Switch to a 4-day week?
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
I remember when 4 day weeks (7.5/8 hour days) were touted by governments (Euro & Aus) as being good for the workers, although their real intent was to boost employment. Many companies that tried it found the employees got just as much work done in the 4 days as they used to perform in 5 days, few different reasons: - employees had a day to get their other stuff done, so not distracted (or taking sickies) - employees worried the other guy that fills in may replace them worked that little bit harder. ... (commonly considered more likely previously they stretched the same [target] amount of work to 5 days.) - blah blah whole bunch more "expert" analysis downsides - for "customer service" staff no choice, employers needed people to fill those days - the boost to employment ended up to be bugger all, so govt stopped talking about it .... ('yes it's good for the voters, but not for us so who gives a shit') yes it's proven to be a damn good idea ... but mostly because [higher skilled positions] the boss wants you on hand all the time, to ask stupid questions, or be there for 'emergencies' (customers asking hard questions) they generally don't like to offer it.
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
10 hours a day is not good, especially by the time you've added two journeys and lunch to it (if you're lucky enough to get a lunch break). I used to do it 7 days a week and quite frankly, it was a living hell: Wake up Quick splash Catch train Program bloody computers for 10 hours Catch train Pray off-license would still be open by the time the train arrived so you could have half-an-hour of beer-time Go to sleep Repeat ad nauseum until burn-out Monumentally unproductive! Now, granted, it would feel a little different if there was three day weekend coming rather than no weekend at all, but to be honest the last two or three hours of the shift would rarely produce anything useful. I'd be tired, my head would screaming through eyestrain and I'd pretty much lost the will to live by then. Assuming your actually working flat out, 7 hours is about the max for a genuinely productive day's coding.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
Why is the song "Eight days a week" now playing in my head, must be friday afternoon :omg: And rejoice, because tomorrow it's Kings day here in the Netherlands :rolleyes:
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10 hours a day is not good, especially by the time you've added two journeys and lunch to it (if you're lucky enough to get a lunch break). I used to do it 7 days a week and quite frankly, it was a living hell: Wake up Quick splash Catch train Program bloody computers for 10 hours Catch train Pray off-license would still be open by the time the train arrived so you could have half-an-hour of beer-time Go to sleep Repeat ad nauseum until burn-out Monumentally unproductive! Now, granted, it would feel a little different if there was three day weekend coming rather than no weekend at all, but to be honest the last two or three hours of the shift would rarely produce anything useful. I'd be tired, my head would screaming through eyestrain and I'd pretty much lost the will to live by then. Assuming your actually working flat out, 7 hours is about the max for a genuinely productive day's coding.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
I ended up arranging mine to work every other day, working Sunday and Monday together with Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday off. My commute was short and the lunch hour was included in the ten hours and consisted of a sandwich or something at my desk. I kept it up for five years without any real issues. Seven days a week is nuts even for 7 hour days.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Why is the song "Eight days a week" now playing in my head, must be friday afternoon :omg: And rejoice, because tomorrow it's Kings day here in the Netherlands :rolleyes:
RickZeeland wrote:
And rejoice, because tomorrow it's Kings day here in the Netherlands
Pah! That's nothing - it's Poets Day here in the UK today!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Why is the song "Eight days a week" now playing in my head, must be friday afternoon :omg: And rejoice, because tomorrow it's Kings day here in the Netherlands :rolleyes:
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
The cynic in me wants to say that 4x10 hours can easily turn into 5x10 hours.
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
I suppose it mostly depends on who your customers are and what your role is. I'm self-employed and work from home, so I'm basically 'on call' 24/5. Luckily, the majority of my customers are within a time zone and operate 'normal' business hours. (8-5) Also, through years of hard work, current products are stable and don't require a great deal of support. :)
Forogar wrote:
How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
To be honest, I think I would wind up working anyway. The truth is, over 10 years ago due to IRS problems and an addiction to golf, I found a Saturday job where I was unsupervised and that allowed me to spend 90% of my time working on my laptop. About a year ago I tried to quit the Saturday job but they begged me to at least work a couple of days a month, so I agreed. (it all goes to taxes anyway) Another truth...there's been many weekends doing the yardwork where I look forward to Monday! Maybe I'm a workaholic, but they won't let me quit!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
would love it. I think this could seriously work. AS others have pointed it out you need coverage 24/7 or 8/5 just have people pick differing days of the week. I would love to have Wed or Mon off and work every Friday. Sign me up. It is an idea whose time has come for those of us who work a desk job. Seriously some weeks I only need to work about 3-4 hours to get my entire job done for the week. Other weeks. 40 isn't enough. But I find that when I work 40 the quality of the work I produce goes down. So I need that time away from the coding screen and away from work in order to get my mind working right.
