Author Topic: What would you pay for Fridays off?  (Read 12555 times)

Simpli-Fi

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #50 on: March 09, 2017, 09:32:30 PM »
Wednesday's off are better

Linea_Norway

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #51 on: March 10, 2017, 03:00:03 AM »
If you are in a high tax schedule, it doesn't cost 20% to take a day a week off.
One of my colleagues leaves home at Monday morning ridiculously early. He drives the 2-2,5 hours to work. There he works 3 looong days, sleeping for free at work. Buying dinner at work. And he drives home on Thursday afternoon after a normal working day. And stays home on Friday. He says it is a great solution.

I easily make extra hours, so sometimes I just take an extra Friday off from overtime hours. Those weekends feel just great.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2017, 12:05:20 PM by Linda_Norway »

MoonLiteNite

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #52 on: March 10, 2017, 04:33:14 AM »
For me the question would be "what would you do for saturdays off"
I am going on 6 months of 60 hour work weeks :O

Sure beats the 82/70 hour weeks i have done before.

Sometimes it is just so hard to say NO to overtime, even more so when it is "required"

Case

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #53 on: March 10, 2017, 05:10:50 AM »
I've recently learned that I have the option to work reduced hours with the only effects being prorated pay and vacation time. I'll keep my health insurance, paid parking, 401(k), etc. No paperwork to fill out, either. Everything just gets prorated based on hours worked, provided I'm at 32+ per week.

I've been wanting more time for myself, I'm in a good financial position, and I would really like reduced stress from 4 day weeks. All indications are that everybody in management is fine with employees taking advantage of this option, so I'm not too worried about repercussions. At least, I expect I'd get a talking to before there were any real consequences.

I'd drop about $16,000 in terms of what I take home after taxes. That would kick my FIRE date back about a year, but I'm leaning towards it anyway. Recent stress has had me considering changes, and I don't know that I'll find something that pays as well as the reduced rate with less stress. It is hard to give up that much income, though.

So my question is: what would you pay to have Fridays off?

I think it really depends on the nature of your job.  If your job is more about clocking hours, or you have chunks of available unoccupied time at work, then sure, taking off Fridays or even working a flex schedule makes awesome sense.  However, if your job has certain performance expectations, then working less means you will have less time to get the work done.  If you can performance more efficiently during less hours, then this could work.  However, if you cant then you may just be adding more stress to yourself (at lower overall pay).

afuera

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #54 on: March 14, 2017, 02:51:38 PM »
I currently work 9/80s but would take a 20% paycut in a heartbeat to get every Friday off.  That extra hour on the days I work really make the days long.

omachi

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #55 on: May 01, 2017, 02:30:48 PM »
Thanks all, this is exactly what I needed to hear. I'm going to go for it. The way it's setup, I could go back to full time anytime, so long as there's space on a project.


Well there you go.  Try it, and see how you like it.  Report back.

Figured I should report back. I haven't worked a Friday since mid-March and am really loving it. Fridays are now my days (hey that rhymes) and it feels great to have a day where there isn't mandatory work to be done or social expectations like those that tend to fill weekends. I've done some small work around the house on Fridays, but it's not hard to do an hour or two of work in a single day and go about enjoying the rest of it off. Especially knowing that the actual weekend is coming up.

It has been a little surprising when Saturday night rolls around and it feels like the end of the weekend, only to realize there's another day off coming. I've never dreaded Mondays, but it's a nice feeling to have more weekend left regardless.

Linea_Norway

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #56 on: May 02, 2017, 12:09:30 PM »

Figured I should report back. I haven't worked a Friday since mid-March and am really loving it. Fridays are now my days (hey that rhymes) and it feels great to have a day where there isn't mandatory work to be done or social expectations like those that tend to fill weekends. I've done some small work around the house on Fridays, but it's not hard to do an hour or two of work in a single day and go about enjoying the rest of it off. Especially knowing that the actual weekend is coming up.

It has been a little surprising when Saturday night rolls around and it feels like the end of the weekend, only to realize there's another day off coming. I've never dreaded Mondays, but it's a nice feeling to have more weekend left regardless.

