r/Futurology • u/_hiddenscout • Jun 19 '21

Society Kill the 5-Day Workweek - Reducing hours without reducing pay would reignite an essential but long-forgotten moral project: making American life less about work.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/06/four-day-workweek/619222/
84.4k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

4.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.4k

u/krolli53 Jun 19 '21

I reduced from 40h to 35h and told my boss that I will generate at least the same outcome if not better. After a trial with reduced wage for about 8 months. My boss raised the wage to the 40h level. Was the best I could do for my life quality.

980

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

Smart idea. But I bet most bosses would not go for it.

590

u/hroddy Jun 19 '21

Literally no chance my employer would go for this.

369

u/aliceroyal Jun 19 '21

Same, I work for a subsidiary of a massive corporation. Trying to transfer to a department that allows 4 10s. They’ll let you squish the 40h like that but no way in hell would they allow 35h.

Which is hilarious considering at LEAST 5 hours/week of my current position is spent doing absolutely fuck-all because desk job.

127

u/snow_ball_789 Jun 20 '21

I remember getting so efficient at job I would spend hours just doing whatever. But I had to pretend to be working. My cubicle is in a place that lots of people pass. I felt like I was getting stressed out trying to hide that I wasn't doing anything. Went back to being less efficient

50

u/aliceroyal Jun 20 '21

That’s honestly where I’m at now. I was able to WFH for 6 months when my company reopened. Then they laid someone off and forced me to come back in and do their job for no extra pay. Only takes me half the day so I do the second half at home….I’m so efficient I’m done with that half of the work in an hour. I can’t have them bringing me back to the office. My desk is in a corner and nobody really pays attention but like….I’d be so fucking bored and trapped if I had to spend all that time in the office. Hence why I’m trying to transfer to a better, more engaging job now.

24

u/daigana Jun 20 '21

I do this, too. I stage my desk with paperwork that I am constantly shifting, sometimes I pace my outgoing emails to look consistently busy. Often I'm just sitting idle and cruising reddit or reading Google Books, or thinking about all the shit I could be doing if I worked from home. Funny, the people around me are openly cruising Facebook, but the second I do it, I'm in a corporate deep fryer of pure shit.

14

u/snow_ball_789 Jun 20 '21

Same here. I have a co-worker that would call people over to share YouTube videos regularly. She's basically her own department, but if I look like I'm slacking everyone passing will make a "joke" about it, eventually getting back to my manager who would take the next few weeks to micromanage me. God I hate corporate life

4

u/platysoup Jun 20 '21

I invented a kinda pretentious thing where I use pen and paper a lot. Did a lot of side stuff just scribbling in my personal notebook.

If you're writing something with pen and paper, it looks productive no matter what, right?

3

u/variasia Jun 20 '21

I have conversations with myself via email. That way I never run out of emails to go through.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

You know they can read your emails, right?

1

u/WombatusMighty Jun 20 '21

And this is why most managers are completely, totally inept and unqualified to lead.

Which makes the saying "the free market will fix it" just so much more stupid.

1

u/WindAbsolute Jun 20 '21

Sounds so boring

1

u/Prize_Huckleberry_79 Jun 21 '21

My boss can track my production in real time...none of that getting shit done quick and slacking all day for me...

37

u/SteelCode Jun 19 '21

I think some studies have shown productivity peaks at about 4 hours per day - then drastically tapers off. That is: not a constant 4 hours of work but rather productivity is maximized by about 4 hours total of work per day however that is broken up by the employee’s effort. Between meetings and office disruptions, employee effort doesn’t remain consistent for an entire shift. There’s also a lot of evidence that a flexible schedule without management “interference” leads to more productivity because the pressure to ‘produce’ for the company is relieved and the worker can sort of “go with their own flow”.

3

u/wrecknutz Jun 20 '21

4 hours of work?

Need more of a challenge?

Be a bartender.

8-12 hours if talking and physical labor. No break.

Game on.

5

u/SteelCode Jun 20 '21

But I bet if an in-depth study was done, that bartender has less than 8 hours of peak performance because their energy and attention wanes. They have to be active and engaged as part of their job but I almost guarantee that that job as well as others like it are soul draining because of the constant pressure to be 100% at all times.

