[rch]

Haven't tried it myself, but I like the idea of working a 9/80 with every other Friday off. One interesting effect is that those who are in the office on Friday end up feeling more productive or relaxed since there are fewer people around. I also wonder if every other Monday off might be better in some cases.

[nostrademons]

My sister did 9/80s. They were pretty nice when she first moved to the area, but the problem is that you have to take them off on a Friday and it's use-it-or-lose-it. Now that she's married, it's pretty rare that her husband gets time off when she does, and so the extra Friday was basically just a "sit at home in front of the TV day and veg", while the 9 hour days meant that it was an hour less time to spend with her husband in the evenings. I think she's switched back to a regular schedule now.

I have some former coworkers that effectively did 9/80s as well, since they maxed out their vacation and started taking every other Friday off so they wouldn't lose it. It usually worked better, ironically, for people without many hobbies, since they were okay with just sitting at home and vegging for Friday.

4-day weekends could be great if all of society moved to them, but they're tricky when it's just some employers because the people you love aren't around to hang out with. I actually tend to prefer taking Wednesday off; a veg-day to break the week in half seems much more relaxing than a 3-day weekend where you can't do anything fun for one of the days.