Good for you! If you ever want to work more again, you could also take every other Friday off as an alternative.

des999

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #57 on: May 02, 2017, 12:57:16 PM »
I'd do it in a heartbeat.  What fields are you all in that offer this?  I'm in IT, and do get to work from home 1-2 days a week, which is awesome.  But, mega corp has not really offered up 4 days, actually, from what I'm hearing part time jobs are getting very slim.  My plan was to go to part time, once I get my nest egg to 500k.  Now, I'm thinking I may have to look around at other companies for the 20-25 hours a week I want to work.

Good luck to you either way.

PoutineLover

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #58 on: May 02, 2017, 02:14:53 PM »
I'd do it in a heartbeat.  What fields are you all in that offer this?  I'm in IT, and do get to work from home 1-2 days a week, which is awesome.  But, mega corp has not really offered up 4 days, actually, from what I'm hearing part time jobs are getting very slim.  My plan was to go to part time, once I get my nest egg to 500k.  Now, I'm thinking I may have to look around at other companies for the 20-25 hours a week I want to work.

Good luck to you either way.
I work at a university, and the main reason it's 4 days is because my dept can't afford 5. But check out the universities near you, they always need IT people and they may be willing to make a part time schedule work. Even at 5 days, full time here is 33.75 hours, so 4 days is only 27, which I love.

Ocinfo

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #59 on: May 02, 2017, 02:43:12 PM »
I'd do it in a heartbeat.  What fields are you all in that offer this?  I'm in IT, and do get to work from home 1-2 days a week, which is awesome.  But, mega corp has not really offered up 4 days, actually, from what I'm hearing part time jobs are getting very slim.  My plan was to go to part time, once I get my nest egg to 500k.  Now, I'm thinking I may have to look around at other companies for the 20-25 hours a week I want to work.

Good luck to you either way.

Need to find a highly regarded company that actively promotes work life balance (and really does do it). Also, project based work supports the part time model better because it usually means working in 2 or 3 projects instead of 4.

For IT work, I've seen job sharing arrangements work too. A company needs skills x and y but neither at full time. It then make sense to get two people that both know x and y (each is stronger in one than the other) and basically get the benefits of both for a bit more than having 1 person and a lot less than 2 full time people. This way there is always someone around that can do the job (solves part of argument against part time). Again, this takes a good company that can actually think beyond norms...


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jjcamembert

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #60 on: May 02, 2017, 02:56:33 PM »
I'm considering this as well, but currently it would cost me 5 years to FIRE (which would still be early, retire after 46 vs 51). My current plan is to keep working FT until I can get a promotion in the next year or two. Getting that raise and then cutting back hours will be less than the full 20% cut I'd otherwise be facing. And I'll probably use the extra time to work on side-projects anyway, so net-net the income could even be positive in the best case!

FLBiker

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #61 on: May 02, 2017, 03:00:00 PM »
It's great to read about this.  I'm planning to approach my boss with some version of this in the next couple of years.  Currently, I'm leaning towards requesting a 1 month or so leave of absence every summer (so a 1/12 reduction in pay, and 1 month where I'd need to pay my own benefits [~$50 for dental, health and life]).  I've also considered going to a 9 month teaching role (currently admin) but that would be about a 50% reduction in pay, and it isn't 50% less time or 50% easier, so that doesn't seem worth it.

I like the idea of Fridays off, though...

And, personally, I'm starting to think I should give a lot more weight to my current quality of life vs my hypothetical FIRE date (especially since it's probably something like 8 years out).  A lot can happen.

Retire-Canada

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #62 on: May 02, 2017, 03:02:43 PM »

des999

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #63 on: May 03, 2017, 05:52:45 AM »
I'd do it in a heartbeat.  What fields are you all in that offer this?  I'm in IT, and do get to work from home 1-2 days a week, which is awesome.  But, mega corp has not really offered up 4 days, actually, from what I'm hearing part time jobs are getting very slim.  My plan was to go to part time, once I get my nest egg to 500k.  Now, I'm thinking I may have to look around at other companies for the 20-25 hours a week I want to work.

