[philmcp]

I think offering positions on a 4 day week (e.g. 32hrs) is one possible solution.

Developers are more burnt out than ever whilst needing less money to live. Remote work generally reduces living costs: no travel expenses, no expensive lunches, no expensive coffees etc.

A 4 day week reduces burnout at a time when many developers are spending less. Of course, the best outcome would be 4 day roles @ 100% salary, but often this isn't possible.

I honestly believe in years to come we will look down on the 5 day working week in the same way we currently do with 15hr factory shifts during the industrial revolution. It blows my mind that 99% of office roles are still 5 days / week, Monday to Friday - why is there basically no variation on this model?

It annoys me so much that I've just launched https://www.fourdayweek.io/ (shameless plug)

[goxygini]

You could consider coming to Switzerland. Working 32hrs/week is very popular there. For example jobs.ch has 7368 offers in IT right now and 2138 of them have the "80%" option.

[angrais]

I get it and agree that four day work week would be nice for mental health, potentially productivity, etc.

My question to you: why 4 days? Why not 3? Why not 2? Seems as arbitrary as 5.

[anilgulecha]

Seems like the least threatening option to the status-quo.

[sul_tasto]

For some reason, our management is still under the impression that we’re being paid for the amount of time we are available, rather than the value we produce. Our company sent us all to agile training 18 months ago, but our managers seem to be the only ones who didn’t pass the cert test.

[geoduck14]

I think there are some very real cultural limitations around a 4 day (10 hr) work day. For one, my kids need to be picked up from school and they need to eat dinner.

Perhaps in 18 years, when I'm an empty nester, I can revisit this opinion.

[kshacker]

Talking of cultural limitations and extending them to other examples, what if I am able to work 6 days? Can I do 7 hours on 5 days and 5 hours on the 6th to make up the 40? Or how about I work just 35 hours a week?

Why would I do that? ... just saying. Maybe my family needs allow me to spend only 7 dedicated hours (plus commute) for work.

I think the corporations will go crazy coordinating such things. Retail where this happens is quite different and continuity of 1-person to another may not be important there, but in many corporate roles, continuity is important.

[philmcp]

Sorry, I wasn't talking about a compressed 5 day week. I was talking about 4 x 8hr days @ 80% of salary. There are many companies starting to offer this, some at full salary.

[geoduck14]

Oh, I hadn't considered that!