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by atspcohn 5172 days ago
I am the writer of the post and I completely support flexible work hours. Personally, I work 8:15 - 6 pm. I then go home and see my children before bed time and eat dinner with my wife. I also spend great time on the weekends with them. What I don’t do is sit in front of a TV very much being a couch potato. So my work time comes out of my personal time. Not my time with my kids.
2 comments
Retric 5172 days ago
The problem with working more hours has nothing to do with getting stuff done. The most productive code is code you don't write which you don't need to test, debug, deploy, or maintain. I have worked half as long as someone else, I produced 1/3 the code, and 1/6th the bugs. Eventually he left and I re-implemented some of their systems in 1/4th the time.

We had similar backgrounds and he was intelligent and capable, but nobody is thinking strait after an 11+ hour day. And once you start falling behind there is this tendency to either work on meaningless crap to feel productive or add just one more hack for an edge case to close out some, bug you don't really understand.

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njs12345 5172 days ago
Sounds like you make your time work for you. So do I, I've had plenty of days where the clock hits 4 and I feel mentally drained and know I'm not going to get much done, and I go home. I don't work well in the morning either, so I often come in at 10. I do work very well in the evening (10-11pm) so sometimes I'll a bit of work then, if something comes to mind.

Nobody's ever complained about the amount of work I get done. The problem I have with this article is that it assumes the more hours you work the more you get done, when it's just not that simple.

Obviously this is personal experience. What I'm trying to say is that everybody's different --- the Treehouse guys are working a 4 day week with $3m a year in revenues. You can't just say 'well, if they worked a 5 day week that'd be an extra 25% more work for them' any more than you can say 'an extra 25% more work will lead to an extra 25% more in revenues for them'.

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atspcohn 5172 days ago
you are referencing flexible work hours, which is very different then what I am discussing. I couldn't care less when my developers work. if they want to leave at 4 pm and work late in the evenings, all good.
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