What are your thoughts on the 4-day work week?

Have you ever worked for a company with that schedule? If so, what was it like? If not, is this something you'd be interested in?

Comments

[Damnjan Jovanovic]

There is already experiments of that kind across some europian countries. So far very successful and promising. I didn't work 4 days schedule myself, but my wife did it after she returned from maternity leave, for half a year. Know many people here who work this schedule in Germany, nobody complains so far. The only unfortunate is 20% less salary, but there is more priceless free time. It would be cool if someone from Scandinavia reply here to give us first-hand experience since they tried with 6hours work days (AWESOME!).

[Andrei Rusu]

I live in Norway for 5 years and I can confirm that work life balance is phenomenal. I previously worked in Amsterdam for 5.5 years and I used to joke with my colleagues who would schedule a meeting past 4 o’clock that this would be unthinkable in Norway, and for the most part I can say that it is.

[Dian Fay]

I tried working 40-hour weeks as four tens for a while to take Fridays off, but didn't stick with it. I'd love to see more companies adopting shorter workweeks, though. Futurists were predicting for much of the 20th century that advances in automation meant that workers would be able to support ourselves and our families with less and less time on the job, which sounds pretty great from the actual future where we did this instead:

[Donald Merand]

Same. I found 4 10-hour days wasn't any better for me. Currently I work an overall 40-ish hour week remotely spread over 7 days at somewhat random hours, and that's actually preferable to 4 10-hour days.

[Davide de Paolis]

a few years ago i had the opportunity to negotiate a 4 day week. (the employer was happier to give away one day of productive work rather than give me 20% raise - so i managed to keep the same income - which was quite low anyway at that time - but starte working monday to thursday. BEST DECISION EVER. Basically long weekends every week!! and lots of time to study and learn new things.

Unfortunately when i changed company ( and country) i could not get that. but sometime it will be something i will tryto negotiate again

[Paul Isaris]

It really depends on the situation. On the one hand, you surely have more precious time to work on side-projects or freelancing (if you are employed in a company), or just invest in self-improvement, learning, or even an online degree (like Udacity or Coursera).

But on the other hand, some companies may force all their employees to have 4-day workweeks which will result in a significantly smaller house income, even for families with loads, children, etc...

As a relatively young employee with a passion for online learning I say yay, but as a father (not yet) with many financial responsibilites, I can easily imagine myself saying nay.

[Rémi Mercier]

As a father myself, I've reached the opposite conclusion. I would readily trade off 20% of my income (and reduce my monthly nut accordingly) with an additional day with my kiddos (or with myself, come to that). 😄

[jlabs]

My wife and I have done just this. Both reduced to 4 days a week to spend a day (without the other person) a week spending quality time with our little-ish one.
I'd like to say we just bit the bullet and took the 20% reduction, but for us it actually worked out financially better to have the 20% less per week than pay for someone, or somewhere, for our little one to go whilst we worked.

[Anna Buianova]

I'm not 100% sure if I would like that, regarding lower income. But I think it's worth trying, and it would be nice to work 4-day work week at least occasionally.
I've found out that another approach is becoming more popular: letting employees spend 1 day a week self-learning or doing other activities which are related to work, but are not working on the projects directly. Like investment time at Thoughtbot

[Jean-Michel Plourde]

I'd do my work week in 4 days anytime. Three day weekends are underrated. But even tho every company advertise themselves as a startup ala silicon valley, they are still holding to that old out-dated 5 days week.

[Rémi Mercier]

Ah man, those fancy startups that want to change the world but can't even bend their own prejudices. Ugh. 🤷‍♂️

[jeikabu]

I'm lobbying hard for the 3-day, 30 hour work week. 😎

[Dylan Kilkenny]

This is something i wish i had the opportunity to do

[Sunny Singh]

I think a 4-day work week sounds perfect for anyone that is also focusing on side projects, and does not want to burn out when dealing with a 40-hour day job. Especially when that day job is not remote, and you are able to get your work done in much less time.

Personally I have not had the chance or courage to request a 4-day work week, but back when I worked remotely I definitely was able to use my flexibility to work when I was most productive to accomplish my tasks in less time, thus leaving me happier throughout the week.

[Stefan Dorresteijn]

I put "working more than 4 days a week" on my "fuck it"-list; the list of things I'm never doing again. I don't believe anyone should work more than 4 days a week. More leisure = happier employee = more productivity.

I adopted this way of working at the start of this year and I've never been so productive in the hours I'm actually working, nor have I ever been so relaxed during my leisure time.