were discussed a little in the 'Medium Chill' thread around 12 months ago.

 

[Drakescoffeecake]

Would take the 10 hour working day, 4 days a week with the same money in a heartbeat. I'm up at sparrows fart anyway and find myself killing time before going to work. 8am-6pm no problems at all, do that at least once a week anyway. Extra day off is priceless.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

I do the 10 - 12 hours a day... but I do it 5 days a week!

I could cut down a few hours here and there but no way id get my job done in 3 or 4 days. Plus I'd need to be contactable then anyway, so I'd spend half my "day off" on the phone

 

[radiojake]

The idea of 5 days/40 hours a week is absolutely heinous

Do not need that much money anyway -

 

[Aussie Assault]

France has recently passed legislation that states employees do not have to attend to calls/emails outside of their scheduled hours. They can choose to if they wish but are not required to. Not sure how they police this but is there way of combating the increase in "portable" workplaces.

Sweden's public sector have a number of sectors (if not all?) these days working 6hr days.

It certainly is a trend that is catching on. Our workplace has the equivalent of about 250 full time jobs, but around 400 employees due to the high levels of part time workers.

 

[de_LICA_ish18]

I could do my job in 4 days, hell I could probably do it in 3. I waste a lot of time chatting to people. I work smart not hard, and the rest is just socializing. I always see stressed people working hard all day. Seriously I don't know what they do all day as their output is crap lol.

If I could take a pay cut to work 4 days I wouldn't right now as I don't mind being at work. Times where I hate my job that would work for me.

 

[checkraiseulite]

you'd have to be fairly disciplined with money if you are sacrificing money and gaining free time (in which you'll likely spend more money). you'd also want to have a partner/friends who don't work otherwise you'd get bored.

 

[iluvparis]

Would take working one day less and working the extra hours across the 4 days for same pay in a heartbeat.

 

[chargers 09]

I work 12 hour days. I love it. I can either work 3 a week (close enough to full time hours) and have 4 whole days off or work a standard 5-6 day week for a few weeks and have big blocks of time off.

But for my occupation it's a 24 hour operation and attendance is required, so working less hours for the same output isn't really an option.

What do you do?

 

[chargers 09]

Would take the 10 hour working day, 4 days a week with the same money in a heartbeat. I'm up at sparrows fart anyway and find myself killing time before going to work. 8am-6pm no problems at all, do that at least once a week anyway. Extra day off is priceless.

Another benefit is if you have to commute into the city you avoid rush hour on the trains.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

France has recently passed legislation that states employees do not have to attend to calls/emails outside of their scheduled hours. They can choose to if they wish but are not required to. Not sure how they police this but is there way of combating the increase in "portable" workplaces.

Sweden's public sector have a number of sectors (if not all?) these days working 6hr days.

It certainly is a trend that is catching on. Our workplace has the equivalent of about 250 full time jobs, but around 400 employees due to the high levels of part time workers.

Australian public service has been doing 2hr work days for decades.

Bit slow on the uptake in Sweden

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Anyway, it really depends on your job. If you have a job based on "output" so to speak, and you output so much per hour, then most places it wouldn't be an issue when you did the hours.

If you're managing something though, particularly relationships (internal or external), ie you have customers, you really need to be there a lot of the time usually.

 

[Drakescoffeecake]

Another benefit is if you have to commute into the city you avoid rush hour on the trains.

You'd probably still get stuck in a bit but yep it would be much better than 9-5! Thankfully I avoid a lot of the peak hours mainly because I don't work smack bang in the middle of the city and have an underground carpark to use.

What appeals to me is the fact that I can have a whole day off before/after the weekend to do things that I normally wouldn't be able to do on weekdays. Can never do anything before work and when I get home it's either rush out to the shops, do whatever I need to do in quick time or leave it for the weekend. Freeing up a Monday or Friday to do the basic every-day sort of things like shopping, gardening, paying bills, doing stuff around the house would be way too good to refuse IMO.

 

[Papa Juggs]

Technology should be allowing people to work less but it isn't because of the 0.1% sucking in the profit and not giving it back.

The army of robot slaves and computers takes the jobs away but doesn't reward society as a whole with their productivity.

The Luddites were right.

 

[AtomicBlonde]

Working from home has been a real eye-opener on this issue for me. A lot of folks that I used to work with (at various companies) were always complaining that there just isn't enough hours in the day to do what they expect were to do. Some of them had good reason to vent their frustrations as they were being shamelessly exploited and underpaid by their employers. Most of them however (at the good companies) were just very poor at time-management (a very underrated quality) and would point the finger at everything from days being too short to the most bizarre to cover up their incompetence in that area.

My days are usually pretty free now as I can schedule appointments, calls, video calls and whatever else around my clients' schedules because it really doesn't matter to me if I need to be up at 7am or if they want a 9pm. I've had days where I have spent 40 minutes working and other days where it was easily 10, maybe 11-12 hours. On the other hand, I do worry about one of my best mates who works two jobs to provide for his family and only gets a few hours on a Sunday afternoon to spend time with his kids and if overtime is on offer he will always take it so there has been some months over the years where he has only spent maybe 4 hours with his kids for the entire month. That to me is really sad because he misses out on so much stuff and I often go to his oldest son's (the kid is 10) football matches to watch him and the kid is always hoping for his dad who he has nick-named "no-show" to come but 9 out of 10 times he goes home disappointed (even after playing well) because Dad wasn't there.

I dated a teacher (years 9/10 English/French) some years ago and was amazed that he never had work to do after hours either at the school or at home as I had a couple of mates who were teachers and were constantly taking their students' work home for marking and spending entire weekends at home preparing for the next week's classes. The teacher I was dating simply said that they must be poor at time-management as he (and several of his fellow teachers at the school) never had to take stuff home or spend weekends working but he too had colleagues that were always snowed under (that had less classes than he did) and he said often the same teachers who complained about it were the ones that spent countless hours between and after classes gossiping and wasting time in the staff room when he and others would use it to mark work and do their prep stuff.

Anyway, that's my two-cents worth.

 

[BEEG]

Who wouldn't want to work 3-4 days per week

I work in sales so if I have customers calling in on my day of that's money out of my pocket and sales targets not met

I doubt the world could run on 3-4 days per week

 

[Scotland]

Different strokes for different folks.

I predominantly work business hours. 7.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year. Pretty standard stuff.

The expectation is 9-5 Mon-Fri give or take, but it's not like clocking on and off at a factory. I enjoy is the freedom to do 10 hours one day and 6 the next etc. Like everyone I'd like to work less, but I'd rather work more when I'm doing something productive and less when I'm not. Nothing worse than sitting around for 40 hours a week feeling like you're wasting everyone's time then being overloaded later on.

IMO the best thing I could hope for in terms of work life balance is more holidays. If given the choice between 10% more money and the same money but 5 weeks more annual leave per year (roughly what it works out to pro rata) then I'd take the holidays every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

 

[crownie]

no doubt in 30-40 years time most people will be working 20 hour weeks, the trend is starting to happen a little now.

Wouldn't suprise me if it happened sooner.