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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I ended up arranging mine to work every other day, working Sunday and Monday together with Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday off. My commute was short and the lunch hour was included in the ten hours and consisted of a sandwich or something at my desk. I kept it up for five years without any real issues. Seven days a week is nuts even for 7 hour days.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
I'd find every other day a bit weird, I think, but maybe I could adapt to it. Did you find that you were never really switching off at the "weekend", though? It's good to have those two straight days ... And, yes, 7 days is many miles beyond stupid, I just had a PHB who thought otherwise at the time (needless to say, he was more than happy to bugger off hours before the rest of us and we never saw him at the weekend).
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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RickZeeland wrote:
And rejoice, because tomorrow it's Kings day here in the Netherlands
Pah! That's nothing - it's Poets Day here in the UK today!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I suppose it mostly depends on who your customers are and what your role is. I'm self-employed and work from home, so I'm basically 'on call' 24/5. Luckily, the majority of my customers are within a time zone and operate 'normal' business hours. (8-5) Also, through years of hard work, current products are stable and don't require a great deal of support. :)
Forogar wrote:
How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
To be honest, I think I would wind up working anyway. The truth is, over 10 years ago due to IRS problems and an addiction to golf, I found a Saturday job where I was unsupervised and that allowed me to spend 90% of my time working on my laptop. About a year ago I tried to quit the Saturday job but they begged me to at least work a couple of days a month, so I agreed. (it all goes to taxes anyway) Another truth...there's been many weekends doing the yardwork where I look forward to Monday! Maybe I'm a workaholic, but they won't let me quit!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
Quote:
an addiction to golf
That must have been Volkswagen Golf :rolleyes:
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Quote:
an addiction to golf
That must have been Volkswagen Golf :rolleyes:
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Around 94 I was working half-time. 40-hour-weeks. Every second week. That made for 9 consecutive days off. Every second week. Was nice :beer:
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
For most of '96 and '97 I worked 12 hour shifts with every other Sunday off. (union rules) I was a machine operator at a box plant...running a 2 color flexographic/die-cutter/folder/gluer. For those two years, the 2nd shift position was vacant/training mostly due to hiring people off the street with no experience. It was good money and no time to spend it. I wasn't single when it started, but I was at the end...that was a good thing! :laugh:
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
I would love it, but the cynic in me fears it would, over time, lead to 5 - 10 hour days per week.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
Years ago, one one my colleagues lived by a 6 day week - 6 days of 28 hours = 168 hours, rather than 7 days of 24 hours = 168 hours. Monday mornings when we arrived at 08:00, he had been working for 5-6 hours already. Tuesdays he started out an hour or two before us, Wednesdays a couple hours later, and Thursdays he wasn't there until after lunch. Fridays he wasn't there at all, having worked enough hours the first four days of the week. This company employed you to get things done, not to sit there for 40 hours a week. If you completed your tasks in significantly less than 40 h/week, you were expected to be assigned more tasks. If your tasks required much more than 40 h/week, you were expected to ask for an assistant to offload you. Noone counted hours by the minutes. Certainly this simplified the formal issues of adapting to a 6*28 schedule, and the guys in his team managed to schedule meetings to fit his daily rythm.
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Until recently, I was working a 4-day week, each day being 10 hours long to make up the standard 40-hour week. I completed all my projects on time and no loss of productivity ensued. Actually, since I invariably made dentist, doctors, etc. appointments always on my days off there was less unscheduled time off. I am now working a 34-hour week which counts a full-time or part-time depending upon who you ask. However, the days are 7, 7, 7, 7 and 6 hours (on Friday) and I was thinking of seeing if I can change this to four 8.5-hour days - unlikely to happen as it is the government and they have pretty fixed rules. This makes me wonder how many organisations could switch to four day weeks without any loss of productivity, and perhaps an increase? Even those who work from home may benefit from an extra day they are not required to answer the telephone. How would you feel about such a change to your schedule?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
One employer I had in the early 90s changed to a two-week schedule consisting of 9 hours on Monday through Thursday, plus an 8-hour Friday and a Friday off. Scheduling was such that they ensured that they had essential tasks covered every Friday. (e.g. there were two of us doing System Management of OpenVMS systems, and we couldn't have the same Fridays off.)
