Author Topic: Dropping to 4 day weeks  (Read 10889 times)

ACyclist

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #50 on: September 30, 2018, 10:12:19 AM »
Sorry to hear about the FMLA.  There must be a medical issue. 

In regards to a shortened work schedule, it is awesome.  I took a large pay cut (25%) to be able to take three months off per year.  It was the best decision, I ever made. 

Linea_Norway

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #51 on: October 03, 2018, 02:22:46 AM »
DH has asked his new boss for a talk. In the talk, he is going to ask for working 80%. That would mean we could both be off on Fridays and that was our original goal.

Bird In Hand

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #52 on: October 03, 2018, 05:56:58 AM »
DH has asked his new boss for a talk. In the talk, he is going to ask for working 80%. That would mean we could both be off on Fridays and that was our original goal.

That's great, Linda!  I hope the talk goes well.  Does your husband have much leverage with his employer in the event that his boss is not amenable to the idea?

Linea_Norway

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #53 on: October 03, 2018, 07:13:29 AM »
DH has asked his new boss for a talk. In the talk, he is going to ask for working 80%. That would mean we could both be off on Fridays and that was our original goal.

That's great, Linda!  I hope the talk goes well.  Does your husband have much leverage with his employer in the event that his boss is not amenable to the idea?

He gets along very well with this boss. And DH is an important player in the new organization with lots of very relevant experience. He has to build up the Norwegian part of a bigger Swedish company. If things don't work out, he can go work as a private consultant. There is work enough and DH has a good reputation for delivering quality.

Dicey

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #54 on: October 03, 2018, 11:09:38 PM »
I've started dialing back my hours officially.  I'm on FMLA til Oct. 8th in which i've been taking every Friday off working 4-8s to 4-9s on any given week.  Today i started the process to officially go to 90% - 4-9's I was planning to go to 4-8s but i'm really working 36 hours most weeks so I figured why not just get paid for the exta hours vs donating them.  Pretty awesome feeling to hopefully not work a friday again for the rest of my career.

it appears you have used for free time very productively.  that is, if trolling people about boats, eating out, big trucks, etc. is productive.
Oh shit, it made me laugh so loud I woke up my husband. I was sorry to see the eating out thread go. We have some wickedly sharp members here and it's always good to laugh at yourself on at least a semi-regular basis. The more, the better, in fact. Or is that the more, the merrier?

Wait, the eating out thread is gone? Noooooooo......I missed it! What happened?
Speaking of gone, it finally happened. After several warnings, our dear, curmudgeonly, B42 got himself banned.

What bothers me most was that he tangled with a couple of newbs, lost his temper, and pissed off the mods one too many times. Now we've lost a Walrus, and the newbs will likely be gone in a month, having contributed next to nothing. I miss him already. He will be fine, of that I am sure, but his smart, passionate voice will be sorely missed.

Wha???

Perma banned and temporary banned??
Banned period. So many sad feelings. He really grew on me.

Bird In Hand

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #55 on: October 04, 2018, 06:17:15 AM »
He gets along very well with this boss. And DH is an important player in the new organization with lots of very relevant experience. He has to build up the Norwegian part of a bigger Swedish company. If things don't work out, he can go work as a private consultant. There is work enough and DH has a good reputation for delivering quality.

I'm sure you'll let us know how the talk goes.  I hope his boss is amenable to the idea.  But it does sound like he has other options if his boss refuses.  If it comes to that, it may take a bit of courage to walk away from the job and strike out on his own.

YoungGranny

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #56 on: October 04, 2018, 06:22:36 AM »
Speaking of gone, it finally happened. After several warnings, our dear, curmudgeonly, B42 got himself banned.

What bothers me most was that he tangled with a couple of newbs, lost his temper, and pissed off the mods one too many times. Now we've lost a Walrus, and the newbs will likely be gone in a month, having contributed next to nothing. I miss him already. He will be fine, of that I am sure, but his smart, passionate voice will be sorely missed.

Wha???

Perma banned and temporary banned??
Banned period. So many sad feelings. He really grew on me.

Wow.
I am so sad about this.

I'm really sad about this too. I didn't engage with him much personally but his constant chiming in actually did make me refine my strategy and I'm much better off for it. B42 was a wise, very direct and blunt mustachian who delivered a strong face-punch but he really grew on me.

APowers

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #57 on: October 04, 2018, 04:26:26 PM »
Speaking of gone, it finally happened. After several warnings, our dear, curmudgeonly, B42 got himself banned.

