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The day is dawning on a four-day work week:
A true four-day workweek entails full-timers clocking about 30 hours instead of 40. There are many reasons why this is appealing today: families are struggling to cover child care in the absence of daycares and schools; workplaces are trying to reduce the number of employees congregating in offices each day; and millions of people have lost their jobs.
A shorter work week could allow parents to cobble together child care, allow workplaces to stagger attendance and, theoretically, allow the available work to be divided among more people who need employment.
The most progressive shorter work week entails no salary reductions. This sounds crazy, but it rests on peer-reviewed research into shorter work weeks, which finds workers can be as productive in 30 hours as they are in 40, because they waste less time and are better-rested.
30 hours is for pikers. The !Kung work about 20.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by richtopia on Friday June 05 2020, @07:51PM (22 children)
Most of my friends and colleagues (mostly engineers) are more busy than ever. I would be willing to take a pay cut to guarantee working 30 hours a week, but I would expect the typical salaried position mantra of "pay for 40hours/week, expect 60" to still apply.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @08:31PM (13 children)
If office staff and middle management were on a 30 hr week they'd waste less of everyone elses time.
More people will be telecommuting post-Corona, that much is certain.
(Score: 4, Funny) by meustrus on Friday June 05 2020, @08:35PM (5 children)
I knew what you meant after 2 seconds, but for those first 2 seconds, I was imagining telecommuting after having a beer. Benefits of working from home, I guess.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 06 2020, @04:56AM
I think it'll take a lot of Corona before you stop imagining that. Depends on body weight and your tolerance to alcohol, I suppose.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Saturday June 06 2020, @05:57PM (3 children)
Oddly enough I've actually found alcohol makes me a lot more productive at some intellectual tasks. First discovered it near the end of my college career, when I realized I could do high-level math homework far faster and more accurately after a drink or two (sure wish I had made that discovery years earlier!). A lot more fun too, it works for some kinds of programming, design, and other work too. It's a bit of a balancing act - too much and I rapidly become useless, but I think it may have something to do with relying far more heavily heavily on intuition rather than logic, in a domain I know well enough for solid intuition. And maybe because I'm enjoying myself more - things usually seem to flow better when I'm in a good mood.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @06:02PM
I've found that some of my most productive days are when I am very tired. I think it numbs me to peripheral distractions so I can completely focus on the task at hand.
(Score: 3, Informative) by krishnoid on Saturday June 06 2020, @07:18PM (1 child)
You are definitely not alone [observer.com].
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday June 06 2020, @09:59PM
Cool! Thanks for the info.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @01:30AM (6 children)
Middle management should be the most watched entity. Those people can destroy a company with a stroke of their pen by destroying and demotivating the workforce.
It may take years to groom a prospective workman, but only seconds in front of a "leadership" type to undo it all.
"My contribution is despised. There is no I in "team". What I do doesn't mean a thing. I'm just rocking the boat, re-inventing the wheel. And the guy wearing the tie will only hate me for trying to do it the way I think I have to do it to make it work.".
Just keep the tie guy happy, and make junk. Investors don't care if the thing works, they want to shake hands with men for whom private jets await.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @01:53AM (1 child)
You just described every workplace I've ever been in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @02:57AM
At the risk of a redundant mod, that has been my experience as well.
If you know how to do stuff, go independent.
If you don't, suck up until you do.
(Score: 5, Funny) by slap on Saturday June 06 2020, @04:28AM
[quote]There is no I in "team".[/quote]
But there are three U's in "Shut The Fuck Up".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @06:25AM (1 child)
TEAM, there is definitely an 'i' in it. Its in the a-hole.
Although, that joke works better on a more monospaced and horizontally-compressed font, like fixedsys or terminus.
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Saturday June 06 2020, @11:32PM
There is no "I" in team, but there is a "me." Therefore the "team" must work harder to cater to "me."
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday June 06 2020, @01:23PM
You’re right, there is far to much of that, especially in tech when you stick an MBA type in a leadership position.
On the other hand, there are managers who actually are technically competent, but have to spend a lot of effort getting some individual contributors to stop chasing squirrels, and start focusing on the objective without bruising their egos.
Middle managers do get a pass far too often, though. I’ll grant you that.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday June 05 2020, @08:51PM (7 children)
You just outlined perfectly the reason that I went independent contractor years ago and never looked back. Yes, my total income is much lower, especially after taxes, but I don't have a morning commute, spend far less time on it, work when and how I want to most of the time, and am generally treated far better by my clients than when I was a salaryman.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @10:04PM (5 children)
I guess that makes sense if you have many clients. But if you just have one employer that wants to put you under a 1099, and not a W2, I find that they treat you much worse. I would much rather be with an employer that puts me under a W2. I guess the fact that the employer wants to put you under a 1099 when they should really put you under a W2 says something about the character of the person that they are and so it isn't that surprising they aren't the type of person that would treat you well.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @10:15PM (3 children)
(sorry, obviously I should have mentioned what I meant is that if you just have one full time employer that wants to work you 40+ hours a week on a regular basis, sometimes 60+ a week, but they put you under a 1099. They tend to be the most demanding and least compromising. They give you all of the disadvantages of being an employee, like having to show up every day on time and needing to call off ahead of time and not being expected to call off very often and sometimes needing you to stay over and being called last minute on your days off or making you come in earlier than normal last minute on a given day and constantly changing your hours whenever they see fit, while giving you none of the advantages. And they also want to pay you little while not paying overtime rates if you work overtime. Funny thing is after you leave their company they call you weeks later and are suddenly willing to negotiate wages but by then it's too late).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 06 2020, @05:04AM (2 children)
Let's see [myemploymentrights.com]:
Just because someone wants something doesn't mean that they get it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @04:46PM (1 child)
I know but I am not going to go through all the trouble of suing them. Easier to just find another job.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 06 2020, @06:03PM
You can also report [dol.gov] them. The problem here is that when the employee is complicit in the crime with the employer, then why should the rest of us care? To me, that sort of cooperative behavior could be a sign that labor laws are too strict (depending on how prevalent it is).
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday June 06 2020, @11:17AM
If you have 1 employer who wants to pay you as a 1099 contractor, especially if that employer is putting all the same demands on you that they would an employee like setting your hours and controlling exactly how you do your job, then odds are pretty good you are being misclassified [dol.gov], which is illegal but not uncommon. So that employer is announcing to you that they're perfectly willing to break labor laws, and you should avoid working for them if you can.
That's not the kind of situation I was describing at all, though: My transition to contractor was the result of an agency willing to set me up with a 20-hour a week gig that covered my basic expenses, then I used the other 20 hours of my work day to find and do contract work, and slowly build up a base of regulars until I didn't need the 20-hour-a-week gig anymore.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 06 2020, @01:59AM
I went independendent for the same reason.
It had become painfully obvious to me that corporate hiring departments had no way of dealing with people who know what they are good at, and what they suck at. They excel in finding those who will say anything to get a check.
Those of us who know what we are doing are best left to our own means. The corporate guy gets the rest...until they wise up.