People on the internet are so quick to jump on the “I can be just as productive working one less day out of the week” bandwagon, but communities on Lemmy/Reddit are filled with much more programmers and people working a standard office job than the average population.

For a very large portion of career fields, it is physically not possible for you to do as much work while working 8 less hours a week.

A tradesman cannot do as many jobs working one less day a week, a nurse cannot care for as many patients working one less day a week, a firefighter cannot put out as many fires working one less day a week, some working tech support cannot fill as many support tickets working one less day a week, a chef cannot make as many meals working one less day a week, the warehouse worker cannot move as many boxes working one less day a week.

Look, I would more than advocate for everyone working less hours a week. But Lemmy/Reddit always seem to forget that there are a zillion other types of jobs out there that are different from their own. You physically just cannot be as productive working less hours for a lot of types of jobs because there isn’t “filler” in the day like many on Lemmy/Reddit describe. I have a job without filler where I physically cannot do the same amount of work in less hours. It would be fantastic, but it’s not something that I could see employers going for for any of these types of jobs.