Poll of the Day > For the same pay, would you rather have 5 6-hour workdays or 4 8-hour workdays?

(+) Yeah! (+)

nt
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I currently work 4 10-hour shifts Mon-Thurs

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Honestly up to 12 hours in a day is better then an extra day for me.

My personal choice at this point in my life would be 2 10 hour days.

Even at min wage that would be all I need to survive and I don't care about anything else.

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5-6 hour work days. Give or take.

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I'd rather have three full days off then two.

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It takes me 1 hour 10 minutes round trip every day to drive from home to work and back. Fewer work days would mean an extra 60 hours of free time every year.

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Definitely four 8-hour days.

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Four 8 hour days. Bigger paycheck with more days off, its a win win.

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PMarth2002 posted...

Four 8 hour days. Bigger paycheck with more days off, its a win win.

For the same pay, would you rather have 5 6-hour workdays or 4 8-hour workdays?


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Do you mean same pay an hour, or same paycheck. Because one is longer than the other. If same pay an hour, 4 8-hour days might be better since it's more hours, and less days. Not to mention, I'm already use to it... For the same pay regardless, maybe 5 6-hour days since it's less hours overall...
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I always prefer to have a longer shift.

4 8 hour days by far. The 2 extra hours lost on one day is nothing compared to an extra day where no life is wasted.

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Right now, I'd take a 5-6 hour day

Come in, knock out whatever needs to be done and bail before my state mandated employee lunch break

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Easily fewer work days. On work days it's not just the shift, there's also waking up at a certain time, getting ready for work, preparing lunch, driving to work, driving home from work, etc. Basically a lot of time gets eaten up, so having an extra day off is invaluable

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I think some people may be reading wrong. It's ask about working four 8 hour days, or five 6 hour days...
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Few things, most jobs require at least 30 mins lunch (non-paid) if you work more then 6 hours.
Many even require you to take a whole hour off!!!

That is one problem with working over 6 hours that isn't factored into the above.

In addition 4 8 hour shifts is 32 hours, while 5 6 hour shifts is 30 hours.

So the ACTUAL added time you are at work if you take the 4 hour hour shifts is at minumum 4 hours longer (2 based on the 32 hours, and at least 2 more for the 30 minute lunches that are non-paid).

As long as you are paid the same amount per hour (not per week) then it's only really the lunches you need to deal with, and your not working during them (eating etc) so not that bad.

The other main factor is how long it takes you to get into work etc. If your commute is fast, you are still wasting about 15 minutes (minimum) each way (so 30 mins all together). If you have a longer commute (even just 20 minutes), that adds up to 30 minutes extra per day you go in. That does make the 5 day option worse, so it depends on your commute.

In general though, 8 hours 4 days gives you a ton of flexability, you can even back to back your 3 days off sometimes (perhaps with a vacation day or two) in order to have a whole week off to travel etc. You could just take 1 vacation day every month, back to back your days off, and end up with 1 week off a month, every month (with a few vacation days left over if you get 2 weeks a year).

Again though, the best solution is to have 3 10 hour days a week, since you can support yourself fairly well on 30 hours a week (unless your getting absolute base min wage, and even then if your willing to rent rooms/have roomates etc).

10 hour shifts still only require 1 "lunch" period, and are much easier to work then 12 hour shifts (which often require two...and having done them enough times in my life, absolutely destroy the days you work them (get home/sleep/wake/go to work/barely eat in between).

10 hour shifts that start at say 8 am though, still get done by 7pm, and you can still be home by 8pm (eating and watching shows etc), you still have a good 4 hours or so to wind down/relax/watch shows/play games and it doesn't feel like your life isjust work on those days.

10 hours is honestly the best from my experience, and 30 hours a week is both enough work to support yourself (and with a decent job even save money), but leaves 4 freaking days off every week. If you can switch shifts with other employees doing the same, you can have whole weeks off without even using vacation days, and then use your 2 weeks, to actually add to a normal full week off, with another whole week (2 weeks to go to Europe etc).

Really works great with jobs that tip etc, like waiters etc, since you often make extremely good money per hour, can easily switch shifts with other employees and working a 10 hour shift isn't that hard (not great since your on your feet most of the time, but not horrid).

In WA waiters get min wage 13.50$ per hour + tips, and most of my friends were pulling in at least 3x that much in tips. A 30 hour shift like that is more then most people make working 50 hours a week in any retail or within double min wage job. My friend did just 3 6 hour shifts a week and pulled in well over 1k a week that way.

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wolfy42 posted...

Many even require you to take a whole hour off!!!

I wouldn't say many... Many (set at 8 hours) have a 30 min mandatory lunch break (nonpaid) and 2 15 min paid breaks... I think that's law... I can't remember how many it is for 6 hours...

wolfy42 posted...

