Tell Your Boss the Four-Day Week Is Coming Soon

[FireLane]

Good article from Bloomberg about the rise of part-time work:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-02/four-day-work-week-gains-popularity-around-the-world

So last spring the company told everyone to sign off around lunchtime every Friday to ease into the weekend. The experiment was so successful—sales, employee engagement, and client satisfaction all rose—that in January, Awin decided to go a step further, rolling out a four-day week for the entire company with no cuts in salaries or benefits. “We firmly believe that happy, engaged, and well-balanced employees produce much better work,” says Chief Executive Officer Adam Ross. They “find ways to work smarter, and they’re just as productive.”

Awin is in the vanguard of a trend that’s getting increased attention worldwide. Jobs website ZipRecruiter says the share of postings that mention a four-day week has tripled in the past three years, to 62 per 10,000. Consumer-goods giant Unilever Plc in December started a yearlong trial of the idea for its New Zealand staff. Spain’s government is considering a proposal to subsidize companies that offer a four-day week. And even in notoriously busy Japan, whose language includes the word karoshi—death from overwork—lawmakers are discussing a proposal to grant employees a day off every week to protect their well-being.

I've been working four days a week since 2018, and I recommend it to everyone, whether they're pursuing FIRE or not. It's so much more civilized. The five-day work week is barbaric. Two days isn't nearly enough to have a normal life outside work!

[cool7hand]

I agree that five days a week is too much!

[Bloop Bloop Reloaded]

I'm self-employed and generally see my limit as being 4 productive days per week.

But when I was an employee I'd put in maybe 4 productive hours per day. Honestly as an employee I could have skated by on a 2-day week, if I was allowed.

[former player]

I did a four day week for several years before FIREing.  The big change is not in the decrease in the amount of work done in 4 days rather than 5 but the increase in the amount of leisure possible in three days rather than two.

[InvincibleChutzpah]

This would be nice. Unfortunately, nothing will change in my industry. I work in construction. A six day work week is standard and a seven day stretch from time to time isn't unheard of. My company limits maximum consecutive work days to 13 before they are required to get a day off. During crunch time, that limit is pushed to the max.

I should have kept my desk job.

[Dicey]

Flip side: DH could retire this month with a full pension. Since they went to 4 days a week a year or so ago, he really likes his job and wants to work for two more years!

[Just Joe]

I've been burning a little vacation time this summer by working four day weeks. A really wonderful work schedule. Even fewer work days would be nice but still need this job for now.

[Dicey]

Flip side: DH could retire this month with a full pension. Since they went to 4 days a week a year or so ago, he really likes his job and wants to work for two more years!

Update: DH has met with the Retirement Advisor at work! The way he wants to structure his retirement benefits requires six weeks to set up. He says he's targeting early January, but in reality it could be "Today + 6 Weeks" whenever he decides to pull the trigger. Woot! In the meantime, he still works 4-day weeks and has a lot of vacation, which he uses to maximize holiday breaks. Over the Fourth of July, he took 12 days off but only burned four vacation days.

[brandon1827]

I work at an electric cooperative. Some of our engineers and construction crews work 4-day weeks, but it's 4-10 hour shifts instead of 5-8 hour shifts. I still think it's better than working 5 days per week, but they're just adding hours to the days to make up the difference from losing one full work day. During covid, many of us realized that we could very easily do our jobs from home 100% of the time if necessary and not really skip a beat...but our managers are bound and determined to keep a fully staffed office building for 5 days a week because that's how we've done business since 1938, lol. I'm hoping with time, as a younger generation of managers move up that that mindset will change, but I don't think it will happen in time to benefit me at all

[DadJokes]

I have the option to do a four-day work week. For a while I did, but I've gone back to five now that we can work from home. I'd rather do four 8-9 hour days and one 2-3 hour day on Friday than four 10 hour days, especially since I won't really do any work on that short Friday.

[Wintergreen78]

Flip side: DH could retire this month with a full pension. Since they went to 4 days a week a year or so ago, he really likes his job and wants to work for two more years!

Update: DH has met with the Retirement Advisor at work! The way he wants to structure his retirement benefits requires six weeks to set up. He says he's targeting early January, but in reality it could be "Today + 6 Weeks" whenever he decides to pull the trigger. Woot! In the meantime, he still works 4-day weeks and has a lot of vacation, which he uses to maximize holiday breaks. Over the Fourth of July, he took 12 days off but only burned four vacation days.

If you can retire on a full pension but you still go to work, doesn’t that mean you are working for free?

They will pay the same whether you show up or not.

[Dicey]

Flip side: DH could retire this month with a full pension. Since they went to 4 days a week a year or so ago, he really likes his job and wants to work for two more years!

Update: DH has met with the Retirement Advisor at work! The way he wants to structure his retirement benefits requires six weeks to set up. He says he's targeting early January, but in reality it could be "Today + 6 Weeks" whenever he decides to pull the trigger. Woot! In the meantime, he still works 4-day weeks and has a lot of vacation, which he uses to maximize holiday breaks. Over the Fourth of July, he took 12 days off but only burned four vacation days.

