Would You Like a Four-Day Work Week?

Here's an interesting question:

Would you like a four-day work week?

No, you wouldn't work fewer hours, you'd simply work four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days (like anyone works only 40 hours a week anymore, right?)

The WSJ discusses the fact that Utah is testing the 4-day work week with its state employees. So I was wondering -- would you like the same offer if it was an option for you?

Personally, I'd take it in a heartbeat. A couple extra hours per day for the chance of three days off every weekend would be WONDERFUL! And if those three days would be either Friday-Sunday or Saturday-Monday, it would be even better. Can you imagine permanent three-day weekends? Is it heaven in the work world?

What about you? Would you rather work five 8-hour days or four 10-hour days? Why is this option better for you?

Comments

[guinness416]

Many places in my industry do this in the summer, including my last employer, although it's usually every second week. And yes, it's a fantastic perk, especially for those of us who end up working 10 hour days most of the time anyway.

[Jenny]

The Federal Government offers this option for many of its employees as well. I, too, would jump at the chance.

[Fred]

I would also take a four day workweek in a minute. My employer recently changed our hours, and a co-worker sent this suggestion to her boss's boss. He didn't seem to like it.

[Andy]

I can see an advantage to having an extra 2 hours a day of uninterrupted work time to keep me focused. At the same time, many of us work almost that much extra per day anyway, so the employer could possibly be losing productivity in many cases.

[Paul]

I work for a large insurance company that offers this perk. Actually, there are two options. You can either work 40 hours in 4 days and get an extra day off each week or you can work 80 hours in 9 days and get an extra day off every other week. I take the second option to have a 3-day weekend every other week while still not being gone too long from home during the week. It's nice, but those short two-day weekends sure are short. :-)

[tom]

I used to work the 4 day week, then I went down to 9 - 80s (every other Friday off), now I'm working a regular 8 hour day. I found that four 10 hour days was too much, I was burning out, even with a 3 day weekend. Every Friday I was catching up on sleep and rest from the 10 hour days. In theory it sounds great, but odds are that extra weekend day will just be wasted, plus those extra 2 hours every day at work seem to drag on forever!

That's just my experience with it :)

[Chris Eaker]

I'd do it in a heartbeat as well. That's one less day I'd have to pay for gas to get to work.

[Kevin]

Agree with Chris, I'd do it just to save the gas on the 5th day. I'm used to working long hours during tax season anyway, so 10 wouldn't be too hard. As long as it was either Monday or Friday I had off, I don't see a problem.

[Anonamoose]

I'd love it.

Off course, I work in IT on Wall Street where a 10 - 12 hour day is already expected....so of course this looks great to me.

[Todd]

I like the 9-80 theory. I have a hard enough time keeping my fitness level up now because I am crunched for time but with 10 hour days, I know I would not work out nor run on those days.

I would rather do a 10-80 with the option of one telecommuting day a week. Just not going through the crush of the train in the AM and PM would be worth it. Plus, for a company that could not feasibly have half of its workforce off on Fridays and Monday, it would still allow for some gas savings while getting work done.

[CBaker]

We also run on a 9/80 work schedule. Those 3 day weekends every other week are well worth the extra hour per day (after a while, you don't even notice it). My employer is also pretty flexible in general - as long as we bill 80 hours every two weeks and our clients are happy, they're not too concerned with us working a set time or number of hours per day. This means that if I need to take a Tuesday off, I can substitute it for the Friday that I was going to take off, and I don't have to dip into my vacation time.

[Justin]

I work that schedule now and have been for the past year. I have almost an hour commute with traffic, so it saves me a trip into work on fridays. I rarely use vacation time anymore with all the three day weekends.

[Rhea]

I have worked a 4-day work week for about 9 years or so. This was at two different universities. I love it. The week speeds by, and the weekends last forever. It is a humane way to work. Who needs to be 'owned' by the place you work for?!?

[Jetgirl]

I am also currently working a 9-80 schedule, and it is fantastic! I would have to temper this response with the inevitable, "it depends on what you are doing comment", though. Some things just don't lend themselves to a condensed work schedule. But for my current job situation, the hours fly by and it is really nice to have 3-day weekends so often.

[Eric]

I have the option to work whenever I want, unfortunately my wife attends night school half of the week as do I. It actually would not work out for me to work 10 hours a day despite the fact that having a 4 day work week would save me 2000 miles a year on my car.

[Josh Stein]

Yeah, I'd take the 10/10/10/10/off/off/off in a heartbeat. Would also in a heartbeat take the option to work from home some, but that won't be given, either.

[CB]

Hell, a 5-day workweek would be nice...

[GB]

I'd take it with my current job, but the Govenor won't let us! Soon, though, with my career change, I'll be working 3 12 hour days!

[Kyle]

I'd do it in a heartbeat. Actually, with gas prices and traffic what they are (at least around here), many employers may not have a choice. It would dramatically improve the quality of life in the city just to get 1/5 of the workforce off the road on any given day. It would eliminate traffic, lower demand for gas, and save everybody money. Maybe it should be mandatory...

[anna]

I'm wondering what the effect will be on people with kids, especially if either both parents work or it's a single-parent household. Will the schools have extended afterschool care, or will there be increased child-care costs from parents who need more day-care hours to cover the additional time at work?

[Carrie]

An 8 hour workday? What the heck is that? I would love to work 4 10 hour days since I'm already used to working 5 10+ hours days now. Two days isn't enough for a weekend.

[Laura]

I would definitely do this if I could! I love this idea.