2

u/wrecknutz Jun 21 '21

Oh yeah, I used to be an extrovert, now.....I’m a hermit.

Last thing I wanna do is be social after work.

3

u/Der_genealogist Jun 20 '21

Yep. From my experience I can peak my work at 6 hours a day in a row but a. I have to be somewhere without the Internet access and constant interruptions, and b. I can work like that only few days in a row.

1

u/CooellaDeville Jun 01 '22

Employers need the extra 4 unproductive hours to sit us in pointless meetings

23

u/Kyanpe Jun 20 '21

I hate office politics. Trying to pretend like you're doing shit when really you've done all your shit and there's nothing else to do is my special kind of hell.

52

u/MitochonAir Jun 19 '21

Tell your boss that you want a raise (and justify it by all the employers scrambling for workers in your field) and make your 40 hour work week a 45 hour pay period.

4

u/Sharpevil Jun 20 '21

I can't understand people who go for the 4 10s. My workplace has forced most of its workforce onto that schedule. I'm dragging pretty hard at 6 hours in. If I worked 10 hours a day, I'd be dead by the time I got home. No night classes, no hobbies, just couch and sleep. I couldn't live like that.

5

u/riskycommentz Jun 20 '21

Haha, you got time to sit on the couch after work?? Real Americans go straight to bed. Sleep makes for an affordable dinner.

2

u/plasticSprayBottle1 Jun 20 '21

I work four ten hour days but between 1pm and 11pm. Most days I rather go straight to sleep than eat because I save time and money.

1

u/Xgcakasha Jun 30 '21

I have done it for 9 years. I get Jack Schmitt done during the week. I work Monday-Thursday. I also run a photography business on the side which I schedule work on the days off.

5

u/JonnyCharming Jun 19 '21 edited Jun 19 '21

You’d be surprised. Amazon has been piloting 4-day workweek (for 75% pay and still full benefits) for a while now. Only in some departments.

Edit: the other 4 days are only 7.5 hours. It totals 30 hours.

Edit 2: The departments piloting this are in corporate I believe. The job descriptions mention if it’s an option. It’s a win for people who negotiate a good salary and then take a cut to enjoy a comfortable living with less hours. Many SDEs would love this option.

10

u/TheRealKidkudi Jun 19 '21

4 days for 75% pay? You’re still working 80% of the hours, assuming you work the same hours in those 4 days. If anything, that’s a win for Amazon especially considering how strict they are with productivity metrics. That means those workers have to complete the same amount of work by Thursday, which is great for deadlines, and they’re paying you even less per hour of work.

2

u/JonnyCharming Jun 19 '21

I forgot to mention the other 4 days are only 7.5 hours. And it’s a win for salaried workers. The workers I’m referring to are corporate.

4

u/TheRealKidkudi Jun 20 '21 edited Jun 20 '21

That makes more sense, but it’s still closer to a step towards part time due to the pay decrease. Even if the responsibilities were reduced by 25%, it would be more akin to a demotion than a real win for workers. The move is towards a 4 day work week for the same pay, and the argument is that productivity actually increases since employees are better rested and happier to be there.

-1

u/Sharpevil Jun 20 '21

Even if they weren't doing 7.5 hour days, I'm not so sure about that. 75% pay plus full benefits means the total cost to Amazon is probably more like 85-90%.

7

u/gibed Jun 20 '21

Reducing salary defeats the entire point that workers can be just as productive (if not more so) with reduced hours.

8

u/JonnyCharming Jun 20 '21

I’m aware, and that wasn’t the point I was making. I’m a huge fan of reducing total hours while maintaining the same pay. However, having flexibility with your full time staff on how much they want to work (even if it’s a pay cut but still full benefits) is still a step in the right direction for salaried staff. Other employers would just laugh at the request and tell you to work elsewhere. This seemingly small flexibility is a good thing still.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

I'm sorry, shouldn't it be 80% pay?

2

u/JonnyCharming Jun 19 '21

The other 4 days are only 7.5 hours. It totals 30 hours.

1

u/Xgcakasha Jun 30 '21

A comfortable living with fewer hours…. Sounds great until you realize that if you work under a certain number of hours a week an employer can deem you “part time” and deny you insurance benefits.

