I get a lot of requests for follow-ups to reader stories and reader questions. People want to hear how things turned out. Because I want to know how things turned out, too, I’ve started a semi-regular feature at Get Rich Slowly. Whenever I hear back from a previous poster, I’ll share an update so that we can all know what happened.
Tim Stobbs wrote in September of 2010 to explain why he loved his 20% pay cut. He had a decent job, a wife, two young kids, and mortgage. But although his work paid well, he didn’t find it meaningful. After being elected to the local school board, Tim asked his boss if he could work four days a week instead of five. Here’s what happened:
Last September, I shared a reader story about my 20% pay cut at work and how I loved it. That was written back when the entire experience of dropping down to 80% working week was new and exciting. Now, after nine months of arrangement, how am I doing?
I still have every Friday off from my day job, and at the start of 2011 this became permanent — at least until I decide otherwise. The initial agreement with my employer included a six-month trial period in order to assure both of us that this was going to work. As of the end of last year, we decided to make it permanent.
I have to admit that not working on Fridays is addictive. Why? Life becomes so much easier when you always have a three-day weekend. No, really. Think about adding an extra weekday to your life, so that you can run all of your errands and attend all of your appointments. This is what I’ve done. It leaves weekends free to spend time with my family or work on other projects.
What about the costs of only working part time? Isn’t that going to have a negative impact on my career? Well, to be honest, it could potentially, but so far the response has been the opposite. I’m actually finding my work as a Trustee at the School Board directly transferable to my day job. After all, there are very few people inside the company who can think about information from the other side of the Board table.
So far, I’ve been able to provide feedback to follow employees and my own work to keep Executive or Board information summaries to the point. Board members have full plates and limited time to review material, so I’ve learned to keep it brief. I don’t care if the decision is from $1000 to $1 billion — you can always summarize it in three pages or less.
I also took it upon myself to use some of the “Friday time” to work on what I love to do: writing. During 2010, I managed to finish a book project that I’d been working on for two years! Free at 45: How to Retire Early & Happy was published last month. I’ve also managed to do some freelance writing for the Toronto Star, which provided some unexpected income. So, rather than having less money from working less, I actually ended making more than I expected in 2010.
I have no regrets about giving up that 20% of my paycheck. It brought balance back to my life. Granted, I’m still busy a lot of the time, but when you’re working on what you love, it doesn’t seem to matter.
Although Kris works full time at her job, she has Fridays off, too. She works four ten-hour days. She loves it. We have less time together during the week, but we have more time together on the weekends. (I try to work Sunday through Thursday, giving us a weekday and a weekend day together. Sunday is by far my most productive day; I get more done on Sunday than the rest of the week combined.)
Not everyone has the option to rearrange their schedule. But if it’s a possibility for you, it may be worth exploring. Whether you work four ten-hour days like Kris or four eight-hour days like Tim, unearthing an extra day in your week can make a huge difference to your productivity.
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Our schedule is somewhere in between. We get every other Friday off. We work full time, but we work 9 hours Monday – Thursday, 8 hours every other Friday. The alternate Friday we have off. Our school district only goes 4 days a week, so my husband and I alternate Fridays so the one of us is home with the kids on Fridays.
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My company is great about time flexibility. I can work from home a lot, and as long as I get my work done they don’t care how many hours I’m in the office or at my computer. It’s great to have the freedom that opens up!
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When furloughed last year we had mandatory Fridays off. The 20% paycut wasn’t ideal, but since I’m paid hourly it wasn’t always exactly 20% less. When projects came up that required extra time, I had that free day to fit it. It made wedding planning much easier because I had a weekday when I could meet with people. I would love to work a four-forty now, especially with gas prices creeping up.
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JD and Tim, having a formal schedule every week day for the last 25 years, I wonder how I would handle days at home without an appointment every 15 minutes.
Any suggestions for that transition? (if it ever occurs…)
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I remember that post, and I was very happy to see your update! I am so glad that things have worked out so well for you!
I gave up a very cushy PT job where I had both Wednesdays AND Friday afternoons off to go freelance.
I won’t even let myself “go there” when asked if I regret it. I feel that it is certainly a challenge, and although I am older now and busier, at least I am never bored. I still need to earn more though, and I continue to work on that.
Caveat, this was a calculated risk. We own our own home in a very HCOLA (the mortgage is paid off) as well as several rental properties (which are NOT yet paid off).
I guess my answer would be, I’m busier, and earning less, but because I’m no longer bored out of my brain, I’m generally much happier than I was before. I make my own schedule now, which is something that is extremely important to me.
My DS1 is a humanitarian aid worker who works in a danger zone. He arrived home today. I was able to schedule today off, pick him up from the airport, “chill” with him for a few hours, and take him out to lunch. Then take him to get a new passport because he has no more empty pages left on his. I left him there to run errands. He walked home, then crashed.
I did a bunch of stuff I needed to do, then shopped and make dinner for my family (including DS1′s friend). Price? Not sure, it was only pasta LOL. But being able to do that was just priceless.
