Interestingly, when I was at Amazon, I talked to one of the part time SWE managers. I expressed my surprised that the program wasn't more popular. He said most engineers just aren't that interested in the idea unless they're going through some major life event that requires their time, like a new baby or sick relative.
Perhaps only a cultural shift of the entire company to 4 day weeks would get everyone on board with the idea, without feeling like they're risking getting left behind and jumping to the top of the future layoff list.
With manager approval, you can go down to as low as 60% time (and equivalent total comp reduction). I believe it's called flextime internally.
Amazon has also been experimenting for years with teams of 32 hour/week SWEs. https://www.amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/part-time-tech
Interestingly, when I was at Amazon, I talked to one of the part time SWE managers. I expressed my surprised that the program wasn't more popular. He said most engineers just aren't that interested in the idea unless they're going through some major life event that requires their time, like a new baby or sick relative.
Perhaps only a cultural shift of the entire company to 4 day weeks would get everyone on board with the idea, without feeling like they're risking getting left behind and jumping to the top of the future layoff list.