[yarg]

This sort of snarky response fails to consider the actual benefits - for both the employer and the employee.

Often by the end of the week, people in complex positions are well past the point of diminishing returns - pushing them harder may work in the short-term, but it's a recipe for burnout.

It's better to have someone operating closer to their peek performance for longer - even if you sacrifice a day overall.

[t-writescode]

As I've been working for myself, this is exactly what I've noticed. The exhaustion and stress of pushing myself "another day" for "just another feature" is absolutely not worth the burnout that comes immediately after.

[yarg]

Oh no man - that's just regular exhaustion.

Burnout's more insidious and pernicious than that - and it takes far more than a few days of rest to get over it.

[BizarroLand]

2 days off for the weekend just isn't enough to fully recuperate once you're in the burnout zone.

I think if I were to be fired I would like to take 2-3 months off to build up before I started looking for a new job, but that's only possible due to having some savings I could tap into.

Back of the napkin calculations say I would need about $4,000/month liquid cash to not be in danger. Add another 1 month barrier in and I would need $16,000 on hand to take 3 months off assuming that I got another equally paying job almost immediately.