Turned down a $15k signing bonus for a lower offer with a 4-day workweek... six months later I'm not sleeping through my alarm anymore

I had two offers last spring. One was a big company in Dallas offering 85k plus a 15k bonus but 5 days in office. The other was a smaller place in Austin for 72k but only Monday through Thursday. My friends thought I was crazy. But I was burning out so bad at my old job I couldn't keep breakfast down. So I took the 4-day gig. Six months in, I actually have energy to cook dinner and see people on Fridays. The money difference hurts sometimes but I'm not crying in the parking lot before work. Has anyone else traded pay for a shorter week and regretted it or been glad?

2 comments

2 Comments

diana_moore7513d ago

Yeah except the math doesn't quite work out the way people think. 72k for 4 days is basically the same hourly rate as 85k for 5 days. So you didn't really lose money, you just spread it over less time. People get so hung up on the big number they forget to divide by hours worked.

wesleybutler13d ago

I read somewhere last week that a lot of companies are doing this on purpose now. They offer a slightly lower salary for a four-day week, and people jump at it because they think they're getting a deal. But like you said, once you break it down to an hourly rate, it's almost always the same or worse. The whole appeal of a four-day week is supposed to be getting more time off without taking a pay cut, but that's not what's happening here. Really makes you wonder if people are even doing the math before accepting these offers.