What bothers me most was that he tangled with a couple of newbs, lost his temper, and pissed off the mods one too many times. Now we've lost a Walrus, and the newbs will likely be gone in a month, having contributed next to nothing. I miss him already. He will be fine, of that I am sure, but his smart, passionate voice will be sorely missed.

Wha???

Perma banned and temporary banned??
Banned period. So many sad feelings. He really grew on me.

Wow.
I am so sad about this.

I'm really sad about this too. I didn't engage with him much personally but his constant chiming in actually did make me refine my strategy and I'm much better off for it. B42 was a wise, very direct and blunt mustachian who delivered a strong face-punch but he really grew on me.

That's why I'm sad.
He single handedly pushed me to reconsider the entire way I was viewing my finances, which ended up making me feel really stupid and snowballed into a completely different financial path that I am sooooo much happier with.

I had been kind of "locked in" to a certain type of thinking that was actually causing me a lot of stress because I instinctively knew that my path wasn't right, but everyone else was hammering in that it was the only way to go. That's why I felt so dumb when he face punched me and I was like "oh shit...he's right! And it's so obvious!!"

Sounds like we need a Boarder42 obituary/memorial thread, lol.

katsiki

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #58 on: October 04, 2018, 06:48:15 PM »
I too register my disappointment with the ban.  Not sure what caused it but I will miss his knowledge.

Are we sure he is banned?  It shows he was active today in his profile.  When I looked the other day upon first notice of the banning, it also showed activity that day.

Paging @boarder42 just in case...

albireo13

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #59 on: October 05, 2018, 10:26:04 AM »
I only work 4 days a week on average.  Unfortunately I have to be in the office 5 days a week.   : !

Linea_Norway

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #60 on: October 05, 2018, 01:25:53 PM »
He gets along very well with this boss. And DH is an important player in the new organization with lots of very relevant experience. He has to build up the Norwegian part of a bigger Swedish company. If things don't work out, he can go work as a private consultant. There is work enough and DH has a good reputation for delivering quality.

I'm sure you'll let us know how the talk goes.  I hope his boss is amenable to the idea.  But it does sound like he has other options if his boss refuses.  If it comes to that, it may take a bit of courage to walk away from the job and strike out on his own.

DH's new boss approved of the plan. :-) Now DH needs to arrange the details with HR. At my company is was no problem.

PathtoFIRE

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #61 on: October 05, 2018, 01:48:40 PM »
I only work 4 days a week on average.  Unfortunately I have to be in the office 5 days a week.   : !

Hah! I feel the same way too, although it may be more like 3.5 days of work over 5 days. That's probably why I'm really struggling with whether to drop to 4 or 3 days, I'll get those 1 or 2 days back to myself completely, but I'll still probably be doing the same amount of work, just for 80% or 60-ish%* of the pay.

*I lose benefits if I go under 75% time, but the pay is negotiable and could maybe keep something closer to 65% of pay to help offset losing company health insurance, life/disability insurance, and access to 401k + match

Dicey

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #62 on: October 05, 2018, 02:05:30 PM »
I too register my disappointment with the ban.  Not sure what caused it but I will miss his knowledge.

Are we sure he is banned?  It shows he was active today in his profile.  When I looked the other day upon first notice of the banning, it also showed activity that day.

Paging @boarder42 just in case...
He is really banned, it just took a while for it to kick in. It couldn't hurt for the moderators (or even Pete himself) to know how much he is missed and how important his voice was to you. Easiest and laziest way to reach them is to make a comment to that effect and then hit the "Report to Moderator" button. They'll see it. And B42 might, too and he will know he is missed.

Bird In Hand

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #63 on: October 05, 2018, 03:03:32 PM »
DH's new boss approved of the plan. :-) Now DH needs to arrange the details with HR. At my company is was no problem.

That's wonderful!  Hopefully the HR part is just a formality.  So what do you two plan on doing on your Fridays off together?  :)

Bird In Hand

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #64 on: October 05, 2018, 03:08:22 PM »
I only work 4 days a week on average.  Unfortunately I have to be in the office 5 days a week.   : !

Hah! I feel the same way too, although it may be more like 3.5 days of work over 5 days. That's probably why I'm really struggling with whether to drop to 4 or 3 days, I'll get those 1 or 2 days back to myself completely, but I'll still probably be doing the same amount of work, just for 80% or 60-ish%* of the pay.