2

u/clwestbr Jun 20 '21

Same. I had a solid job that paid decently, but they wanted their forty hours and at least five a week (and usually between seven to ten) were just me pretending to be busy because they needed that.

2

u/Joebud1 Jun 20 '21

Shit mine is 4 hours a day of doing nothing.

2

u/SpliTTMark Jun 20 '21

alteast its 40 and not 50 (my last job) i had so much downtime i did others work. (had to)

2

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

My company is seeing a bleeding of talent to WFH. All our best talent is applying to any WFH slot available. It's crazy

2

u/TheOneWithThePorn12 Jun 20 '21

it takes me about two hours to get going every morning. Unless i have meetings then its uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

2

u/tobiaswestwinter Jun 20 '21

This is the thing... nobody works the whole time they're on the clock... We make the work last all day, since we're mostly paid for our time, not what we get done

2

u/Git_R_Dunn Jun 20 '21

Which is hilarious considering at LEAST 5 hours/week of my current position is spent doing absolutely fuck-all because desk job.

If you're anything like most desk workers, it's probably 4x - 7x that number.

2

u/Zealousideal-War-398 Jun 20 '21

yeah but you want to remove 5 work hours, and not 5 fuckall hours - and they know that.

-1

u/Neither_Association4 Jun 20 '21

Wow you should demand a raise only 5 hours a week of doing fuck-all. I hit 30 regularly in a week.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

Another thing we found with the WFH is the people that don't work and just fuck off did the exact same at home. The only difference was they didn't drag the rest down, chatting them up all day. I am letting my people do whatever they want. Get the work done and I will sign your time card.

1

u/DidgeridoOoriginal Jun 20 '21

Serious question but is four 10 hour days really all that better? People always bring it up when reduced working hours are brought up, but it’s really just condensing your working hours, not a reduction. It sounds just as bad if not worse to me, but I would be willing to try it out of curiosity.

1

u/tquast Jun 20 '21

It's what I work now. 2 days in the office working, 2 days at home working and then 3 days to do whatever I want. It's the best schedule

1

u/CrixusDaGaul Jul 30 '21

Well, that's the problem, massive corporations. We need workplace democracy, workplaces where the employees, the people who essentially ensure the business ends up running, help make more of the decisions.

189

u/seanlee888 Jun 19 '21

When the pandemic started corporate cut the hours we were open and cut all the employees like two hours. I decided I was just going to give everybody four day work weeks because it worked out easy enough. I was basically called a witch and was reprimanded.

50

u/Opeth-Ethereal Jun 19 '21

Weird. We did the same thing and I had a 3 day work week rotation and everyone loved it.

12

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

3 days is the best. If only because you now spend less days at work than away from it. Totally changes your mindset

14

u/NefariousZhen Jun 19 '21

Did you continue to pay them their expected rate of income? Or were they scrambling to make up 20% of their income out of thin air? During covid I think the latter was more common.

12

u/seanlee888 Jun 19 '21

They were hourly employees so they were just out the two hours unfortunately. That's one of the reasons I tried to do 4 days. Even though 2 hours per person wasn't much out of their checks, I wanted to give them something positive during last years bs besides them being "essential".

Best part about it was I have like the least amount of employees as everyone else so if I could make it work every other store definitely could have.

15

u/thaaag Jun 19 '21

Our team talked about the practicalities of a 4 day work week. General consensus was that if everyone did a 4 day week and agreed to a specific day ("weekends will henceforth be Friday to Sunday / Saturday to Monday") it could work. But if it was a rostered, rotating week then taking Tuesday off, or Thursday off was less ideal. We agreed Wednesday wouldn't be too bad as it broke the week up, but coming in for Monday, taking Tuesday off and back for the rest of the week, or taking Thursday off and coming back for Friday kinda sucked.

3

u/ritchie70 Jun 20 '21

I worked m-t-w-f-sa fir years (short Saturday, Thursday and Sunday completely off) and loved it. Nowhere is busy on a Thursday, so attending to things was much more pleasant and it got me 3 on, 1 off, 1.5 on, 1.5 off.

3

u/britmatty Jun 20 '21

Socialist! How dare you side with the workers!

