[aerosmile]

There are a lot of things in this world that are not rooted in rational/pragmatic concerns. For example, in the automotive industry, a lot of the margin comes from upper-end variants of any given model, which are perhaps 10% more capable as the base model but cost disproportionally more and are a lot more desirable. Why do people go for that? Emotional reasons. Are the $2,000 vintage Nikes worth that much, especially if you end up actually wearing them? Depends on if you're deciding on a rational or emotional basis.

A lot of this translates to the work environment. Someone making $300k might feel exceptionally rewarded for their work, until they find out that their peer makes $320k. Suddenly that $300k no longer looks that desirable anymore. Call it an innate quest for justice, call it culture shock, call it whatever you want - if you cannot see why your individual arrangement might produce a net negative result for the rest of the company, then you're ignoring the reality.

You just have to implement certain rules and treat everyone the same. You're either a full-time company, or you're a part-time company. You're either an on-site company, or you're a remote company. If you allow hybrid, you have to allow it for everyone. And if one person gets to work 20 hours a week, then it needs to be a 0-friction process for everyone else to transition to the same arrangement if they so desire. From a staffing point of view, that last part is an absolute managerial nightmare ("sorry, the project will be pushed back by 12 months because all of our engineers decided to move to part-time, and we cannot hire new engineers, because the existing staff may also move back to full-time at any given point").

There is, however, a solution for you - just work for extremely well-funded early-stage startups, because their CEOs will be more than glad to rock the boat internally in exchange for your skills and experience that they would be otherwise struggling to find in a full-time hire. By the time that startup scales and their CEO starts thinking about culture and retention, you'll be off to the next boat that you can rock as hard you'd like.

[kuboble]

In Switzerland it is extremely popular to work part-time in IT. To the point that most men I know have reduced to 4/5 when they became parents and most women to 3/5.

The deal in companies is that it's relatively easy to reduce your work % but it's a one way street. To get back your manager needs to find a budget the same way as if they were hiring (but I don't know anyone who did want to increase it back).

Seems to work well.

[the_gipsy]

Are these figures x/5 weekdays, a range of daily hours, or something else?

[PythagoRascal]

In Switzerland jobs are usually advertised in %, where 40h-45h/week is 100%. From that it is also usual to talk about 80% or 4/5days/week (and so on for other percentages).

[the-alchemist]

Fascinating! I heard the Netherlands has a strong part-time job culture too.

[Vinnl]

Only if you consider 32/36 hours as part time - the culture is strong in the sense that those are often considered full time as well, and are therefore allowed, but getting a job with fewer hours than that (eg for a three-day work week) will be a lot more difficult.

[Aeolun]

I’ve worked anything from 24-32 hours a week in the Netherlands, but never 40.

Salaries (even full-time) are crap though.

[makapuf]

I (a man) was 4/5 when my kids were small but I'm currently 9/10. Contractually it's yearly, but it ends up weekly. 9/10 tends to be difficult to distinguish from full time, since you get more focused after this mid week break.

[exdsq]

I think if I was to go for 9/10 I’d argue for 10/10 salaries because as you mention it’s practically indistinguishable

[hocuspocus]

It depends on your job and responsibilities.

I've had managers/POs/PMs/... work 90% and simply take every Friday afternoon off.

But if you're a dev then yes, taking half a day off is pretty meaningless. I see it as a way to force yourself to take 22-23 additional days of vacation, and at least two of these every month.

[kuboble]

Depends on the company but I've seen all possible deals. - 4x8h a week - 5x6h a week - fully flexible 50% to reach each quarter