I can't understand how anyone could ever get bored.
Same comment as @KaeJS
Ok, then why not work 4 days a week instead so you can have more free time while you are young and full of energy? It would also help your mental health and physical health. Why retire early? Why not take that extra money to have more time now?
This is a very solid point.
4 days a week doesn't mean you do 4 days worth of work. It means to me that 5 days worth of work needs to be completed within 4 days.
It would also mean missing meetings on your day off and often have to play catch up with coworkers. That kind of arrangement doesn't work for most jobs where team work is required, unless the whole organisation does it.
That's the entire premise behind the book The 4 hour week.
Very true. One of my coworkers was in the news a few years ago when he decided to retire at age 30, or maybe it was 35. I can't remember the details.
Before I quit my full time job, I went to my employer with exactly this request. I had asked to work either 3 or 4 days a week (based on total hours in a month). At the time I decided that I need more leisure time so that I can improve my health, get exercise, and see my friends & family.
Agreed ... though from observation, a sole focus on work without developing other interests seems to be a key driver for "I'm bored in retirement ... back to work I go".
Likely the same reason why WFH was viable for me for three decades plus but lightly used.
I find ironic that at my job, one of my colleagues asked for 4-day workweek and the management panicked as if it was unacceptable to allow it. They ended-up agreeing given the family situation she exposed, but with a drop in salary as they would not even allow her to do all of her hours within those 4 days. Here comes the irony: many of my colleagues are assigned to projects where they don't even have to work 37.5h to reach their goals, their managers are aware and the company has nothing else to give them. Some could work only 4 days, 3 days or even only 2 days a week. Yet those people have their full pay for their "presence". I've even seen people with no projects for months but still on the payroll because of labour shortage as they want to make sure they have people available when they end up getting new projects.
This is a very legit concern of management. My old employer lost people (and also laid off) during the pandemic, but now is extremely under-staffed and desperate for people. It actually is preventing them from earning income.
Read an article that managers don't like WFH because it makes them irrelevantLikely the same reason why WFH was viable for me for three decades plus but lightly used.
Too long WFH without a big project or other acceptable justification would result in the manager ignoring what was being accomplished, panic that WFH was hiding that I was goofing off and demand I be back in the office.
I always found it ironic as it was easier to goof off at work than WFH.
There's the case the employee can make, the metrics the employee can prove it works with but ultimately, if the levels of management are steeped in something else - they'll limit or kill it.
Depends a lot on the type of work. I've been doing (entirely remote) work as a Project Manager and I can also tell you that many people do need some guidance and management, even if it's virtual. I'm working with a very sharp guy, he's absolutely brilliant, but does need some direction. If he was left entirely on his own without any checks on timelines, priorities, etc he wouldn't be very efficient.
Agreed and even before WFH there is much irrelevant mid-managers. Bullsh*t jobs.
My wife has to go back to the office a few days a week. When she WFH, she starts at 8h and stops at 17h, she's highly focused and efficient. When she goes at the office, she gets there at 9h, leaves at 16h, she wastes lots of time trying to get the secured connection because the installations at her office are so bad, then she has a hard time focusing with all the noise from the people in the open space who all end up being in videoconferences all day long... with the people who WFH.