[Kimberly]

I really do work only 40 hours a week, spread out over 5 days, so I think a switch to four day work weeks would be tough to handle at first. But I would switch to a 9/80 schedule in a heartbeat, especially if I could get every other Monday off. Fridays are already easy for traffic.

[A]

I'm going to dissent with most of the other commenters. I like the plain old 9-5 schedule.

I can go to the gym every day after work and still have time left over to make a nice dinner and do things I enjoy. This is a huge benefit to my sanity. I wouldn't want to give this up for an extra weekend day. Maybe exercising the 4-10 hour day option a few times a year would be nice but not all the time.

[Lots]

This website has a lot of information on flexible workweeks that you may want to bring up with your company/peers:
www.workplaceflexibility2010.org

[DCS]

I work 12 hour shifts. It's a complicated arrangement, but boils down to alternating between 3 days on/3 off and 4 days on/4 off. It's crazy and nobody else can figure out if I'll be working or not unless I send them a calendar, but it sure works nice for me. It's like working part time for full time pay and benefits. The 7 to 7 work days are a bit long I admit, but the days off are absolutely worth it, especially between April and November.

I suspect going back to only two days off a week would be a difficult transition for me.

[Sarah]

I'd do it in a heartbeat. Of course, working a 40-hour week would be a nearly fifty percent reduction for me...

[Eden]

4 days is quite a bit better than 5. 4 *eight* hours days is even better still. But you need a job that isn't about punching a time clock to make that possible.

[EC]

It would be a nice start to not work weekends at all. I just did the calculation - if I tried to put in my average weekly hours in four days I would spend 14.5 hours per day at the office or in meetings. That just doesn't seem like an attractive option.

[Lin]

Who says you'd get a 3-day weekend? I've heard of situations where the 3rd day was in the middle of the week.
I've done the 4 day weeks,and didn't care for it. My job can be on the stressful side, and 10 hours of stress isn't worth it...

[Michael Kwan]

My brother has this situation at his work, but it's on a rotating basis. His company is open Monday to Saturday, so there are three shifts. There's M-Th, Tu-Sat, and the "split" shift (Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday).

[fathersez]

I still remember the joy when we first started the 5 day week from the 5 and a half day.

I'll leap at the 4 day week. The start up times, the getting ready times, the commuting time and the cost of all these goes out of the window.

And the joy of not having to travel during rush hour (unless eveyone goes 4.5 days)....that would be pretty valuable too.

[db]

Would love it. Some people at my office do it. Theoretically we also have work-at-home arrangements.

However we usually have 9-11 hour days 5 days a week, plus time on the weekends on my team. Not having somebody around for that 5th day would send our project into a tailspin. As it is, they let us know constantly how inconvenient it is for their 24/7 business model to have expectations that we get weekends off, since that means there is nobody around to manage their offshore staff in India on Sunday.

Other people around me seem to have no problem with work-at-home, but every time I try to do it I get told our director prefers we come into the office (since I don't have kids and they know I don't have kids -- the ones getting away with it all have kids).

[Kacper]

I like this idea. 10 hours a day is OK and having a 3-day weekend is something really cool. Additionaly you have less costs connected with going to and back from your work.

[becky]

I am actually one of the workers that will have to go to this schedule and for me it's no big deal, but I don't have kids (yet). For families with children though - either in daycare or going to school - it is going to be tough.

From what I've heard my co-workers with young children say, daycares don't care that you don't have a child in the daycare on the 5th day - they won't pro-rate your fees for that, plus they typically charge a premium fee (some by the minute!) for the extra time over 8/9 hours that they care for the child. Also, for kids in school with both parents working (which I believe is the 'norm' now-a-days), those kids get out of school around 3pm and if we have to work until 6pm, then get stuck in traffic, depending on the commute and such, people won't be getting home until around 7pm. That's 4 hours that you either have to figure out who's to watch the kid or leave them on their own. Plus, young kids typically have early bedtimes, which doesn't leave you much time to play with your kid, help your kid with homework, eat dinner, do the bedtime routine, etc. by the time you get home.

I really do feel bad for families that are going to be forced to work this schedule as I think it is doing a dis-service to young children and to families, both financially and emotionally.

This schedule change also has a negative impact on those employees pursuing degrees as well as those who don't make enough money and have to work a 2nd job. Utah's governor is doing this primarily to save money and help the environment - two goals that I fully support, but I do think it has too severe of an impact on those individuals with kids/schooling/2nd job.

On another note, although this schedule change won't affect me too much, I am a little perturbed about how this schedule change will be affecting our vacation leave time. We will no longer be getting any time off if a holiday lands on a Friday or a Saturday. And, if a holiday lands on a Monday through Thursday, we will only be getting paid for 8 hours, which means that we'll be forced to take 2 hours of vacation time when that happens. I'm guess I'm okay with not getting paid time off for holidays on Fri/Sat, but I wish they've give us the 10 hours off when a holiday lands on a Mon-Thurs.

[Rob]

If I was offered the option I would be all for it.

[Ryan S]

I'm on the 9/80 plan right now, but would switch to the 4 10's if offered the opportunity.

[bryan]

depends what kind of person you are, how motivated and focuses you are, etc. personally, i find that an 8 hour workday doesnt provide enough time to really get anything done...

might as well work hard a couple days a week and then have a few days off.

i own a landscaping company and currently since things have slowed down for a month or so, we work 3-4 10 to 12 hour days rather than 5-6 8 hour days.

saves employees gas for the extra day commute, more productive for me as the owner since we dont have to load up supplies the extra day, etc.

[No Debt Plan]

I'd do 4 day weeks in a heartbeat as well. Heck, I'd work for 13 hours per day for three days if I could.