Hours

Here's an overview of the working hours policies for employees and myself (founder). I also discuss personal time, timesheets, output evaluation, work types, and work modes.

Full-time hours

Full-time is the default employment type. 35 hours per week (Monday to Sunday). To support cognitive performance and long-term productivity, active work is limited to a maximum of seven hours per day.

Actual working time (AWT)

The measured amount of time a person spends actively performing a work activity, excluding non-work periods such as breaks, waiting time, interruptions, or idle time. Self-recorded by employees using a time-tracking method of their choice.

Aim for seven hours

Six to six and half hours of AWT is the expected baseline on standard working days. Aim for seven hours when personal capacity allows.

Flexible working hours

Choose the days and times that work best for you – mornings, evenings, weekdays, weekends, or public holidays – while maintaining team alignment and meeting role requirements.

Daily time distribution

Here's a time distribution for a 5-day working week (5DWW) day:

Annual time distribution

Here's a time distribution for a 35-hour working week with 134 days off per year – 104 weekend days plus 30 days of paid time off (PTO). There are 8760 hours in a year. 8784 hours in a leap year. Weekend days vary by year (104, 105, or 106) – we'll go with 104 for this example.

Paid time off (PTO)

Paid time away from work provided for rest, holidays, personal activities, and planned absences. Excludes separately defined leave types. 30-days PTO per calendar year for full-time staff. Additional PTO days may be added based on tenure, eg 31 to 35 days.

Includes public holidays. No carryover to the following year unless required by law. No unused PTO payouts. Pro-rated based on the employee's start date. Staff are encouraged to use all their PTO.

Each day of PTO counts as seven working hours toward the weekly total. Employees are only contacted during PTO in exceptional circumstances.

Public holidays

Officially recognised days employees are generally entitled to take time away from work. The number of public holidays varies by country – 8 to 35 days. Some public holidays apply only at the local level.

Public holidays are included in PTO. Employees may choose to use PTO or work on a public holiday, where permitted by local law. Local laws may require additional compensation for those who work on a public holiday.

Part-time hours

We can offer part-time roles of 21 or 28 hours per week, and in some cases, fewer hours. Part-time work is available for selected roles and depend on role requirements, collaboration needs, team capacity, and operational coverage.

Talent pool

Offering part-time roles can help attract and retain staff, and widen the talent pool. Suitable for people who value greater flexibility and more personal time over a full-time salary.

Flexible work arrangements

Employees may have the option to move between full-time and part-time arrangements, depending on role requirements, business needs, and budget.

Full-time equivalent (FTE)

28 hours is 0.8 FTE. Receive 80% of full-time pay and 80% of the full-time PTO entitlement. Usage-based allowances are also pro-rated based on FTE. A four-day workweek with seven hours per day. 21 days - 0.6 FTE.

Annual time distribution

Here's a time distribution for a 28-hour working week with 180 days off per year – 104 weekend days, 52 week days, plus 24 days of paid time off (PTO). A 4DWW, unless you want to schedule the work over more days.

Here's a time distribution for a 21-hour working week with 226 days off per year – 104 weekend days, 104 weekdays, plus 18 days of paid time off (PTO). A 3DWW, unless you want to schedule the work over more days.

Volunteers

People can volunteer their time to contribute to the project, with hours varying widely. Code, testing, community support, feedback, documentation, and other activities.

Founder hours

I have a baseline annual hours target – 2000 hours, with flexibility to contribute additional time when I have the capacity and choose to do so.

Delegation

Gradually, the nature of my work will evolve as systems, processes, training, hiring, and delegation develop, creating the option to reduce my hours over time.

Days off

Days away from scheduled work may still involve limited founder activities such as emails, phone calls, and decision-making, which can contribute to total annual hours.

Annual time distribution

Here's a time distribution for various 'total work hours per year', working 7-hour days:

For 2000 hours, that's equivalent to a 6-day working week (6DWW, 42 hours) plus 27 days PTO.

2000 hours per year

2100 hours per year

2200 hours per year

Work-break ratio (WBR)

The proportion of working time compared with non-working (break) time.

Examples: 7-hour day

Break activities

Walking around inside and/or outside, conversations, naps, food and drink, stretching, light exercise, relaxation, music... Recovery periods to help maintain work performance.

Flexible breaks

I structure work around flexible blocks of focussed effort rather than fixed intervals. When in a flow state, I continue working rather than interrupting the state with a scheduled break.

Blocks of work typically range from around 30 to 90 minutes, depending on cognitive state, focus levels, energy levels, and the nature of the task.

Overtime

The company may occasionally ask employees to work additional hours. Overtime pay – eg 1.5x or 2x standard pay or credit with time off in lieu (TOIL). Employees can't request overtime.

Personal time

The amount of personal time employees and the founder get. One percentage point equals 87.6 hours. The table below is based on 7 hours sleep per day and a 4:1 WBR.

Categories

1. Personal maintenance

Food and drink, personal hygiene, health, fitness, household, personal admin, and commuting.

2. Relationships and community

Family, friends, partner, colleagues, and community.

3. Growth and development

Learning and hobbies.

4. Leisure and recreation

Entertainment, recreation, vacation, travel, and hobbies.

Optimise

Optimising key areas of your personal life helps improve the quality and effectiveness of your work time. Energy, focus, clarity, stress resilience, emotional stability, creativity, knowledge, motivation, communication, decision-making, flow state, cognitive capacity, working state...

Timesheets

All staff are required to log their working hours using our software and maintain a local record for their own reference. Accurately recording time benefits both staff and the organisation.

For staff

Helps you stay on track with your daily working hours. You can review how you've spent your time and make adjustments to help you optimise your day.

For the organisation

Helps us understand how time is being spent across teams, assess capacity, manage workloads, and allocate resources effectively.

Output evaluation

We evaluate the quality and volume of work output throughout the year and in performance reviews.