*I lose benefits if I go under 75% time, but the pay is negotiable and could maybe keep something closer to 65% of pay to help offset losing company health insurance, life/disability insurance, and access to 401k + match

I once had an informal talk about downshifting with my supervisor.  She was incredulous that I would be willing to give up the $$ of full-time employment.  Her suggestion was to try a compressed work schedule (4x10) and take off Fridays.  I got a bit of wink-wink vibe like maybe she was suggesting that I wouldn't actually be expected to work full 10 hour days.

At some point our nest eggs will (hopefully) be large enough that the income isn't such a big deal, and we can more easily justify giving up some $$ to gain some time.

PathtoFIRE

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #65 on: October 05, 2018, 03:23:15 PM »
I once had an informal talk about downshifting with my supervisor.  She was incredulous that I would be willing to give up the $$ of full-time employment.  Her suggestion was to try a compressed work schedule (4x10) and take off Fridays.  I got a bit of wink-wink vibe like maybe she was suggesting that I wouldn't actually be expected to work full 10 hour days.

Good point, and this is something I've considered. However, I'm on a team of 3, and we had a 4th a few years ago who did this (3 days x 13hr, wink wink) for a year before just retiring at age 64, and the other two found it very annoying. I am the lead though, so I could certainly force it, but...I'd feel like a bit of an a-hole doing it. Actually, my thought was I could technically do that, but also ask for a salary reduction commiserate with a 40% reduction, so on paper I'd look full time, 39 hours, but in actuality I'd make only 60% of what the other 2 do... Thing is, one of the issues instigating these thoughts, other than just wanting some of my time back, was that things were slowing down. But now I'm told that a bunch of work acquired through an acquisition a year ago may suddenly become ours (requiring us to maybe double staff), so this may all be moot for me for a while until things settle!

Bird In Hand

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #66 on: October 05, 2018, 09:23:54 PM »
I once had an informal talk about downshifting with my supervisor.  She was incredulous that I would be willing to give up the $$ of full-time employment.  Her suggestion was to try a compressed work schedule (4x10) and take off Fridays.  I got a bit of wink-wink vibe like maybe she was suggesting that I wouldn't actually be expected to work full 10 hour days.

Good point, and this is something I've considered. However, I'm on a team of 3, and we had a 4th a few years ago who did this (3 days x 13hr, wink wink) for a year before just retiring at age 64, and the other two found it very annoying. I am the lead though, so I could certainly force it, but...I'd feel like a bit of an a-hole doing it. Actually, my thought was I could technically do that, but also ask for a salary reduction commiserate with a 40% reduction, so on paper I'd look full time, 39 hours, but in actuality I'd make only 60% of what the other 2 do... Thing is, one of the issues instigating these thoughts, other than just wanting some of my time back, was that things were slowing down. But now I'm told that a bunch of work acquired through an acquisition a year ago may suddenly become ours (requiring us to maybe double staff), so this may all be moot for me for a while until things settle!

I hear 'ya.  There are probably a pretty small number of situations where part-time works out well in professional / white collar work.  I'm hoping to thread the needle and get there myself at some point.  If the markets hold up for another couple years -- fingers crossed -- the 'stache might be big enough that I can give a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum.

TomTX

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #67 on: October 06, 2018, 11:18:27 AM »
I've started dialing back my hours officially.  I'm on FMLA til Oct. 8th in which i've been taking every Friday off working 4-8s to 4-9s on any given week.  Today i started the process to officially go to 90% - 4-9's I was planning to go to 4-8s but i'm really working 36 hours most weeks so I figured why not just get paid for the exta hours vs donating them.  Pretty awesome feeling to hopefully not work a friday again for the rest of my career.

it appears you have used for free time very productively.  that is, if trolling people about boats, eating out, big trucks, etc. is productive.
Oh shit, it made me laugh so loud I woke up my husband. I was sorry to see the eating out thread go. We have some wickedly sharp members here and it's always good to laugh at yourself on at least a semi-regular basis. The more, the better, in fact. Or is that the more, the merrier?

Wait, the eating out thread is gone? Noooooooo......I missed it! What happened?
Speaking of gone, it finally happened. After several warnings, our dear, curmudgeonly, B42 got himself banned.

What bothers me most was that he tangled with a couple of newbs, lost his temper, and pissed off the mods one too many times. Now we've lost a Walrus, and the newbs will likely be gone in a month, having contributed next to nothing. I miss him already. He will be fine, of that I am sure, but his smart, passionate voice will be sorely missed.