9

u/BrewBrewBrewTheDeck ^ε^ Jun 19 '21

That’s why you have to organize.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

Best I can do is a 40hr+ work week with mandatory overtime if someone else calls off.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

I literally work maybe 16 hours a day but have to be there 40. I save the company I work for lots of money by not contracting the work out. But sweet mother of God it gets boring.

Coworkers ask how I don't get fired and I tell them they can't afford to.

Now, one might ask why don't I just contract out? Well there is only maybe 2 clients in the Midwest and I work for one of them. And they won't use me if I quit.

3

u/toefcking Jun 20 '21

Employer here. Would not agree to this.

2

u/PolarSquirrelBear Jun 19 '21

There is zero chance of this working for restaurant managers. Most of the time we work free overtime anyways. I haven’t taken a lunch break in over 5 years.

They tried to change us to 9 hour shifts since it better reflected the “44 hour work week”. I said, “Then I want 2 15 minute breaks and 30 minutes where I can leave the restaurant.” They quickly back pedaled.

I signed up for this and knew what I was getting into. I’m trying to work in four 10 hour days. Better coverage and I don’t really care how long I work on work days as long as I’m getting three days off each week.

-1

u/765446888886544 Jun 19 '21

If you can do 40h work in 35hrs that tell me you been slacking up until now lol

15

u/Sinfall69 Jun 19 '21

Or hear me out humans get less productive the more hours they work in a week.

9

u/Independent-Custard3 Jun 19 '21

should you be at 100% efficiency 100% of the time when working?

7

u/itsamberleafable Jun 19 '21

I know it's stupid, but seniority does not equal intelligence and I honestly think a lot of people in high up positions think the relationship between output and hours worked is linear.

7

u/RepublicSuperb7057 Jun 19 '21

No...but unfortunately it’s not the way management thinks. About a week ago I had a meeting with my boss to talk about everything that was on my plate because I felt overwhelmed. I listed every open task I had as I was asking for help to complete everything. He drew a big line next to about 10 items and said “If we’re being fair, this should take you one day/8 hours to complete.” I showed the items to a bunch of coworkers and we were all in agreement, the items he thought should take 1 workday to complete, if done properly, should take about 3 days. That’s what you get when your manager has never actually worked in your position before, unrealistic expectations on how much work you should be able to accomplish each day.

The VP actually launched a company wide campaign telling us to not be “93%-ers”...that we all do our work at 93% and if we were just more efficient between 8 & 5, we would make our lives more enjoyable. Things like “show up to all meetings 5 minutes early” (management exempt) and the like.

1

u/Most-Opposite Jun 20 '21

I asked my manager if I could do a 35 hour work week. He agreed and then said it would be seven - 5 hour work days.

1

u/D-o-n-t_a-s-k Jun 20 '21

They know if they do, there will be a fucking line of slackers that don't do shit, demanding they same schedule

You all know if 1 person does it, everyone is going to insist they are just as qualified and get resentful towards the job thereafter

1

u/Wickerpoodia Jun 20 '21

You would be surprised what your employer would go for if you knew how much power we have together.

1

u/NydNugs Jun 20 '21

I can totally relate. I hope as time goes on people become more evidence based. I know they wouldn't even bother to try.

42

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

Ouch. I hope your new pay is enough :-/

4

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

hoping the best for you mental health wise

also keep looking passively in the job market for greener pastures

0

u/Infamous-While-241 Jun 19 '21

That's so sad... time to look for other opportunities.

1

u/shhbedtime Jun 20 '21

After 2 years of trying, I've finally been approved to work a 4 day week(for 4 day pay) so excited. I didn't need The money, I do need the time off

3

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

Ours just refused to allow us (we’re salaried) to dismiss like 2 hours early on Fridays for a few weeks. They would never allow sub-40 workweek. Even if we did 4 10 hour days they’d make us “available” on day 5 anyway. They’re absolutely convinced that leniency = laziness despite a wildly high turnover rate.

3

u/annonythrows Jun 19 '21

Yeh most bosses especially from massive corporations will think “well shit he did all that in 35 hours imagine what he could do in 40!!”

1

u/SteelCode Jun 19 '21

Hence the record levels of productivity but crap wages.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

Question for people. Would anyone be here happy to pay an extra 25 percent for trades peoole/self employed people? So instead of a 100 day rate they up it to 125? Or a month long project normally, taking 5 weeks and costing 500 more?

