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Antiwork

What do you want work to look like? What schedule, what hours?

I lead a team of knowledge workers and I want to get external ideas on what antiwork would want in a workplace. Depending on responses here I might post more questions. I'm hoping to get a discussion going around what the ideal knowledge work looks like. We do the basics you want: we pay 2-3x livable wage to start, health insurance, 401k etc., bonus/profit share etc. WFH as much as you prefer, an office if you want a change of scenery. Now what kind of schedule would you prefer? Outputs don't change, we still need to deliver X virtual widgets per week, and we still need to cover various client meetings and such during the “classic” hours. Classic? 9-5 M-F with lunches but no mornings, evenings Compressed: 4 x 10 hour days, 3 day weekends Crunch: Super compressed, 3 days of gonzo crunch, no breaks, no nonsense, 1 day napping…


I lead a team of knowledge workers and I want to get external ideas on what antiwork would want in a workplace. Depending on responses here I might post more questions. I'm hoping to get a discussion going around what the ideal knowledge work looks like.

We do the basics you want: we pay 2-3x livable wage to start, health insurance, 401k etc., bonus/profit share etc. WFH as much as you prefer, an office if you want a change of scenery.

Now what kind of schedule would you prefer? Outputs don't change, we still need to deliver X virtual widgets per week, and we still need to cover various client meetings and such during the “classic” hours.

Classic? 9-5 M-F with lunches but no mornings, evenings

Compressed: 4 x 10 hour days, 3 day weekends

Crunch: Super compressed, 3 days of gonzo crunch, no breaks, no nonsense, 1 day napping to recover. 3 day weekend

Flexible: this is my current plan: whatever/whenever you want as long as everything gets done.

Another idea?

The problem I have is people are working more hours than they should. I am wondering whether a little bit more enforced consensus around time away from work (ie mandatory Friday off, no email Thursdays or something) would produce better outcomes.

If your boss asked you to design a team schedule, what would it look like? When should we be in the office? How would choices happen?

I'm trying to focus the question on schedule and work experience, so while I know many think the answer is the complete destruction of the current economic and world order, that is outside of my current job description. I can post that question next if you want.

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