If you can retire on a full pension but you still go to work, doesn’t that mean you are working for free?

They will pay the same whether you show up or not.

No, it doesn't mean that at all. In this case, full pension means the complete benefits package, with nothing pro-rated. The amount you earn monthly will correlate to the number of years worked. Yes, there are people who retire at virtually the same pay, but it takes 38.5 years to do that. DH is not doing that. He will retire at about 20.5 years, with all the benefits and a percentage of his current salary. The full benefits package has some other sweet enticements. He can roll all of his remaining vacation pay into his 401k (Probably about 450 hours, paid at his highest rate). His unused sick days are added to his service years, which increases his monthly benefit. He has never taken a sick day, which will add two full years of service. There's also a tax-free monthly stipend toward healthcare, and they get to stay on the company health care plan, which is very generous. That's a lot of good reasons to hit the 20-year mark.

[Wintergreen78]

Flip side: DH could retire this month with a full pension. Since they went to 4 days a week a year or so ago, he really likes his job and wants to work for two more years!

Update: DH has met with the Retirement Advisor at work! The way he wants to structure his retirement benefits requires six weeks to set up. He says he's targeting early January, but in reality it could be "Today + 6 Weeks" whenever he decides to pull the trigger. Woot! In the meantime, he still works 4-day weeks and has a lot of vacation, which he uses to maximize holiday breaks. Over the Fourth of July, he took 12 days off but only burned four vacation days.

If you can retire on a full pension but you still go to work, doesn’t that mean you are working for free?

They will pay the same whether you show up or not.

No, it doesn't mean that at all. In this case, full pension means the complete benefits package, with nothing pro-rated. The amount you earn monthly will correlate to the number of years worked. Yes, there are people who retire at virtually the same pay, but it takes 38.5 years to do that. DH is not doing that. He will retire at about 20.5 years, with all the benefits and a percentage of his current salary. The full benefits package has some other sweet enticements. He can roll all of his remaining vacation pay into his 401k (Probably about 450 hours, paid at his highest rate). His unused sick days are added to his service years, which increases his monthly benefit. He has never taken a sick day, which will add two full years of service. There's also a tax-free monthly stipend toward healthcare, and they get to stay on the company health care plan, which is very generous. That's a lot of good reasons to hit the 20-year mark.

Ah, good clarification. I worked in a public-sector job for 13 years. There you could retire on 100% of your salary after 33 years. We definitely had a few people who had been ready to retire for years, but became fixated on staying until they made it to 33 years.

I get the push/pull of the decision-making when there are benefit thresholds that give strong incentives to stay longer. I’m glad he likes what he does, and that they are on a good schedule!

[Dicey]

Flip side: DH could retire this month with a full pension. Since they went to 4 days a week a year or so ago, he really likes his job and wants to work for two more years!

Update: DH has met with the Retirement Advisor at work! The way he wants to structure his retirement benefits requires six weeks to set up. He says he's targeting early January, but in reality it could be "Today + 6 Weeks" whenever he decides to pull the trigger. Woot! In the meantime, he still works 4-day weeks and has a lot of vacation, which he uses to maximize holiday breaks. Over the Fourth of July, he took 12 days off but only burned four vacation days.

If you can retire on a full pension but you still go to work, doesn’t that mean you are working for free?

They will pay the same whether you show up or not.

No, it doesn't mean that at all. In this case, full pension means the complete benefits package, with nothing pro-rated. The amount you earn monthly will correlate to the number of years worked. Yes, there are people who retire at virtually the same pay, but it takes 38.5 years to do that. DH is not doing that. He will retire at about 20.5 years, with all the benefits and a percentage of his current salary. The full benefits package has some other sweet enticements. He can roll all of his remaining vacation pay into his 401k (Probably about 450 hours, paid at his highest rate). His unused sick days are added to his service years, which increases his monthly benefit. He has never taken a sick day, which will add two full years of service. There's also a tax-free monthly stipend toward healthcare, and they get to stay on the company health care plan, which is very generous. That's a lot of good reasons to hit the 20-year mark.

Ah, good clarification. I worked in a public-sector job for 13 years. There you could retire on 100% of your salary after 33 years. We definitely had a few people who had been ready to retire for years, but became fixated on staying until they made it to 33 years.

I get the push/pull of the decision-making when there are benefit thresholds that give strong incentives to stay longer. I’m glad he likes what he does, and that they are on a good schedule!

I should further clarify that at age 40, DH realized he'd made a lot of money so far, but didn't have that much to show for it. He took a huge pay cut* to take this job because of the Defined Benefit Pension Plan and excellent benefits. It helps that he walks to work and really likes what he does. He often jokes that he looks forward to going to work so he can relax.

*Luckily for me, he continued to do work on the side to make up for the pay cut, because we met when he painted my house!