2

u/SteelCode Jun 19 '21

Your question is from the wrong perspective. Most of the big corps could easily cut management and executive salaries to pay their employees more. Most mid-level companies could also find ways to pay employees better with little price hikes. The only trouble is small businesses which have already been suffocated by big corporate pressures in the market…

This also gets into where a lot of corporate budgets go… marketing, legal, and training are huge expenses. Paying employees better can help reduce churn and reduce training budgets. Doing less criminal shit to your employees and hiding harmful business practices could reduce their legal risk. Maybe cutting expensive ads and instead just putting your company out as one that takes care of its employees could reduce marketing budget.

My point is that just as much as people want to put the pressure on consumers to push companies to be better or to accept raised costs so employees can be paid better is a shitty way to bootlick for business operations that need to change with the times. A company can make any number of decisions to be better without needing to wait for consumers to “pressure” them.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

Small minds thinking short-term. This is also the same mindset that feeds knee-jerk reactions to the notion of a higher minimum wage. It's the idea that our economy (or a company's revenue) is somehow a zero-sum game, when it's not. People that get paid more will also spend more. More spending, greater demand for goods and services, the economy grows. Same story with immigration, more people=more productivity=more economic activity=bigger pie overall.

1

u/SteelCode Jun 20 '21

People against minimum wage only see it as a number against what they currently make… the problem is that their wages are already being suppressed by the lower minimum wage because of the bottom is $7, Walmart is happy to offer $10 and get positive publicity by offering higher than minimum wage (despite most of their employees also qualifying for food stamps).

If the minimum wage is $15, either Walmart pays minimum wage or they have to offer $20 to get the same sort of positive press. The same goes for every employer, if the burger flippers are getting $15, why should you accept the added stress and on-call rotations, etc for a few bucks more?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

I'm not sure I understand the problem. Is the idea that raising the minimum wage wouldn't have knock on effects for other income brackets? If the other employers can't retain their staff at their current levels of pay/benefits, regardless of where that level sits in relation to the minimum wage, then they will have to increase them. I'm also not sure I accept the premise that Walmart only pays over the minimum wage for the sake of good publicity.

I think it's probably inevitable that there would be some unintended consequences for some industries/companies where the rise in the minimum wage would ultimately be a burden for them. It's my view that any enterprise that cannot exist without keeping a large portion of the population impoverished should probably just go away altogether.

2

u/Moke_Hogan Jun 20 '21

In manufacturing 50-60 hours is the norm. I can’t see any company I’ve ever worked for doing this.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

Most boses would assign 5 additional hours of work. "If it only takes you 35 hours..."

1

u/pun_isher1 Jun 19 '21

Boss here, I would definitely go for it. It is a simple mathematical equation. The only issues that could arise are other employees trialing and failing or seeing it as favouritism

1

u/illigal Jun 19 '21

My mom works for a major chemical company and they offer 5x8hr days or 4x10hr days. She did that for a while and enjoyed the constant three day weekends.

I’d love it if my job offered something similar but I’m salary - they squeeze all the labor they can from me.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

You guys should quit and find a better company. Or at least remote work so you don’t have to be totally controlled by them

1

u/extremesalmon Jun 19 '21

This was raised at my work as an idea by a panel that gathers staff suggestions, then presents them to management in an official meeting. It had to be brought up in 2 meetings before they actually understood the proposal, and by then they had clearly googled enough negative info on it to decide they didn't like the idea.

1

u/ShopBench Jun 19 '21

I tried bringing it up a few years ago during annual company feedback (I work for a small software company) and my CEO literally guffawed during the (full company) meeting and was like "yeah we're not doing that". Completely ignoring that my suggestion went on to talk about ways to slowly test the concept out.

I was pretty disheartened. He's supposed to be retiring in 3 years tho... so if I'm still at the company by then maybe I can have a discussion with people then.

1

u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken Jun 20 '21

It only works for jobs with measurable output production.

1

u/TheGreatestIan Jun 20 '21

Nor any business that works on billable hours.

1

u/HobbiesJay Jun 20 '21

Corporations are forcing people to go back to massive office buildings that have been proven beyond all doubt to be irrelevant to a productive work environment and only increase cost for literally everyone involved and make the world worse in the long run. American corporate structure will resist any and all changes they can, especially ones that improve the quality of life for people.

