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Comment by rverghese | Hacker News Reader

But doesn't this rely on everyone else working 5 days?

If everyone had a 4-week, it would be just like the current weekend. You can't go to the bank or dentist, because they would also be off.

Perhaps you could get the same effect and quality of life by taking Sunday and Monday as your days off and working Saturday.

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Maybe different employees could have a different day off so that the business can still run unless there is only one individual that can do that particular job. I think that would work for at least 95%

That’s the approach you see in The Netherlands where a lot of people have 4-day workweeks.

Exactly right. The best alternative I've seen implemented at companies is 9/80 where employees get every other Friday or Monday off, and half the employees get one week while half get the next. That way you still get an extra 2 useful days a month to get stuff done at home, but companies themselves are able to continue working 5 days a week.

Maybe people could take different "3rd" days off?

How do we decide who gets Friday or Monday (ie, a three day weekend)?

I have a friend who once had M-W off, and worked the four remaining days. He hated it because his time off was completely misaligned with his peers, so he had no social life.

Edit - I don't have any fundamental problem with working fewer hours or fewer days. But, I think I'd prefer 5x7 hour days instead of 4x8.

> How do we decide who gets Friday or Monday

Rotate who gets which days off each week.

I prefer mid week days off (Wednesday, but I'd settle for Tue/Thu). I love to have work weeks of two days.

I can imagine there are plenty of other people that prefer the same thing.

I'm with you completely, but from talking to others I think we're in a small minority. Most people want a long weekend.

You have some sort of rota - half the office gets Mondays off on January, then in February, they're off on Fridays.

Having tried both, 4x8 is far better. I don't do much during 5x7 evenings anyway because I'm drained after 7 hours at work, so I'd much rather just cram that into 4 days and have an extra day of rest.

Another example:

My dad is a letter carrier. He's off Sunday and then has a floating day off that changes each week. (Scheduled far in advance.)

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