Four Day Work Week [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

bae

2-6-25, 10:16pm

My County in went to a 32-hour work week in October of 2023.

Results have been mixed, depending on who you ask (and about what). But overall, positive.

We made the national news today in a story about this:

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/four-day-workweek-san-juan-county-washington-state/

frugal-one

2-7-25, 5:46am

I saw on the news. Are people paid for 32 hours vs 40 hours? When I worked, I did a 4 day workweek but worked longer days to have Friday off. I loved having a 3 day weekend!

Tybee

2-7-25, 8:08am

Very appealing, good article. The college where I work part-time does short hours on Friday, so they are 8:30-4:30 M-Th and 8:30-11:30 on Friday. But I am remote so those aren't my hours.

catherine

2-7-25, 9:03am

I think it's a great idea--a win-win for the county and their staff. I've read studies on how much dead time is in the mandatory 40-hour work-week, simply because it is neurologically impossible to be focused and productive for such a long period of time.

bae

2-7-25, 4:16pm

I saw on the news. Are people paid for 32 hours vs 40 hours? When I worked, I did a 4 day workweek but worked longer days to have Friday off. I loved having a 3 day weekend!

Well…. The genesis of this program was that the County employees had fallen a bit behind in the pay scale, compared to regional inflation. Their various unions also had some built-in raises coming up to address this. The County had no money to provide the additional salary. So, they came up with this “well, we’ll pay you your *current* full salary for a 5-day week, but you’ll only have to work 4 days” concept.

So, they aren’t really making market rate for a 40 hour week, they are lagging several years behind the market in their compensation. And they are only working 32 hours.

We were promised there would be no reduction in County services as a result of this. I guess the idea was that there would be improvements in efficiency and quality as a result of the workforce being less stressed. This has not materialized in *all* of the services the County provides. (In particular, any department that was previously efficiently run has run into problems…)

ToomuchStuff

2-8-25, 12:30am

That's right, rub it in why don't you.

Just found out today, I am lucky, I don't work 12's the next 21 days straight as expected. But I did have to cancel an appointment tomorrow, as an employee decided last minute to go to New Orleans and try to find a ticket to the Superbowl.

(&)(*&)&(*&&&*%%$% football. Also poor planning.