Good luck to you either way.
I work at a university, and the main reason it's 4 days is because my dept can't afford 5. But check out the universities near you, they always need IT people and they may be willing to make a part time schedule work. Even at 5 days, full time here is 33.75 hours, so 4 days is only 27, which I love.

this is a great idea, I'll look into our universities around here.  I know the pay is a little less for their IT work, but the hours maybe worth it once I'm getting closer to FI.

des999

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #64 on: May 03, 2017, 05:55:49 AM »
I'd do it in a heartbeat.  What fields are you all in that offer this?  I'm in IT, and do get to work from home 1-2 days a week, which is awesome.  But, mega corp has not really offered up 4 days, actually, from what I'm hearing part time jobs are getting very slim.  My plan was to go to part time, once I get my nest egg to 500k.  Now, I'm thinking I may have to look around at other companies for the 20-25 hours a week I want to work.

Good luck to you either way.

Need to find a highly regarded company that actively promotes work life balance (and really does do it). Also, project based work supports the part time model better because it usually means working in 2 or 3 projects instead of 4.

For IT work, I've seen job sharing arrangements work too. A company needs skills x and y but neither at full time. It then make sense to get two people that both know x and y (each is stronger in one than the other) and basically get the benefits of both for a bit more than having 1 person and a lot less than 2 full time people. This way there is always someone around that can do the job (solves part of argument against part time). Again, this takes a good company that can actually think beyond norms...


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Thanks for that info.

I do see our company offers job sharing.  Actually our mega corp is trying to appeal to the younger workers, and claim they offer alternate work schedules, work from home, etc...  but every time i bring it up to anyone they say, oh that is allowed for IT.  I think most managers are just afraid to rock the boat, or to go to HR and ask, or to have to worry about other team members being upset.

My guess, most folks wouldn't be able to afford to take less pay for less hours even if offered. 


boarder42

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #65 on: May 03, 2017, 06:31:28 AM »
when Kid 1 arrives i'm asking for 1 day off a week could be monday could be friday.  Lots of women in the work place get this option and my boss is rather a progressive thinking in the millenial generation. I'm sure i'll be told it will stunt my career growth but they dont know how long i plan to stick around. 

Dicey

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #66 on: May 03, 2017, 07:34:04 AM »
when Kid 1 arrives i'm asking for 1 day off a week could be monday could be friday.  Lots of women in the work place get this option and my boss is rather a progressive thinking in the millenial generation. I'm sure i'll be told it will stunt my career growth but they dont know how long i plan to stick around.
Quoting myself from page 1:
"DH works 9-9's and has every other Friday off...One of his colleagues takes Mondays, not Fridays. His reasoning? There are more Monday holidays than Fridays, so he actually comes out ahead when there's a paid holiday. Before you pull the trigger, see if that would apply to you too. We're still trying to wrap our heads around it, so I don't know all the details, but surely it's a mustachian virtue to think like a contrarian and work the system to your advantage, if it can be done."
 

Davids

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #67 on: May 03, 2017, 08:58:51 AM »
Wednesday's off are better

I totally agree. If I had the option of choosing a day off per week I would choose Wednesday. It breaks up the week so nicely. Plus working on Friday is not bad at least in my experience as most people are laid back knowing the weekend is ahead.

patchyfacialhair

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Re: What would you pay for Fridays off?
« Reply #68 on: May 03, 2017, 10:23:32 AM »
When I was single, I worked M-Tu, F-Sa, 10 hr days. It was awesome having two days off during the week, plus Sunday off. Plus...you're never working more than 2 days in a row.

Now I work M-F, but come in early and leave early. I also buy 40 extra hours PTO at the time of open enrollment, and it costs me 40 hours of my hourly at the time I sign up. That cost is then divided by 26 and deducted from each paycheck. Basically I voluntarily take a 1.9% paycut for more time off.

Work-life balance, if possible, and if encouraged by your employer, is super awesome.