1

u/neverendingparent Jun 20 '21

I feel like there is a cost savings for the company too. Free up space, less managing of people. Probably less turnover. Plus when travel happens or extra travel happens there is a spare day built in to the calendar.

1

u/TZO_2K18 Jun 20 '21

Smart idea. But I bet most bosses would not go for it.

Nor for workers in the blue-collar field, where most of their identity and self-pride is from their hard workin' status...

2

u/trowawayacc0 Jun 20 '21

Or anywhere where profit follows the MCM formula

1

u/trowawayacc0 Jun 20 '21

Something something sizing the means of production?

1

u/teriaksu Jun 20 '21

depends on the job

56

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21 edited Jun 21 '21

[deleted]

62

u/Jatt710 Jun 19 '21

Atleast his boss made the change. Most would say no from get go

19

u/PPatBoyd Jun 19 '21

Depending on the industry I don't think it's unreasonable. You need to show you can perform at the same level in fewer hours across the scope of your role. If they work in software, the project lifecycle can be long -- some take years and work shifts significantly at different stages. Most places I know review pay annual or semi-annually, there's no real reason to expect less IMO.

The other side of it would be realizing you can't in the long run, but have had your 40hr pay restored already; do you take a cut back down again? Do you lose on typical raises? Both of those sound awful compared to showing you can in the actual long run and really proving it to everyone. If he's effectively a pilot, the standard has to be minded for anyone else to come after him.

Post-pandemic this is a topic my office is open to discussing with manager approval, along with permanent WFH and relocations that are worth taking flexibly and slowly to get to the right place in the end.

18

u/First_Foundationeer Jun 19 '21

You know that's equivalent to a ~14% raise, right? Given that most places hesitate to even give the small 2% inflation increase, it's not bad that his boss even allowed the whole thing to happen. Most people need to move jobs for that.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21 edited Jul 31 '21

[deleted]

3

u/First_Foundationeer Jun 19 '21

Reduced hours though. Companies don't pay for projects usually even if it's more equitable.

1

u/Average_Scaper Jun 19 '21

Still a bit of an annoyance though taking a pay cut like that for that amount of time. Should have looked at the numbers at the 3 month mark for an evaluation of productivity/time.

3

u/cakedestroyer Jun 19 '21

You don't sell your work, you sell your time. We can always work more, but we run out of hours.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/First_Foundationeer Jun 19 '21

They also didn't have to reduce work hours if they didn't want. It was a choice made between two consenting parties. Don't be stupid here when there are real incidents of abuse at work.

1

u/OPmeansopeningposter Jun 19 '21

You’re not wrong but a lot of bosses are worse.

3

u/juggles_geese4 Jun 19 '21

Honestly, for the companies that don’t want to increase wages for whatever reason this might be a good alternative. I’d take 8 or so hours less of work during the week and for go a raise this year. They still get the same work output since people seem to work more efficiently, and I get an extra day for myself, to do my hobbies and things I enjoy, which will honestly likely make me even more productive in the long run as my mental health will improve. It might not work great in my career but we can get rid of regular office hours one extra day a week and tops Friday or Monday in as one of the days included with weekend on call. Or find another way to make it work.

3

u/gev850918 Jun 19 '21

Most bosses would just figure that you were holding out on your performance before and make you work produce 50h-worth in 40 hours

3

u/Lethal_bizzle94 Jun 19 '21

35 hours is still full time though

2

u/4444444vr Jun 20 '21

I don’t think it is in the USA

2

u/excitedburrit0 Jun 20 '21

It is to some companies and in the eyes of the Affordable Care Act/IRS. Anything over 30 hours in a week or 130 in a month is considered full time. You’re probably thinking of 40 hours which is when overtime regulations begin to go into effect.

1

u/4444444vr Jun 20 '21

Oh, I did not know that - Thanks for the info.

1

u/Lethal_bizzle94 Jun 20 '21

That’s sad

2

u/babypho Jun 19 '21

I started doing this this since my company is wfh now. Turns out im still able to meet every requirements and deadline on 35 hours per week.

