IslandSaint83

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Yes. I was always looking for greener pastures before this. My company has gone above and beyond to take care of me during this. It would take A LOT to make me leave now.

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Same here with my company. They paid us to sit at home the first 5 weeks when a lot of other companies were immediately furloughing or laying off employees. Heck we even accrued vacation time during that and they were still honoring the 401k match.

Obviously I'm now furloughed so we're no longer accruing vacation and there's no 401k contributions right now but I'm still technically employed and they are still providing health insurance. Overall I consider myself pretty lucky.

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What is life in a first world urban society besides the work week, providing for a family, and a day or two to enjoy your hobbies?

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Are you really happy with just a day or two? I don't want to bring politics into it but lets look at Europe. They work on average about 32-36 hours a week which is what I'm looking at. I don't think it's coincidence that they are happier and more content in general.

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Well if you can work 4 tens and maintain your lifestyle, more power to you. I wouldn’t work any more than I have to either. And I haven’t.

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In my line of work 4 tens would be hard and I know our operations leader is personally against 4 tens.

I could do 4 days a week but it would be 4 eights. What I would probably have to do is do my regular job and then do a side job (thinking Instacart/Door Dash) for a few hours in the evening to make up the hours. I'm also willing to cut back my lifestyle a little to make up for it.

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Work blows. People that live for their jobs make no sense to me. I'd retire tomorrow if I was able to.

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Same here and my dad was like this when he was still working. He was defined by his job and I just don't understand that mentality. A job is a part of my life, it is not my entire life and it does not define who I am. I don't know if I would retire tomorrow if I could, I have gotten a little bored the last few weeks, but I would definitely go part time. Again that's not feasible for 4 days could be.

As someone who has been off work since mid-March and furloughed since mid-April (my emplyer was nice and paid us to sit at home the first 5 weeks before deciding to furlough all of us due to not knowing when we'll reopen)this whole situation has given me time to really reevaluate my work life.

All of this time has shown me just how much work dominates our lives here in the U.S. A lot of us work 40-50 hour weeks and have a "live for the weekend" mentality. Friday afternoons are great but it's bitter sweet knowing we have to get stuff done at home and if we're lucky we'll really have 1 day to actually do stuff we want to do. And the bliss of Friday afternoons is far outweighed by the sadness of Sunday nights.

Don't get me wrong, I love my employer and I love my job, I just don't love how much my job dominates my life.

I'm 35 so obviously I'm a long way away from retirement. When I do go back to work though I'm really thinking about going down to 4 days a week (which in my line of work should be possible) even if it means less money. To me the time is far more valuable. It also means on that 5th day I can get errands and stuff done around the house and then truly have 2 days off to do what I want.

Anyone else considering making changes to their professional life after this?