“Conscious spending”, as JD always says (not the pasta dinner, the day off and the lunch out with DS1 LOL)
Plus, it’s just crazy-making to do the same thing for 23 years, with another 10 years on the horizon. Had I stayed there I probably would have committed hari-kiri LOL.
So kudos to you, original poster, for finding an unusual solution that worked out so well for you!
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JD, I just LOVE that you are doing follow-ups on your “Reader Stories” series! As if you couldn’t tell LOL.
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I remember that post. Glad to know it has worked out for you. I proposed to my employer mid last year to let me work from home 3 times a week. We had a trial period of 6 months. After the performance review in December it became permanent. Never been happier. The proposal took so much thought and time. But I thought about every single question they might have and addressed it in my proposal. You will never know unless you try. The worst they can say is no. Also the trial period gives both the employee and the employer to test it out.
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From the other side of the table, as a manager I offered an employee the option to work from home a couple of days a week and it worked out great. Productivity was up, absenteeism was down, and everyone was much happier. We did an agreement and built in a regular review periods so if any point it wasn’t working out, we could revisit the arrangement. Plus, it gave us a template to deal with snow days, sick kids, school closure days, days when people needed to wait for a repair person at home, etc. We still got our work done, goals accomplished, and the staff felt way less stressed out. It was nice to work where we had flexibility and didn’t feel like we were letting anyone down because we could balance our work & home life. It’s always good to examine the schedule and find a way to make it fit for individuals rather than cramming the individuals into a 9-5 grind.
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How nice that you have the option to take off Fridays with your pay cut. My employer lowered our pay 33% and increased our working hours to 50 hours a week (from 35-40) at the same time so we could service more clients for less money. So, I’m working longer hours and more stressed out for 1/3rd less pay. It sucks.
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when I was phasing into retirement I did a four-day week for awhile (and then half time). The four day week was great because it meant that I didn’t have to take vacation time to deal with the furnace, or sick time for a non-emergency medical appointment, and so on, I also could do some elder care activities and it made lots of errands easier (I actually chose tuesdays off, because a review of my schedule indicated that no one was likely to want to schedule meetings on that day). I think that what I and my employer found was that in general I was more at-my-job when at the job (for example, I wasn’t on the phone trying to schedule life stuff or deal with life problems while at work, since I had a week day to do that ) when I went to a four-day week.
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Kudos on the book Tim!
That’s more because it fits with kids’ times off school. But I have the best of both worlds with a 5 hour work day, usually 4 days a week – for the moment… 
Personally, I like the downsized work week of lower hours every day rather than a day off – unless the weather is great.
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Two years ago this month, my boss put me on a four-day schedule. After tinkering with the days off, we settled on a Wednesday-Saturday work schedule, Sunday-Tuesday off (it’s a seven-day business).
Then, after being semi-retired on 80% pay, I offered last year to go to a three-day week with no benefits. The company’s response: “Your resignation is accepted.”
While some employers are forward-thinking enough to allow some variation in the workplace, it’s far from universal.
I was able to retire, effective Jan. 1, because I had planned for it for years. But I had also planned to work until June 1, 2012.
Nevertheless, it all worked out; my pay cut showed me how little I could live on and Social Security is almost exactly what my final four-day salary was.
I was forced to leave earlier than I planned but, as a comment I saw on another message board states: “It’s better to retire a year too early than a day too late.”
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A few years ago I suggested to my husband that he approach his boss about going to a 4 day work week inorder to free up some time so he could have more time to do the things he enjoys. He did, they did a trial period, and it has been permanent for a year. At first the trasition to a 10 hour day was a little exhausting but once your body gets used to it you don’t know the difference. Now he can spend more time on his hobbies, go to appts. without taking time off, start and finish projects, take a little day trip with his sweetie
, or just veg-out if he chooses. It works out very well for our life.
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Were you able to keep your health benefits? I think this might be the largest obstacle to working part time. In my opinion, it’s ridiculous that health benefits are in any way tied to employment.
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Every employer I have had would have let me waive my health insurance benefits, yours probably does too.
My family is currently paying for our insurance independently because I switched from full-time work to being a consultant. We are paying less per month, although we have a higher deductible.
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Sure, they’ll let you waive it – but they probably won’t increase your salary by the amount they save from not insuring you.
The other problem is if you have a spotty health record you may not be able to get reasonably-priced health insurance on the private market. You have no choice but to work full time for a private company to keep reasonable coverage.
I’m curious if you found this not to be the case. In a few years time I’d like to consider doing things part time, but health insurance is a concern of mine.
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In my case, the magic number is 75% or more time. At that level I keep all my health coverage and only got prorated on vacation and pension. Otherwise everything was the same.
Tim
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I seem to remember that Tim lives in the Canadian Prairies (Saskatchewan maybe?)
As such, his health care costs, minus prescription drugs and eyeglasses, would be covered regardless of employment.
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I would love to work a 4-day workweek at 10 hours per day. One place that I had previously worked at went to this type of schedule after I had left, but the day off is required to be in the middle of the week. I would also prefer a three day weekend like what you described in the post, but that just is not possible for everyone.