Again though, the best solution is to have 3 10 hour days a week, since you can support yourself fairly well on 30 hours a week (unless your getting absolute base min wage, and even then if your willing to rent rooms/have roomates etc).

Not everyone would want to work 10 hour days, though... Long days kinda suck... Also, that's about the same amount of hours talked about here, so...
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Sarcasthma posted...

For the same pay, would you rather have 5 6-hour workdays or 4 8-hour workdays?

Somehow I completely overlooked that part of the sentence and counted the hours.

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No biggie!

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I worked 4 10 hours days that shifted each week, and the admit of free time I had was insane

I prefer four 8-hour work days. To begin with, the average work week is five 8-hour workdays.

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I would take 3 13.3 hour shifts tbh

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4 8

two days off just never feels like enough

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4 8's

I love three-day weekends, and it's easier on my gas tank (I have a long commute).

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I'm assuming you mean the paycheck is the same for both shifts, rather than the same hourly rate.

I'd rather work 4, 8 hour shifts. Sure it's slightly longer (just 2 hours), but it gets me three days off every week.

For me, two more hours is totally worth getting three days for rest and relaxation. It also means that I wouldn't have to use my vacation time just to get an extra day to cover little out of town trips with my girlfriend. We could go a little further and stay an extra night, while saving the vacation hours for one big trip.


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4 8 hours. The extra 2 hours don't matter when you factor in the commute.

wolfy42 posted...

Honestly up to 12 hours in a day is better then an extra day for me.

My personal choice at this point in my life would be 2 10 hour days.

Even at min wage that would be all I need to survive and I don't care about anything else.

Where do you live where you can survive off 20 minimum wage hours a week?

Fewer days. Ive been a fan of that idea since I first heard it decades ago and I wish it was more widely adopted.

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I think it depends entirely on the work environment and your commute.

I would rather work more days fewer hours; but I live 8 minutes from work so I don't really lose commuting time.

demonfang178 posted...

4 8 hours. The extra 2 hours don't matter when you factor in the commute.

Depends on the commute. If the commute is an hour, then it ties up both the times. For me, my commute is like 15 minutes, though the base it technically closer. 5-7 minutes of the commute is on base So for me, if I took the time of work + commute, Id work about 90 minutes longer with the 4 days total
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For me, as long as I have the weekend off, I am good.

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11110111011 posted...

I think it depends entirely on the work environment and your commute.

I would rather work more days fewer hours; but I live 8 minutes from work so I don't really lose commuting time.

8 minutes is cool. I live an hour and change away from my work

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11110111011 posted...

I think it depends entirely on the work environment and your commute.

I would rather work more days fewer hours; but I live 8 minutes from work so I don't really lose commuting time.

I live 15 minutes from work and I like my job. Id still rather have an additional day off every week.

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How about I keep getting paid to just fuck about?

Metalsonic66 posted...

I currently work 4 10-hour shifts Mon-Thurs

I would love to have a 4-10 schedule. Company's official hours are 6-3:30 Monday-Thursday and 6-10 Friday. As an engineer, that means nothing as I am often working 10-12 hours each day anyway to meet deadlines but at the very least that would allow us to have more time to actually get projects shipped from the office.

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I work between 6-10 hours 5 or 6 days a week. But it's God's work.

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wolfy42 posted...

Few things, most jobs require at least 30 mins lunch (non-paid) if you work more then 6 hours.
Many even require you to take a whole hour off!!!

Which is why the 9-5 became a 8:30-5 or 9-5:30... or, for some companies, a 7:30-5.

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More days off means more time to relax and recharge between workdays.

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5 6-hour days. I run out of patience after about 6 hours and basically do nothing for the last two hours of my day anyway.

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I recently went from working 7:30-4:00 Monday through Friday to having off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and working four 10-hour shifts (7:30-6:00 Saturday, Sunday, Monday and 9:30-8:00 on Tuesday) and honestly Im not sure how much I like it.

On the one hand, having three days off in a row is neat, but on the other hand, those long days kind of suck. Especially just sitting at a computer all day. And then by the time I get home it just feels so late (I get maybe like two and half hours of real ME time). So I dont know, it has its ups and downs but I do miss leaving work at 4:00. If I had a longer commute then maybe it would be more valuable to me (my commute is only 22-25 minutes).

Course, what I REALLY think needs to happen is shorter work weeks in general. Like, 30 hours instead of 40 (with wages adjusted of course so no one loses money). Working something like 10:00-3:00 every day would be a dream.

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I already do Five 8 hour days. So basically for the same pay, I'll easily take a 3 day weekend without question.

Working 6 hours or 8 hours a day, it's not that big of a difference really.

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