I read that the government is considering cramming 5 days into 4 where it makes sense. I think this is a bad approach but curious what everyone else thinks.

Are you interested in 4 longer working days instead of 5 7.5hr ones?

Article: https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/188135/belgium-considers-four-day-working-week/

[View Poll](https://www.reddit.com/poll/q7wp3y)

50 comments

  1. Why’d you think 4 longer days is a bad approach? You work the same total number of hours but get an extra day during which you can chill.

    To me this seems perfect. People who’re all “it should be 4 days of 7,5h” are living in a fantasy. Working 80% is always an option, but then you gotta accept 80% wage.

  2. I think people should be given the option to choose.
    I wouldn’t mind working longer days in summer.

  3. Given that I can work from home (almost) full time, have no kids and don’t need much sleep, it would be perfect for me.

    I can understand it wouldn’t be manageable for everyone but for me it would work. Would probably take a long lunchbreak in order te keep up my concentration levels. Probably something like, work from 07 till 12 followed by a 2 hour break and then 14 till 18:30. Cook something, have dinner and I would still have enough time to relax before going to bed between 1am and 2am. I certainly understand that those working days become too long if you have to take care of kids or if you need a solid 8 hours of sleep + you need to commute.

  5. No traditional work days. You get paid for finishing specific tasks. You have to do A, B, and C until a specific day. It doesn’t matter when or how you do it, only that the work is done. Going to the office for most jobs is an outdated and extremely inefficient option that dates back from an era when any communication other than in person came with a massive delay. Now we have instantaneous communication. I can see and speak to any person all over the world in an instant.

    This won’t happen for a long time, because almost all companies are run by old farts with a boner for authoritarianism and a crippling fear of change who feel that not being present in person is somehow cheating the system, even though the biggest obstacles to progress are bureaucracy and a refusal to think outside the box. This is particularly bad in countries like Belgium with a strong “it’s always been done that way” and “the rules are the rules” mentality.

  8. Not sure, i’d have to squeeze 40 hours in 4 days plus 2 hours travel time on some days. Plus I’d probably be working the 5th day often as well because our team members in the US and Asia work full weeks

  9. If anyone is pro 38/40 hours work week, they can fuck off to hell and back.
    Yeah, i want a 4 day work week, but not work 10 hours on those 4 days.
    For real, if you’re gonna start 38 work week in 4 days, you can expect to work 50 hour weeks in 10 years

  10. 30 hour week for the same salary please.
    Thanks to technological innovation and better education we all became a loooot more productive. Yet we still work the same amount of hours for the same salary (give or take). This is incorrect.

  12. Then they need to change the pension rules.
    Our pension is based on days!!
    With 4 days you will need to work longer before you can have a pension!!

  13. I already need to wake up at 5h20 to get ready, take care of the kids and drop them at school before the train commute. If I add 2 hours to my workday I will be back home way later and I will have tired grumpy children who already do spend hours at school doing nothing but waiting for me or my wife.

    It doesn’t seem realistic, the day I’d win would probably not be used for anything else than catch up with the sleep loss.

    The option should exist but it shouldn’t be mandatory, flexibility is nice as long as the government makes sure that nobody is forced to switch to this system even if it doesn’t suit them.

  14. 5 days as it is seems the best deal imo, unless your commuting time is exceptionally high. 4 days of 9,5 hours + lunch is incredibly taxing to do long term.

  15. Ok knowing my government here’s what would happen. First they get us to work harder 4 days a week for a few years until it becomes the new normal. Then they will add that fifth day again without changing the hours and without any added benefits you would otherwise have. They would see it as an opportunity to fuck us over as usual.

  16. Working 40h on 4 days just seems unhealthy.

    Imagine trying to add your workout or hobby routine into that, it seems like a recipe for burnout.

  17. No question about it once your cross 30 you just need a 3 day weekend for the hangover of a decent night out

  18. Op mijn werk is dit al jaren toegelaten voor mensen die ver vh werk wonen. Collegas maken er dankbaar gebruik van.

  19. Already doing 5x8h a week. Not interested to do 4x10h a week

    Because I already do 5x10h in the reality so doing 4×12.5 instead … kill me already then …

    The job will be the same but crammed into a smaller workweek + with a lower pay. Fuck it.

    Also doing longer 4 days is incompatible with dropping/picking up the kids most likely. It’s already hard enough when you don’t have anyone else than yourself and your wife to do it, only the one who have relative available to do it will be able to do it. Or you’ll have to pay for daycare even longer than already. The kids are already far too long at school+daycare to make it remotely feasible to make them endure a 10-12.5h day at school.

    Fuck it.

    There is already the option to do part time. If you want it do it. But don’t come nagging when you get less money out of the deal.

  20. Shuffle miserably to my home office desk at 8am instead of 9am so I can avoid a whole day of more misery? God yes. Where do I sign.

  21. Een beetje langer elke dag mijn broek verslijten achter mijn bureau? Goed wetende dat die laatste uren sowieso niet productief zijn? In ruil voor een extra dag weekend?

    Sign me the fuck up.

  22. Worst poll ever. Where is the option “Hell no that is counterproductive. The idea of a 4 day work week is not to work the same amount, enough studies have shown that making a 4 day work week (without increasing the amount worked in a day) is on all metrics a huge benefit.”