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Thank you so much for writing this blog post, about 3.5 years ago I decided to cut my work week back by one day a week as well, this was right before the birth of our first child. Needless to say I never looked back. We had another since and as a dad this has been amazing, having time to spend with my children when they are little is priceless. Some people would say that I am trading time now for years more of work later. I have wondered this as well. But this time has allowed me to pursue and explore other passions that have been wonderful and just this year I began to see a second (albeit extremely moderate) stream of income. I am a believer that the 40 hour work week (usually 50) is incompatible with life.
My advice: make yourself so invaluable at work that your company can not imagine life without you, and then prove what you already know deep inside, you can get just as much done in 4 days that you used to get done in 5. They pay you less and they get just as much output: win win!!
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Great follow-up! Just read that story the other day.
I’m so jealous. Honestly I could achieve the same amount of productivity in my job working 3 days a week instead of 6… but good luck convincing Human Resources to let me have extended weekends haha
Tim, good for you!
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I’ve had a four-day-a-week contract the past few months, taking mostly Wednesday off. I really love working two two-day “weeks” per week. When things are going poorly, a day off is never more than about 30 hours away.
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Many health care workers work 10 and 12 hour shifts as a matter of course. I work 3 12 hour night shifts in a week. Some people work more shifts for overtime, I am happy with the 3 nights and done. It is possible to work them grouped into 6 day stretches and get 8 off. Some people do that and work a second full time job in a quest for lots of money either because they have a lot of debt to pay off or in a quest to retire early. I stay on nights because the night shift differentials comprise 10% of my income and make it unnecessary to work any overtime. That and no managers are around :}
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So true…for several years I worked a 12 hour overnight shift, 3 days and you’re done. It was like working part time and getting paid for full time! I wish my new employer offered it.
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I did this at a job, 30% time off. I took off Wednesdays and every other Friday. It was heaven! It was just for a few years, and then it ended (a key person in the department passed away).
I was an administrator, so I had enough income, no debt and no dependents. And it let me pick up a few extra things (like teaching at university) that I avoided before because I had no time. The variety and the free time was just what I needed.
We hired a college kid to pick up some of the odd jobs that had fallen on my plate but I really shouldn’t have been doing (boring and not cost effective).
Since I worked for the school system, it didn’t affect my retirement years (taking that 30% off, worked out the same as not working summers) and my retirement is based on my 3 highest years, a few low years won’t make a difference.
I was happier. I was more productive because of it. And the student was working more like 20-25 hours a week, so getting even more non-relavent work done. So work was getting a more productive happier administrator, getting more work done (me + the student) and they were saving money (even working double the hours I was gone, the student was making significantly less).
Honestly for the job, it would have been better to have had me at 80% time, but I could have handled 60% and probably would have picked up a few more (higher paying) consulting jobs.
And had I still been at 70% a few years later when budget cuts came around, my job might have been a bit safer…
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I really like that you’re posting these! Even more so that you put “Follow-up” in the title to make it known right at the beginning. Thanks for listening!
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Nifty! Thanks for the update.
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“My employer lowered our pay 33% and increased our working hours”
Same here – pay frozen, threats of cuts and now mandatory Saturday workdays (Sun& Mon off). Give me back my weekends!
And what about health insurance? Most employers only offer HI to FT (40 hrs a week) staff.
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Last spring, my small company was struggling and I was asked to go down to 4 days. Luckily we had our bills under control and were also able to take advantage of the low interest rates and lower our mortgage. Once the initial fear was gone and we understood we would be ok – it turned out great. It was a fantastic summer and I forced myself to spend my fridays outside and not even look at the computer. I felt like I entered a retirement mindset while i was 37. Having my kids around was also a blessing. Now I am back to work five days, but I am committed to saving that extra money, so that I can “pre-retire” again or be ready for the next layoffs.
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I love my Fridays off as well! I work full time, but a compressed schedule like your wife, Monday through Thursday. Friday through Sunday is for my blog, house projects, and time with the hubby.
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About 10 years ago, my company had a partial layoff where everyone was layed off for 20% of the week. When the company’s financial troubles were rectified, they returned to the regular workweek. I opted to stay at 4 days a week and I would have considered moving to 3 days per week.
I am not sure how income taxes work in the US, but Canada has a sliding scale, since the portion of my pay that was cut was taxed at nearly 40%, it ended up that my net pay cut was only 13%.
I was shocked that in a company of 40 people, I was the only one who opted to stay on the 4 day workweek.
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I have the choice to work 8 hour, 9 hour or 10 hour days. The salary does not vary just the hours worked. For me, 9 hours is the Goldilocks schedule among these. Every other Friday is sufficient for time off, and with my hour-long commute, I am already out of the house for 11 and a half hours and evenings are just long enough to get a workout and dinner.
We also have the distinction of “fixed” vs. “flex” schedule. The 10 hours is a Fixed schedule, meaning if you show up 15 minutes late, that is 15 minutes of leave you have to take. If you are on 9 or 8 hours, you can “flex” that time and work 15 minutes later without using leave.
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