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by statquontrarian 992 days ago
I've had a 3 day work week for years (at 20 hours per week) and I love it. I feel like I'm more productive than before, too. Not just productivity per hour, but total productivity. I was surprised by this result since I'm working half the hours per week.
2 comments

When applying for senior positions, a 4-day work week is already quite an ask. I feel like the whole agile/scrum approach is so deeply rooted into modern companies that ironically they are unable to adapt.

We had somebody in a different timezone join the team and there was a long discussion about when we should do stand ups. I almost suggested just dropping it, but that would have been heresy.

Did anyone suggest doing standups asynchronously, for instance, over Slack?
I'm a senior software engineer, but, yes, there are lots of complexities. 3 day work weeks might only work for top performers, but a lot of them never ask.
Is that generalizable, though?

Most people I know who are working under 30 hours a week do not qualify for important benefits such as health insurance.

Are you benefiting from a partner's income and health plan, or are you able to sustain yourself entirely on your own income?

And out of curiosity ... how do you spend the extra 4 days per week?

I'm earning half my previous salary, and I'm single, so it was definitely an adjustment. I had heard about the 30 hour per week cutoff for benefits, but I was surprised that my company was able to provide full benefits at 20 hours per week. It's a very large company, so I know they're following all the laws properly. Maybe the ones that require a minimum of 30 simply aren't up-to-date on the latest laws.

It probably helps to be a top performer and have years of experience. But if I were to be let go tomorrow, I'm sure it'll be difficult to find again. But I'm going to try! Never hurts to try when you know what you want.

I keep a low profile but the extra days per week are fun to fill! There does seem to be some sort of mental flip between 3 days and 4 days because I know that the majority of my week is whatever I want to do versus the majority (or vast majority) being work.