misterremote

> Takuya Hoshino, an economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, says simply introducing a four-day workweek may not necessarily encourage employees to use their time off in a way that benefits their careers or contributes to the economy.

The idea shouldn't be how this benefits their career and contributes to the economy, but how the individual can live a more balanced and healthy life.

> For employers, while people working four days a week may become more motivated, this may not improve their productivity enough to compensate for the lost workday.

But why do we have to "compensate for the lost workday"? Let's just say that at this point in history we appreciate work-life balance more than before and we'll switch to 4-day weeks with the same paycheck.

My thought also. Just tweeted about it: https://twitter.com/misterremote/status/1395213302708555779

I don't want to share what app I'm using in real-time (Smiling face with open mouth and smiling eyes) Is this just me?

But ok, nice way to be open & transparent I guess.

Still my first thought is: seems like I always have to be mindful about what app I'm using right now as the whole team can see it when I read too much HN

Haha, exactly me!

Yeah. And I'm also thinking about the value you give to the world, you know. Like these photo filter apps. How do they improve our life here on Earth.

They rather have negative effects I would say: like a bad impact on teenager's self esteem or something like that.

But yeah, it's our society and it's values :)

Ok, I see. I guess if company feels that the talent is very valuable to them, it's possible to negotiate special terms like this, but I guess in general companies are not then interested in part-time roles yeah.

I'm actually planning to cut my time in half, but keep the same pay. My story was discussed here on HN yesterday/today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27133376

Long story short: As the startup I'm working at doesn't have enough money to raise my hourly price, I'm now proposing to cut my hours in half, but keep the pay. So I'm working half the time, but keep the pay. It's summer now, so I'm happy to spend more time with friends and family.

And while we're talking about working less, another thing that's interesting I think is "4-day work weeks". There are remote companies who work 32h per week. I even made a list of the ones I know, but I'm sure there are more: https://remotehunt.com/remote-companies-with-4-day-work-week...

I’m often thinking about the same thing, but not only in tech.

Like why this photo filter app boy/girl is super rich + has a lot of free time, and my friend nurse has very little money and works all the time?

But shouldn’t that be totally doable? What’s the argument against that by the employer? Because pay is also 50%

Nice that you brought up the location. I'm in Europe.

There are two sides of me when I think about the salary and location:

1) you write code and produce stuff and it doesn't matter where you live. you can live anywhere you want, just do the job and get paid. from that POV it seems weird to think that one person gets a lot more money than the other for the same output, the same work

2) another POV in me is that your costs are different depending on where you live. so while the salary's number on paper can be the same for people working from different countries, the "worth" of the money is different.

But mostly I tend to agree with POV number 1 I think.

TBH, of course I do know that moderators exist, but I've never consciously thought that it can be really awful what they see (children stuff, suicide, etc)

Yeah, I get how this can sound like a pathetic moan about my salary. But I was really looking for some comments and data about dev salaries from the HN community.

And it was super helpful, really. After reading the comments, I had a call with the startup this morning and here's the result: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27140093

I agree. I don't :D I had a call with the startup today and here's the result: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27140093

Why fascinating? :) My reason for not thinking about my hourly price was that I had a very flex schedule. I knew that I got paid very little for my experience, but I finished my tasks really quickly and had a lot of free time.

But when I needed to log my hours, yes – this got me thinking about my hourly price. Because now I just don't do a flat $6k invoice every month, but have to present the hours...

Thanks for a detailed comment. I asked them for more money, here's the result:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27140093

Thanks! Just curious why logging hours is a red flag for you?

Well, I myself hate logging hours. But I think it's a personal issue of mine.

In short, it's maybe my ego thing. I somehow hate when people measure my minutes. I know what I do and I can manage any task they give me, quickly. But I hate when someone asks: "how many hours did you exactly work yesterday".

I finished all necessary tasks and a bit more :D like what's your problem with my hours?

But I know. I can be a complicated person in that sense...

Thanks! I had a call with the startup today about my price (see my full comment above).

But basically they said they don't have any more money and we should all work with what is possible right now.

Wat...

Thanks for this. I had a call with the startup today (see my comment above).

Thanks for a great comment! Seeing your comment and other encouraging comments here on HN, I had a call with the startup this morning.

I basically said: "Now that I have to log my every hour, it got me thinking about my hourly price. Some of my friends (actually referring to HN people as you understand here) are making $250/h. I'm making $37/h. Are we able to increase my price?"

And they basically said: "We don't have any more money to pay you. Yes, I too can see some of my friends with nicer houses and clothes, but so what. We're building this startup and we all make sacrifices."

Well, they do offer me a percentage after a few years, but the company isn't worth anything right now, so this does not motivate ma at all. They own 99% of the company anyways.

And this is what I said to them. And they told me to come back in a few days and see if there are any other arrangements we can make (like give me a part of the company or something like this).

I don't now. Let's see what they say, but probably I'll need to start looking for something else.

But I can't. I mean... okay I can. I can just say: "no, I don't track my time for you. this is who I am and I just don't track time."

And then they ask: "why?". What should I say then? :|

Well, there are a few real reasons why I don't want to track my time:

1. I just don't like to track time. I know that I'm good at what I do and can finish tasks very quickly. I guess it's a bit like my ego thing I admit. I somehow hate when people measure my every minute...

2. Some days I work very little. Just a few hours maybe. But I do everything that's asked of me. It's just I can finish the necessary things really quickly. And I don't want them to know that. Because then they say: "you are working only 2h per day and you should be working 8h per day".

Sorry if that looked like this for you. It's 100% real. And today I had a call with startup. I had some numbers to back me up now with HN comments.

But they basically said that they don't have any more money to pay me, so we just need to get by with what we have as a team.

I was like, what should my motivation be in this? It's not my startup...

They're correct! But I forgot to mention I'm in Europe not in US. So yeah, I pay around 50% for taxes (biggest of them is social security tax of around 30%).

Is my salary fine or should I ask more? I feel like I should ask more.

Would be helpful to hear about your salary and hourly price?

You put this very nicely, thanks. There are different ways of doing things for the different purposes.

This reminds me the time I was working at the office. We had an open floor plan, and so no doors (except the CEO).

It was sometimes nice to talk to people, but there were times when I was deeply in code, and someone asked a small random question from me. It was clearly because he/she wanted just to talk. This would have been better to ask through Slack as I could then continue my work and answer later.

So what I usually did was a) stayed home for deep work hours or b) put on my headset and listened to music to indicate that my "door" was closed.

And yes, with the CTO the physical door was an indication: if it was open, we went in and discussed something, and he was always happy to do so. When it was closed, we didn't interrupt him, and when we did, you could feel that he was feeling indeed interrupted.

Thanks! Will check it out

I'm happy to see that, because last time I checked Google said:

You'll have to formally apply for up to 12 months of remote work in “the most exceptional circumstances."

It seems that Google is getting more relaxed about remote work. But why is that? I think it's because people are raising their voice inside Google that they want to work remotely.

What do you think? Especially interesting would be to hear from HN people who are working at Google.

“And everyone is going to be happy with it, and yes, the commute, you know people don’t like commuting, but so what.”

– Jamie Dimon

Nice, thanks! I'll take a look. Would be nice to add tech filters.