i_dont_know_

So, for the last 8 or 9 years, I've offered prospective employers a 20% discount on salary if I can work 4 days a week instead of 5. I usually go with start-ups because they're under pressure to hire top-talent but skimp on costs (i.e. they want to offer below-market costs but have trouble justifying why), and they're usually flexible enough to not have a HR policy etched in stone against this kind of flexibility. It also usually takes some sort of warming-up to the idea and a whole pitching and easing process to get it (so I'll work 5 days for the first few months), but it usually works out in the end.

I make everything sound like it's economics while discussing it, but I actually get 1000x more enjoyment out of my work and non-work lives under this time-split. There's some stigma around 'lazy' and 'work ethic' that I usually have to get around, but these are the ideal parameters for me to produce the most sustainably, and keep motivation up sustainably. So I figured this is just my weird quirk... valuing free time over money so much that I do something about it.

Recently, though, I've been interviewing candidates for some open tech positions and found a surprising number of them asking for the same thing in some form or another.

So I'm starting to wonder:

* Are there lots and lots of us that value free time over money, and there's just such a tight cultural stigma (even in our high-earning industry) around discussing it, so no one does?

* Are there lots and lots of us that have already instituted something like this with our employers/clients under some sort of "keep this between us" understanding? One of the larger companies I worked for, I was told to tell everyone that my day off was a day of 'focused work-from-home' out of fear that others might ask for something similar.

I'm just wondering what your experiences are, and if this is a weird niche quirk, or actually a cultural shift :)