

Ask HN: Would you take a pay cut in exchange for a 4-hour work week? - justanotheratom


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chad_oliver
Assuming that you're referring to working x% of full-time for x% of the money,
then yes. I could easily live off $300 per week, but even minimal wage gives
me NZ$500 per week. A well-paying job should give me about $1000 per week.
Under those conditions, I'd choose a 12-hour work week in an instant.

However, you refer to a 4-hour work week. That's not a lot of time. _Assuming_
that I'll still make at least $300 dollars per week, then yes. Any less,
probably not. I still have to eat.

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carbocation
Can you elaborate on this question? Are you asking whether people who work 40
hours per week would take a 90% pay cut to work 90% fewer hours, or are you
asking a different question?

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justanotheratom
Too late, can't edit. I actually meant 4-day work week - 32 hours.

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veyron
I think the real underlying question is about time-money tradeoff.

As for a 4-hour work week, there's a sense in which a work week that is too
short will bore you to death. I would take a pay cut in exchange for, say, 30
or 20 hour work week, but 4 hours a week seems extreme. Plus, if you are doing
something you enjoy, "work week" doesnt have the same meaning as a traditional
9-5 job.

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AmberShah
Assuming you are talking about the Tim Ferris 4 hour workweek
(<http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/>) then yes, but that's not really the
problem. The problem is the unreliability of the pay when you work for
yourself.

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iworkforthem
4 hrs off less a day != not productive.

Surely certain tasks can be optimized better through automation, processes,
technology, etc. It's almost like tell me to work for minimum wage.

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pacaro
I think that I'd just work on other (potentially/hopefully) revenue generating
things in the remaining 36-96 working hours, so it's hard to see how it
applies...

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pathik
If the pay cut is proportional, I definitely would. Would give me more time to
work on my ideas.

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vipivip
It depends on the percentage of the pay cut?

