I did work it and what I did was that I pulled those two free days together so I had Friday the first week off then the weekend and then Monday the next week. So every second weekend was a very long 4 day weekend.
It changed to very positive, I was much much more relaxed, I used it to travel during the long weekends, not every time but regularly. Other than that I used it to just spent more time with my hobbies like music and photography and the gym, oh and also cooking at home.
I think it was way more worth to me than the 20% pay cut, I didn’t even feel the pay cut but I felt so much freedom with those long weekends.
I had 4-day week some years ago and the best thing was being able to visit businesses and government offices during regular business hours without much organizing (like taking a day off, trading shifts, etc).
I’ve been working a 4-day-week ever since our first child was born 5 years ago and decided to take Fridays off. The biggest change definitely has been that I’m far more able to enjoy weekends now. We can do our household chores on Friday so we can actually enjoy Saturdays and Sundays with activities or relaxing. The additional day of relaxation also led to me beeing ill more seldomly thus actually making me more ‘productive’ in other aspects.
I feel more balanced overall which is far more important for my wellbeing than the money I miss out on. I don’t think that even when the kids turn older that I will ever return to a 5-day-week since my life’s quality has immensely improved.
For me, much better than that is that I’m working 100% from home now. I do my laundry on my lunch break, feel super relaxed while working, listening to a podcast of my own music. Also huge: no commuting.
I have an agreement with my boss that as long as I’m more or less available during office hours it’s fine if I take an hour to take a walk or get groceries. I even go to do sports twice a week now during office hours. (hours I compensate by working a bit extra where needed or when I have some time left)
The job itself is not the best career choice. I’ve been offered to 50% higher salary at other places but that would mean full time office, maybe one day per week WFH for some. They can forget it. My life has never felt this peaceful.
I unfortunately went in the opposite direction through my work life. I used to work a 3 day week for around 6 years and then after that a 4 day week up until 2020.
After this I had to go to working a 5 day week and honestly it is fucking miserable in comparison. I now feel like I have barely any time to pursue my hobbies and things I actually want to do in my life. I used to be able to have a whole day of just relaxing and not achieving a lot at all, another day to get any productive shit I needed to get done in my life such as food shopping, laundry etc and then I would still have another two days for hobbies or socialising or whatever else.
I was also around more when others would be organising one off activities meaning I didn’t have to say no to as many things.
In comparison I know feel like I am either constantly doing things to try and fit in everything I want to do which consequently has a knock on effect on my sleep. At weekends one day is inevitably taken up with shit I need to do leaving me only one day for myself and often I’m too fucking tired from the other 6 days in the week so often end up doing fuck all rather than the things I truly enjoy.
Additionally anything I do go to do be it necessary like food shopping or just an activity it is now a fight amongst other people because the majority of people are off the same two days which in turn makes things even more miserable to do where as in the past I could go during the day on a Monday or whatever when the majority of people were at work.
In short it fucking sucks. I’m now more tired more often and aren’t able to pursue anywhere near as many things that I actually WANT to do.