Ask HN: At which companies do programmers work less than 7 hours a day?

22 points by maruhan2 8 years ago | 17 comments

It's pretty hard to find information on work hours for companies. Also since obviously the work hours on a particular day depends if you are in a busy period or not, I think an average across 6 months would be a pretty good estimate.

itamarst 8 years ago |

Some options:

1. https://www.keyvalues.com/ is great job board that has some companies that explicitly claim they have work/life balance. The writeups let you see working hours in some cases, for good or for bad; make sure to read them, they all have different definitions of work/life balance.

2. You can apply to any company that sounds like it'll be reasonable, and if you get a job offer negotiate a shorter workweek. I've done this, and I also interviewed someone who did this at 7 or 8 different companies: https://codewithoutrules.com/2018/01/08/part-time-programmer...

3. Negotiate a shorter workweek at your current job. Actually easier than finding a new job.

4. Just... work less hours. I.e. you're at normal 40-hour/week job, and you just work 7 hours a day. If you're good at what you do you'll be just as productive, if not more. I did that involuntarily at some point due to RSI limiting how many hours I could type. No one complained about shorter hours because I was productive enough. Downside is companies often judge you by hours in office, not by output (https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/06/21/why-company-want-lon...).

I cover these and other approaches in my book: https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/

chatmasta 8 years ago |

All of them. Some have their butts in their seats for longer than that, but very few employees are generating 7+ hours of productive work on a daily basis for any extended period of time.

maruhan2 8 years ago | |

I think that's well known. I'm asking the "official hours"

psyc 8 years ago | | |

It could be dumb luck, but I haven't worked at a company that had official hours in about 17 years. I've got used to working at companies where as long as you produce good work, show up to scheduled meetings, and don't outright embarrass your boss, you can come and go as you like.

jlengrand 8 years ago |

In the Netherlands, it's pretty typical to work 32 hours a week. Over 5 days, that's less than 7 hours a day. Though most people prefer having 8 times 4 and take a day off :)

some_account 8 years ago |

In Sweden at a big company, your day as a programmer usually has a few meetings and a lot of social interaction with colleagues. Maybe you get 3-4 hours of programming every day if you are lucky and can focus in the noisy open office environment. Im in the office about 7 hours every day. Salary is excellent for Swedish standards and living costs.

maruhan2 8 years ago | |

May I ask what the typical programmer's salary is there?

plogik 8 years ago | | |

Depends on where in Sweden. Salaries in Stockholm are higher than the rest. I live in southern sweden, entry level is just over 30'SEK (USD4000), senior over 40' (USD5000). Varies from company to company and by industry etc. But around that ballpark generally

skylark 8 years ago |

Less than 7 hours (6 or less) is typically considered a part time arrangement. If you're a high performer, you can try to negotiate for this kind of situation, but it's rare to start a job with that type of benefit. You should expect to lose a proportionate amount of your salary, (keep in mind that depending on your tax bracket, the percentage hit to your take home will be less affected.)

The benefit of being officially on part time is that it sets everyone's expectations and shouldn't negatively impact your promotion trajectory, especially if you're able to fulfill your duties on a part time schedule.

segmondy 8 years ago |

The broke ones. :)

hodl 8 years ago | |

The broke ones need you to work 15 hrs a day and "you'll get your backpay once were back on our feet"