I went part time at work in early 2024 and wanted to share a little about my experience.

Why I went part time

Tl;dr - life’s short and I don’t need the money. The slightly longer answer is that I was diagnosed with cancer in 2023. I’m fine now, the diagnosis was significantly downgraded after more detailed pathology (it was essentially a false positive) and I was cured with surgical removal of the tumor, but as too many people can tell you a cancer diagnosis really puts your life in perspective. During the few weeks I thought I was dying I wrote a lot and didn’t have many regrets about my life, but the one thing I kept coming back to was working less…so I asked.

The logistics

At the time I’d been at Twilio for over 6 years and was in good standing with leadership and my peers. I was and still am an individual contributor – I don’t manage people and don’t have a strong desire to – and I feel like that makes this easier. I pitched my manager on going to a 4 day work week knowing I would likely have to take a pay cut. My manager shared my request with her manager and everyone up the chain from there said yes. I had to take a 20% paycut in the end which I was ultimately fine with, it makes keeping boundaries much easier.

Why not quit? I had considered quitting and taking some time off, but I actually like my job (most days) and framed it as me leaning into working there knowing the company would be doing me a favor. This still feels true: I’m very grateful for the setup I have and it’s part of what keeps me there.

Why not just work less and not take the paycut? I work fully remote so a lot of people asked me this. Of course I thought about it but the mental peace of not checking Slack at all on Mondays is 1000% worth it.

Does this make things more precarious? Twilio had done a lot of large layoffs around this time, so the other common question I got was if this would make me a bigger target for future downsizing. That’s harder to predict and also out of my control, but if anything I figured that because this lowered my compensation I was minimizing risk. I took an extra step to get a doctor’s note for an accommodation since there was some chatter about that offering additional job protections, I have no idea if that’s true or not but felt worth it. I’ve made it two years so we’ll see!

What’s changed at work

I don’t work Mondays, with exceptions for events and travel days (probably happens ~5x a year and I usually take a day in lieu). My paychecks are 20% smaller but I got to keep my full benefits. Other than that, honestly not a lot. My work is always evolving so it’s hard to compare “output” year over year but I feel like I’m just as productive as I was when I worked full time and other people have said the same. I auto-reject meeting invites on Mondays with the reason that “I work a Tuesday-Friday schedule”. I didn’t make a big announcement, but most people I work with on a regular basis know the situation and seem happy to accommodate my schedule. I also regularly talk to people who don’t realize I’m part time, which I take as a compliment and proof that a 4 day work week is effective.

20% shorter work week, 50% longer weekend

My weekends feel so much more balanced now; I feel like I actually have time to see friends, do hobbies, and catch up on life admin and chores.

More time makes it easier to have leisure and say yes to long, recurring commitments like a 3 hour painting class or watching all the Bills games with friends or streaming 50 seasons of Jeff Probst yelling “you’ve got to DIG DEEP” while meal prepping. I finally read The Goldfinch, a 700+ page book that’s been sitting on my bookshelf for over 10 years and is now one of my favorites. I joined the board of my local Library, which feels very productive but then some days I just pet my dog and replay Breath of the Wild.

I’m trying to lean into the un-optimizable parts of my life like building relationships, and having more time outside of work makes that possible. I fully realize this is a privilege most people don’t have but I also think our society is constantly pushing the idea of more efficiency, more output, more money, and I think we’d all be better off if the people who could afford to would recognize when enough’s enough.