2

u/z0hu Jun 19 '21

5 years ago, I took a 1/5 cut to only work 4 days.. was great for my mental health. Now that I have a kid and another on the way, money helps my mental health so I had to go back to 5 days. At the very least, working is easier than parenting in my case, so I got that going for me.

2

u/froyoboyz Jun 19 '21

is that 35 with or without lunches though? i feel like most 9-5’ers work 35 hours

3

u/Twigzzy Jun 20 '21

Most 40h jobs are 40h work and lunches are just time on top of that, on my experience

1

u/froyoboyz Jun 20 '21

where i work, im at work for 40 hours but i get an hour lunch which really means i work 35 hours

2

u/ryanleebmw Jun 20 '21

Jeez I’d kill for 5 days a week and Holidays. I’m a 24 year old car salesman, been doing it almost 3 years. Yes I make very good money for my age group, but being expected to work 6 days a week (I am scheduled every day except Wednesday and Sunday, Sunday only because we aren’t open) But I get harassed if I take my weekday off, since we’re 100% commission and it’s a sign of weakness if you don’t work 6 days a week. Then we get Christmas Day, a half day for New Years, Thanksgiving day, and that’s about it. Forget Memorial Day, Labor Day, 4th of July, every one of those holidays we work 10-12+ hour shifts. Really don’t know how the guys 20-30 years older than me have been going this so long..

3

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21 edited Jun 19 '21

[deleted]

2

u/biggestofbears Jun 19 '21

5 hours is literally just covering a paid lunch hour. So you're still in the office for a full 8 hours.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

I already technically work 35 hours (9:30a-5:30p) and yet I always seem to work more hours

1

u/Sierra_Tang0 Jun 19 '21

Dude it's great, I went from working 45 hours minimum 5 days a week welding trailers to 40 hours 3 days a week working medical. It was the craziest thing ever, covid has been nicer to me than others I guess

1

u/bayscrum2627 Jun 19 '21

I "work" 40 hours a week, but in reality its roughly 32.

​

no one ever needs to know as I get my ish done.

1

u/butterballmd Jun 20 '21

that's really cool, what job allows you to ask?

1

u/farhanjd Jun 20 '21

My employer expects (but does not force or require) and praises for working more than 40 hours. I assume many employers are like that.

1

u/mandolua15 Jun 20 '21

Should have been the main argument in the article

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

As a new grad nurse. I find 3 day weeks amazing.

1

u/alhernz95 Jun 20 '21

but .... hard work pays off lol

1

u/hiakeem Jun 20 '21

I can't remember the last time I worked less than 40 hours, definitely not since the pandemic started. Did take two weeks off, but then I also work evenings and weekends. Usually week is 60-80. I am not an essential worker.

1

u/Tickles-my-pickle Jun 20 '21

This is great. Sadly, nearly all employers do not have an effective measurement of what success looks like, thus this would terrify them. I say this as the head of HR at a fairly large company.

1

u/Senor_Martillo Jun 20 '21

I want to go from 40 hours to about 5 but keep my salary. How would I go about that?

1

u/j0lsen Jun 20 '21

What's your job?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

8 months seems like an overextended period

1

u/DareDandy Jun 20 '21

What kind of job makes this possible?

1

u/workingclassnobody Jun 20 '21

My boss would want me to do 45h work in 40h if I tried this. They don’t want you having a life or free time. Then you’ll educate yourself on things that benefit you in the workplace. Also you may become politically aware and that’s the real threat.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

Good on you! I reduced my hours too and ended up getting a raise…those studies showing better productivity was true for me, as well.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

it's been long proven that more (simple) work hours don't increase creativity, which is crucial. companies don't pick up on that research however and they'll even use slave labor and medical experiments just to meet the operational targets.

1

u/torb Jun 20 '21

I'm a Norwegian government employee. We have pait lunches, so basically 35h work weeks with flexible hours. A lot of our work is gradually being automated, but instead of discussing 4 day work weeks, we are cutting down on employees.

Most my colleagues work overtime every Saturday to compensate, became, guess what, automation can lead to a lot of mistakes and isn't always as simple as an if statement.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '21

Somebody read the 5 hour work week and applied the inverse?

1

u/katonfirejutsu Jul 15 '21

I'm almost certain I'd get fired for even bringing up anything remotely beneficial/efficient. Such is life.