Can we have the day off?

by mlsu on 5/28/2026, 12:40:26 AM

Comments

by: cattown

This article is kind of playful, but I think there’s a serious point here that’s not discussed enough. We’re being asked to usher in huge productivity gains by introducing AI to our workflows, but we’re not asking how does it help us? Not a lot of us stand to directly gain from our employers becoming more productive.I know everybody is afraid of getting fired and replaced with AI or whatever right now. But we should be seriously asking in our next all hands meetings if 10x’ing our productivity can get us some days off. Or when our paycheck is going to be multiplied accordingly.So far we’re all kind of being chumps about this, bragging on Linkedin about all of our new found AI productivity while accepting less job security and no increase in comp.

5/28/2026, 1:07:18 AM

by: alexpotato

My dad was a stock broker in the late 1970s and remembers when most of trading was 100% manual and firms actually had "runners" who would take stock certificates back and forth between trading firms.He has this great quote about when computers came out:"We were told 'computers will save you so much time on work tasks that you won't even know what to do with your free time'. I spent the next 30 years working the same number of hours. "

5/28/2026, 1:10:12 AM

by: terminalgravity

Benefits for extra productivity filter up to the shareholders not to the workers producing the extra productivity.This reminds me of the Luddite movement in England. Industrial machines were disrupting the textile industry. The Luddites were not anti technology they were against technology allowing employers to suppress wages and working conditions and for increasing the quality of life and more humane working conditions for the extra productivity.As we know their movement was not successful giving rise to the bleak images of industrial factory life in England. I think all that will happen is workers will expect to be more productive than before but their skills will be less compensated because “the machine” did most of the work.<a href="https://theconversation.com/im-a-luddite-you-should-be-one-too-163172" rel="nofollow">https://theconversation.com/im-a-luddite-you-should-be-one-t...</a>

5/28/2026, 1:14:13 AM

by: NDlurker

I work 3 days one week, 4 days the next week. Never more than 3 days in a row. It's 12 hour shifts, which sucked at first, but I got used to it pretty quick. The free time is amazing. I took 2 days vacation this week and ended up with 9 days off in a row because of the holiday.

5/28/2026, 12:53:45 AM

by: madrox

The four day work week is a prisoner's dilemma. If everyone did it, then we'd all get a payoff, but if someone defects to a longer work week they tend to get ahead at work. Thus we all do it and thus we all lose.

5/28/2026, 1:16:34 AM

by: nemomarx

the four day work week has been trialed many times and already would have been the same or higher productivity before agents, honestly. if agents get really good let's just go to 3?

5/28/2026, 12:49:57 AM

by: zackify

As someone who negotiated 4 day weeks since early 2020 its been awesome. I get chores and yard work done and more family time every week. Wish it was standard.

5/28/2026, 1:35:47 AM

by: tantalor

Star Trek post-scarcity economy when??<a href="https://rickwebb.medium.com/the-economics-of-star-trek-29bab88d50" rel="nofollow">https://rickwebb.medium.com/the-economics-of-star-trek-29bab...</a>

5/28/2026, 12:52:07 AM

by: kingforaday

This is certainly a fun exercise in economics. By taking a shortened work-week, should the companies then pay us 80% of our current comp? Or maybe a little less since they will have to pay for the added tokens we are now using as part of our job that we used to do manually (i.e. time)? Or perhaps we are able to justify that now they can save overhead by reducing facilities costs by 20% as well. Oh but maybe their business lease has a continuous occupancy clause and now the reduction in foot traffic causes them to get penalized so they need to reduce our salaries even more. Slippery slope my friend.

5/28/2026, 1:05:08 AM

by: ZitchDog

Shoot, I'd be happy with free health care.

5/28/2026, 12:52:26 AM

by: yadaeno

You can have the day off. Don't think for a million years you will be paid for it.

5/28/2026, 1:01:43 AM

by: esafak

Workers need to have more leverage for them to be able to independently assert their working hours. People with such luxury become contractors or proprietors.

5/28/2026, 1:39:15 AM

by: jdougan

I was always partial to the “make Wednesday a second weekend” plan. No more hump day and 2 “Fridays”. Of course that is also 2 “Mondays”

5/28/2026, 1:08:57 AM

by: zabzonk

I was very happy working extra (I won't call them long) hours when I first learned about computing. A bit later on when I started working for financial entities I felt a bit different - the work was interesting, but I just wasn't prepared to sacrifice my time. And if we can have the day off, I think that can only be to the good.

5/28/2026, 1:06:53 AM

by: 999900000999

Best the powers that be can do is increase outsourcing since a 15$ an hour engineer + ai is most of the way to a 70$ an hour engineer + ai.If I was smarter I’d have 200k in my 401k now. Assuming I live cheap in Vietnam and a good yield I’d just live off 10k usd per year

5/28/2026, 1:10:33 AM

by: bruce511

I get where the writer is coming from, but it misses one very important point.>> If AI is going to 10x our productivity across the board, that means that I should be able to produce the same amount of output by midday on Monday that, in the before times, would have taken all week.You are thinking of productivity as "code written". And certainly that part of your job will get more productive.But that is just something you do when you're not in meetings. (or when you're in a meeting, but the camera is off, and you're not really listening). Your real job is to attend meetings. And unfortunately AI can't help with that (yet).(I'm not even being sarcastic. Most programmers don't realize that they have been hired to have meetings.)What it can do is free you up from the pesky code-writing part of your job, freeing you up to attend even more meetings. And this does indeed make management happy because (seriously now) their job is having meetings, and you being "unavailable" (because you know, you want to program) was hindering them in the first place.So no, you can't have Friday off, but now that you mention it, let's set aside that time for "team building" exercises...

