[cm2012]

I did a poll of HN a while back and the average HNer spends about 6 hours a day doing work of any sort (including meetings, etc.) Only 25% did more than 8 hours a day, and 25% did 4 or less. Seniority had no effect on time spent working.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

The problem is, if you're an employer and you went to a 6 hour workday:

1) you lose out on the people that can and do work 8 hours. 2) the people that only work a percentage of the 8 hours are only going to work a percentage of the 6 hours, and you'll lose out there as well.

Sure, you might say, we should just work less hours and hire more people. With 3.7% unemployment, that's easier said than done.

[6gvONxR4sf7o]

3) It would be a more desirable job. Retention goes up and maybe you can get better people. Your employees are happier and so are their families. When you have to do "crunch time" people are less bitter.

[Viliam1234]

What if you offer a 6-hour workday, and people who want to work less than 6 hours will apply... because this is still the best existing alternative for them? The retention goes up, but your employees will be unhappy, because they actually wanted less than 6 hours.

Meanwhile, the company that requires 8 hours will get a lot of people who are okay with working 8 hours (if that includes 2 or 4 hours on social networks), and a few people who are not okay with that, but still happier than your employees on average.

[SketchySeaBeast]

You could argue moving to more workable hours with that line of thinking then.

[SkyPuncher]

I had a contract gig over the past two years that pretty much equalled out to 6 hours/day.

I'm pretty sure I was within 10% of my full-time productivity. If I wasn't being productive, I simply went and did something else for a bit.