Dammit. B42 was a major asset to the community.

mountain mustache

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #68 on: October 07, 2018, 10:45:25 PM »
I have the option to work 4 days, but it's 4 10 hour days in the summer, and 4 8 hour days in the winter. I work 5 days instead right now, and like the flexibility of taking long lunch breaks, or leaving early. But I have been tossing around how nice it would be to have 3 day weekends! I just don't know if I could deal with 4 10 hour days in a row all summer (well, really from May to October). What I would love is to work 4 8 hour days all year round!

Linea_Norway

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #69 on: October 08, 2018, 02:19:08 AM »
DH's new boss approved of the plan. :-) Now DH needs to arrange the details with HR. At my company is was no problem.

That's wonderful!  Hopefully the HR part is just a formality.  So what do you two plan on doing on your Fridays off together?  :)

The plan is to go more often on long weekend trips to our cabin or just a camping trip/hiking somewhere. As the winter is approaching, it is also nice to go cross country skiing without everyone else also doing so. And we both have time consuming hobbies that we can do better with a longer weekend.

zygote

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #70 on: October 08, 2018, 10:17:26 AM »
I have the option to work 4 days, but it's 4 10 hour days in the summer, and 4 8 hour days in the winter. I work 5 days instead right now, and like the flexibility of taking long lunch breaks, or leaving early. But I have been tossing around how nice it would be to have 3 day weekends! I just don't know if I could deal with 4 10 hour days in a row all summer (well, really from May to October). What I would love is to work 4 8 hour days all year round!

Our summer hours are 4 10 hour days. I have mixed feelings about it. The three day weekends are really nice to catch up on life, appointments, cleaning, etc. Plus, it's nice not to have to take a vacation day if I travel for the weekend (things tend to come up in my family in the summers). But it does get tiring waking up earlier and staying at work later to hit the 10 hours. I'm usually glad to go back to my 5 day schedule in the fall.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #71 on: October 09, 2018, 01:07:16 AM »
DH's new boss approved of the plan. :-) Now DH needs to arrange the details with HR. At my company is was no problem.

That's wonderful!  Hopefully the HR part is just a formality.  So what do you two plan on doing on your Fridays off together?  :)

Now it is formal from the 1rst of November. :-)

Linea_Norway

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #72 on: October 09, 2018, 01:09:37 AM »
I have the option to work 4 days, but it's 4 10 hour days in the summer, and 4 8 hour days in the winter. I work 5 days instead right now, and like the flexibility of taking long lunch breaks, or leaving early. But I have been tossing around how nice it would be to have 3 day weekends! I just don't know if I could deal with 4 10 hour days in a row all summer (well, really from May to October). What I would love is to work 4 8 hour days all year round!

I wouldn't be able to work 10 hours a day as a standard procedure either. Sometimes I work up to 9 hours voluntarily. But 10 every day would be challenging. When the days are nice outside, I want to get out of there as soon as possible.

Bird In Hand

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #73 on: October 09, 2018, 06:23:10 AM »
DH's new boss approved of the plan. :-) Now DH needs to arrange the details with HR. At my company is was no problem.

That's wonderful!  Hopefully the HR part is just a formality.  So what do you two plan on doing on your Fridays off together?  :)

Now it is formal from the 1rst of November. :-)

Wow, congrats!  That moved really quickly.  Is your husband pretty excited about it?  Was he a bit jealous when you moved to 4 days?  :D

Linea_Norway

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Re: Dropping to 4 day weeks
« Reply #74 on: October 09, 2018, 06:30:17 AM »
DH's new boss approved of the plan. :-) Now DH needs to arrange the details with HR. At my company is was no problem.

That's wonderful!  Hopefully the HR part is just a formality.  So what do you two plan on doing on your Fridays off together?  :)

Now it is formal from the 1rst of November. :-)

Wow, congrats!  That moved really quickly.  Is your husband pretty excited about it?  Was he a bit jealous when you moved to 4 days?  :D

The original plan was to both downsize to 80%. For DH most for his health and for me for stress. We thought it would be best to downsize both, so that we would have more long weekends to travel away. I just picked a date to ask for it and got it done immediately. DH wanted to wait asking until after his surgery. But that surgery is postponed until somewhere December/January and he obviously found out now that he doesn't want to wait all that time. Yes, last Friday he did notice that I had the day off while he still had to work... All the previous weeks I had been pretty busy or was away on longer trips and it wasn't so visible that I had the day off.