5/28/2026, 1:05:22 AM

by: erelong

4 day work weeks have a lot of potential benefitsInstead of asking for the day off, some startups should just implement the practice and popularize it

5/28/2026, 1:20:14 AM

by: distantprovince

I'm fairly certain a lot of people do this. They don't literally take a day off, but just work fewer hours or less hard. And this makes sense, there is a strong incentive to not give away all the productivity gains to your employer.

5/28/2026, 1:06:30 AM

by: cmuguythrow

Relevant: <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/" rel="nofollow">https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/</a>the concern would be that this new ability will actually increase competition and give us less than we had beforethis is not something that can just be blamed on the "CEOs/execs/shareholders" of the world. it is evolutionary competition - unless we can ALL join forces to draw the line somewhere, someone will choose to defect from the agreement to "just work less", because doing so will make them succeed at the expense of others. even if everyone from one country agrees, the other competing country that defects and works 996 with agents will "win" and conquer the lazy country.I wish I knew what to do to fix it, doesn't seem sustainable but I don't know how to make all of humanity cooperate without doing something even worse

5/28/2026, 1:09:08 AM

by: qihqi

The author's <a href="https://mlsu.io/posts/llm/cheats/" rel="nofollow">https://mlsu.io/posts/llm/cheats/</a> is also pretty good.

5/28/2026, 1:02:28 AM

by: goosejuice

The best way to take advantage right now is to consult. Take some time off and just do a little on the side. Then again the job market could collapse, so maybe keep your job?

5/28/2026, 1:04:19 AM

by: great_wubwub

This reminds me of Ted Chiang's point that fear of technology is really fear of capitalism. <a href="https://kottke.org/21/04/ted-chiang-fears-of-technology-are-fears-of-capitalism" rel="nofollow">https://kottke.org/21/04/ted-chiang-fears-of-technology-are-...</a>"Most of the things that we worry about under the mode of capitalism that the U.S practices, that is going to put people out of work, that is going to make people’s lives harder, because corporations will see it as a way to increase their profits and reduce their costs."

5/28/2026, 12:52:01 AM

by: krashidov

> If AI is going to 10x our productivity across the board, that means that I should be able to produce the same amount of output by midday on Monday that, in the before times, would have taken all week.That would be true if you and only you are 10x more productive than anyone else. Since everyone is now 10x more productive it just means you have to work just as much as before since you're competition can outwork you. I don't get why people don't understand this.

5/28/2026, 1:03:44 AM

by: codemog

How about you meet me half way and work 996 instead?

5/28/2026, 12:59:47 AM

by: tap-snap-or-nap

Did anyone ask for the 8 hour work day?

5/28/2026, 1:21:33 AM

by: avodonosov

And not be off completely...

5/28/2026, 1:10:40 AM

by: zephraph

here, here.

5/28/2026, 1:32:46 AM

by: johnea

The whole thing is obviously tongue-in-cheek, but sarcasm is a potent mode of communication.The joke, of course, being that every increase in productivity has ALWAYS gone straight to ownership.Economists have been predicting a boom in human leisure time since the dawn of economics. It has NEVER happened...

5/28/2026, 1:23:17 AM

by: lo_zamoyski

Labor saving tech doesn't lead to more free time, and certainly not in a way that's proportional to the gains of automation. Instead, companies will expect still more productivity. Why give you more time off if they can keep workdays fixed and add still more productivity? Certainly, the competition will do it.Appetite grows with eating.

5/28/2026, 1:04:28 AM

by: awesome_dude

When FAANG were over hiring, nobody was being given 4 day weeks, instead AIUI, people were just given meaningless work to waste their time with.Employers have two modes, waste peoples time, or sack them

5/28/2026, 1:00:03 AM

by: insane_dreamer

Sorry, not possible. The goal of AI is to build additional value for shareholders, not to improve anyone's else's lives.

5/28/2026, 12:59:08 AM

by: runako

lmao Corporate had a hissy fit from people working full weeks at home. The 4-day work week will never* come to the US.* - not while any of us reading this are under 65.

5/28/2026, 1:23:40 AM

by: kevmo

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs</a>

5/28/2026, 12:56:32 AM

by: maximinus_thrax

> If AI is going to 10x our productivity across the board, that means that I should be able to produce the same amount of output by midday on Monday that, in the before times, would have taken all week.You must be new here. No, that's not how this work. If you are able to produce the same amount of work by midday Monday we expect you to increase the amount of output in the current system by 14 x. And the owners pocket the financial gain from this productivity delta and you should be happy you even have a job.

5/28/2026, 12:51:33 AM

by: Finnucane

1 And afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said unto Pharaoh: 'Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness.'2 And Pharaoh said: 'Who is the LORD, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, and moreover I will not let Israel go.'3 And they said: 'The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest He fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.'4 And the king of Egypt said unto them: 'Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, cause the people to break loose from their work? get you unto your burdens.'5 And Pharaoh said: 'Behold, the people of the land are now many, and will ye make them rest from their burdens?'6 And the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying:7 'Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.8 And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof; for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying: Let us go and sacrifice to our God.9 Let heavier work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard lying words.'10 And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying: 'Thus saith Pharaoh: I will not give you straw.11 Go yourselves, get you straw where ye can find it; for nought of your work shall be diminished.'12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.13 And the taskmasters were urgent, saying: 'Fulfil your work, your daily task, as when there was straw.'14 And the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, saying: 'Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your appointed task in making brick both yesterday and today as heretofore?'

5/28/2026, 1:27:27 AM

by: matchbok3

Sorry, I'd rather have a higher quality of living for most people (as evidenced by any huge development in technology) rather than humanity stagnating. This post is quite myopic.

5/28/2026, 1:04:15 AM

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