[philfreo]

At Close we have been offering an 80% salary / 4-day week option for engineering roles for a few years now. This originally was mandatory during early 2020 COVID-19 economic uncertainty as a way to cut costs without doing layoffs. Quickly it became optional – most people moved back to 100% but some people decided they enjoyed it and wanted to continue that arrangement.

What's interesting about 4d weeks is that it's 20% less work but 50% more days off, which can be very impactful for folks.

Our 80% option is a flexible thing, as in you can choose to do it for the summer but not the rest of the year. We try to adjust workloads accordingly. I've taken advantage of it myself for a period of time and it gave me more free time to be with family and also work on side projects.

Some people really love taking our 80% option / 4d and others absolutely don't want to.

Companies offering flexibility in work hours can really help retention IMO, and is a natural progression after (a) remote / freedom of location, and (b) freedom of specific work schedule.

I know a few companies offer "4-day week summers" to everybody or even "everyone always does 4-day weeks". But I like the "fairness" of giving people an option, since different people are in different life situations at different times where working more vs. less can be especially helpful.

[wnolens]

> This originally was mandatory during early 2020 COVID-19 economic uncertainty as a way to cut costs without doing layoffs.

I'm surprised I've never heard of this solution before. I think it's brilliant, especially for engineering roles where we can still make rent on 80% pay.

I would gladly move back and forth between the options as I get more or less burnt out with work, or take on a new extra curricular.