Would you take fewer vacation days in favor of a 4 day week?
Catherine Norris
121 replies
I love having 28 days of vacation in Germany--but I think I might trade a few of them to have a 4 day work week! What would you prefer?
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Mahmudul Hasan Rifat@mahmudulhasanrifat
Good question and tough choice...
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Great question. And hard choice....
@ivo_scherkamp Definitely tough! Would be cool if you could choose to have a four-day work week for only part of the year, so you can keep most of your days! Long summer weekends 🙌
I would not trade any of the vacation days, what I would trade is 10h / day for 4 days a week :)
@vfdraganescu Oh interesting! To be fair--many of us are already working 10h days 😅 We need more recovery time to stay productive and prevent burnout
Very cool question :) I personally also think that a 4 day work week will help to relax and get centered more than just having more vacation. I think there is something very calming and relaxing about the predictability of a shorter work week instead of taking more vacation randomly.
@franziska_kroll Good point! Also gives you more time to get your personal stuff done outside of working hours. However, since I only get to see my family once a year, I love have 5-6 weeks of vacay so I have plenty of time to visit them and also go veg out on the beach on a relaxing trip
@franziska_kroll @catherine_norris Super interesting. However, I wonder what about the trips or summer vacations or Xmas holidays? Those are crutial for me.
@franziska_kroll @olatz_urrutia I think there would have to be a balance, because I also believe it's important to get away from everything and clear your head for a reasonable chunk of time :)
I'd definitely be up for four day weeks and would be more than happy to lose some annual leave days in exchange.
@stevenbirchall 52 extra days off is a good swap for some of the standard 20.
@stevenbirchall @samantha_harris_ well when you put it like that!
This depends on the salary. Would a 4 day week mean 20% less money?
I worked a 4-day week for ~1 year. It had many benefits. But I think I value longer vacations more.
@john_morrison1 In this scenario, it's for the same pay. I love my long vacations too--but would be cool to have a 4 day week in the summer for example!
@catherine_norris I agree, a 4 day week next summer would be ideal for a trial :)
Do I get WFH?
I'd keep vacation time, mainly because I'm particular when I use it. I used to work a 4 day week actually, it's success depends heavily on expectations regarding work load from leadership
@aaronoleary Very good point! Let's say that we're expected to maintain our same productivity levels--would that be too much? I'm still convinced that we wouldn't necessarily be less productive...but it would mean we'd need to cut down on time spent in meetings, etc.
@aaronoleary @catherine_norris I think it's always worth putting into perspective. Even if the team is not executing as much work as before in direct comparison, it's worth looking at other side and long term effects.
You're probably less likely to burn out or take sick leave when you're working a day less. When I worked 4 days for a while with Wednesday being the extra day off, I found myself a lot more organised, because I started breaking my work down into 2-day milestones rather than big 5-day chunks. Etc
@aaronoleary @jburr90 that's a great way of looking at it!
I love my work and wouldn't change it for a day off. Each day is an opportunity for growth, so I am taking the grip and cherishing it as it goes. 🙂
@minimalistphone haha wow, good for you! But taking time away can be really important to reset and prevent burnout 🧘♀️
Longer vacations against 2 days off are what I will prefer!
@excellentweb_australia just curious--what's the standard amount of vacation days you get where you're from? I'm wondering if people's answers change depending on how much vacation they're offered!
4 day week for sure 🙌
If you have 25 days of holiday on a 5-day work week job, that equals 5 full weeks off. I would be OK if I moved to a 4-day work week with 20 days of holiday, as those would still equate to 5 full weeks off.
@alessandro_valentini yes, me too! that sounds perfect 🙌
As soon as I saw this discussion, I started to discuss this issue with my friends.
I think it's better to have 28 days off. Because when you go on vacation for 28 days, you can completely forget about work and go to your hometown. so you can start again completely refreshed.
According to my friends, working 4 days a week is a much better option. Working 5 days a week reduces productivity considerably by the hour. Also, two days are not enough for people to devote time to themselves completely.
@arda_finsmart I agree with both you and your friends! I wouldn't trade my 28 days for say, 10--that's not enough time to visit family and reset with a proper vacation. But...2 day weekends aren't enough! Especially since in Germany everything is closed on Sunday--meaning everyone only has Saturday to get s*** done!
Definitely 4 day work week! 😄
I like having longer vacations as a reset every now and then, but I think the general quality of life improvement of a 4 day work week would outweigh that by a lot. And if your company and team are flexible, you can probably still shift things around to have a longer break when needed 🏝
I work at a company that has a four-day work week AND unlimited vacation. I find as a result people tend to take fewer vacations naturally since they don't get burned out as easily and weekends actually offer you time to relax and regenerate.
@tomaswilliamsa That sounds awesome! I'm still not sure how I feel about unlimited vacation; it's kind of a double-edged sword. I feel like it leads to people actually taking LESS vacation time, and then they're not properly compensated for the days they didn't take. But--it depends entirely on the company
@tomaswilliamsa @catherine_norris I think it does 100% depend on the company and the team. I worked at a start-up where we changed to unlimited holidays by the founder but it wasn't exactly encouraged and then we as a team decided not to do a race to the bottom in terms of taking less and agreed we would all support each other in taking holidays and that worked. I think we still averaged the 5 weeks a year approx and maybe the odd day here and there.
@tomaswilliamsa @joanne_hurleyv1 that sounds healthy!
@catherine_norris we have a minimum required vacation of four weeks a year that people are required to take. And by law a person is entitled to two so even if someone took none, they'd be compensated for two.
I will do that any-day! Frequent short term happiness >> one long term pleasure. Short term happiness do compound a period of time and gives you better health, mental state and efficiency in work!
I've been thinking more and more about the imbalance of a 5-day work week; it being established in early C20 is alone cause for reexamination given how different work is now some 100 years after the fact. Heck, the recent pandemic even revolutionised how and where we work. For poll, voted four-day work week. Not only is less holiday an option, but I'd work even more enthusiastically, I imagine, because I wouldn't need worry over conserving my energy or focus to last the week.
I prefer 3-day trips anyway, so this is right up my alley