  23. Kan er mij iemand een bron geven waarin staat dat alle bedrijven op maandag of vrijdag zullen sluiten? Volgens mij is het de bedoeling om de kantoren en het deel van de bedrijven waar niet in ploegen gewerkt wordt 20 % langer open te houden. Het patronaat heeft 20 % minder kantoorruimte en machines nodig. Een bedrijf met 10 draaibanken heeft er in dat systeem maar 8 nodig.
    Waardoor de investeringen in machines en kantoren rendabeler worden. Dit is dus een kleine winst voor het patronaat ten nadele van het sociale leven van de mensen. Wie gaat er nog sporten na het doen van 10 uur lichamelijke arbeid? Hoe zit het met de kinderen als hun ouders minstens 11 uur maar waarschijnlijk langer afwezig zijn voor het werk met inbegrip van pauzes en pendelen?
    Hoe gaat het werk in shifts geregeld worden met shifts van 9 of 10 uur? De vroege ploeg werkt dan van 4 tot 2 en de late van 2 tot middernacht. Dat is op papier nog haalbaar maar het enthousiasme om dat te doen is niet groot. Maar een systeem met 3 ploegen geeft zware organisatorische problemen. Kan iemand daar een oplossing voor geven?

  24. Your description of the change is a bit disingenuous: the government isn’t proposing cramming 5 days into 4 “where it makes sense”. The proposal is to allow a 4-day (but still 38 hour) work week, _if both employer and employee agree_. My feeling is in practice this will only be used in a small number of sectors, like horeca (or are they special already), post delivery, e-commerce, etc.

  25. Let’s just continue lower general working hours for full time. We’re at 38 now, can get it down to 35 like in France.

    Don’t need to go for 4 days. I’d love 6 hours for 2 of the 5 days instead of 1 now. Adding to that one day with 7 hours.

  28. May seem tempting, but when considering the practical aspects: working 9.5 hours every workday leaves you considerably less personal time those days:

    – let’s assume your morning routine consists of one hour just getting ready: washing up, shaving, making breakfast
    – optional: let’s assume a commute of 30-60 minutes
    – those 9.5 hours
    – optional: another 30-60min commute.
    – let’s consider an hour for making dinner and eating it, perhaps emptying the dishwasher
    – consider ideally 8 hours of sleep

    That leaves you with 5.5 (when working from home) to 3.5 hours for chores and personal time each workday.
    In the worst case with long commutes, that’s barely any time left and I cannot imagine that extra day off really compensating that.

  30. There is a bit more nuance to this. First of all, this is not about to become the new standard, it would be an exception.

    If it makes sense for the job you do and if you are ok with it, why shouldn’t you be able to choose this way of working? No, it won’t work for everyone. In fact, it would only work for a minority of jobs and employees. But why should it be forbidden for those who do want it in jobs where it does make sense?

    Giving people more control over their schedule is a good thing.

  32. This feels like when manager read about agile, they implement things because it’s the new cool, but for all the wrong reason and never hold up their end of the bargain. Then they are surprised it isn’t working

  33. No. This whole proposal is absurd. It is the exact opposite of what any reasonable person thinks when they hear “4 day work week”, which would mean a reduction in working hours for the same wage.

    In the end this proposed ‘reform’ just boils down to preference. Do you want to work 4 long days or 5 regular ones? Nothing fundamentally changes, just the frame of reference.

  34. If you work a physically demanding job, your body will have less time to recuperate every day. Even office work strains your spine (especially if your office has crappy chairs).

    You may like the extra day off as a 25 year old, but your 45 year old body may not be able to handle the reduced recuperation time.

  36. I would love to have 3 day weekend. I work 8 hours, and sometimes a bit longer if I need to as I mostly work from my own couch nowadays. I wouldn’t mind working longer, right now even working 8 hours I don’t really do much with my evenings and wait for a weekend to do any chores or socializing.

  37. Perfect to combine with having children and schools that end in the middle of the ffing afternoon. Jeez. I work 4/5 – 1 day ouderschapsverlof and I already feel like I’m running like a hamster in a radje to manage everything. And I’m lucky the creche is open till 6 pm and on wednesdayafternoons.

  38. I think they are just considering the option to choose.

    There is absolutely no way a mandatory 10h work day gets through on any political level, past sindicates,…

  39. Personally dont see how this would work. Maybe for office jobs yes. But i work in horeca, if i gotta make a long day, i will. If i gotta jump in some extra days? Sure. And i like that. Besides, half the year im working more than 7.5 hrs per day anyway.

  40. Why isn’t there an option just to have th 4 day week and the same hours? Whats the use if you make yourself tired even more so you need the free day to get refreshed.. same difference.

  44. Flex is the right answer here.

    Give people the choice to make longer or shorter days. I work at a start-up, have been for almost 5 years, and we mostly choose our hours. To a certain extent of course.

    Get the job done, and management is happy. I love it.

  45. This is the start. First they get you used to the longer days of the 4 day week then they add an extra half day to the now free day. Afterwards that day becomes a full day.

    *puts on tinfoil hat*

  46. I’m not often productive 8hours in a row. Adding more will just make me be physically in the office while being perfectly useless.

  47. I voted yes, but would honestly prefer to keep the same hours per day. The whole point of the 4hour workweek is to achieve the same in less time. Working 10h workdays =/= increasing productivity. Getting more done in less time is.

  49. Can’t believe so many people are jumping for an even more stressful and dehumanizing way of working (10 hours for 4 days straight, that’s absolutely not like basically staying the night at work, right? /s) while we could and absolutely should strive for a better work life balance in these modern times. Really baffles me. We should in fact produce less and buy less useless crap to lessen our impact on the planet. Give me 4 8 hour days, baby.

  50. Profits for shareholders have been perpetually increasing for 30 years while we work more for lower living standards than our parents did.

    I want a six hours day, 4 days weeks and billionnaire heads to roll on the dust.

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