I don't want higher salary, I need more freetime

I am a Sr. Sys Admin, but I solved this with one simple trick: I requested 4 x 10 hour days, and I work about 32 actual hours.

I am meeting all my targets so it's fine.

Easy-peasy.

First thing I tried to never work more than 80% (~35 hours per week). It's the first thing I ask for, not money. Having a day in the week just for me felt like pure luxury. Perfect to get things done and actually enjoy my weekend.

However actual freedom came through building my own things. Before I build something I always ask myself if I could leave this project for a month without it suffering, so I plan my freedom in with automations. Many many projects later some worked out.

In Germany you can request to work part-time (30h per week), it's in the constitution, of course, you get paid 30 hours.

It's really common, it's so common that the average work week here is 35/h.

Most people I know work the default 40h, but as people get older they typically opt-in to work part-time.

So if you aren't from Germany, one thing you can consider is moving here. It has a good/stable tech job market. Salaries are nowhere as close to the US, but I'm sure you'll be a more interesting person after a few years here, living a more cultural diverse experience.

Part time work is possible.

I initially dropped to 4 days/week in lieu of a payrise (comp remained the same). Did that for a while and since then I've been working 2-4 days/week (3 right now)

It helped that it was a small company and I had been working there for 5+ years, not sure how I'd go about finding a part time software job otherwise. Everything is negotiable though.

I recently worked from home and saved a lot of time by cutting out the commute.

I have myself gotten to a point in my career where my expectations no longer fit the standard model of a job in a company. And that is OK in my opinion. When that becomes the case, starting your own company offers much more freedom.

Work well paying jobs, save up a lot, take time off, repeat.

I switched to contracting and make sure all my contacts are “up to 80%”.

For the past 7 years I’ve worked around 1200 hours per year on average

Part-time work! I reject all of the full-time only positions.

It depends on how much money you have made. If you haven't made much like (99% of devs), then most people need money.

If you have been in FAANG or part of startup that exploded or went through IPO, then you value time.

This is unfortunate but this is the truth.

Zero free time but I do at work what I would have done on my free time.

1. Ask to reduce to 3 or 4 days.

2. Gaps between jobs.

I am looking into how I cam earn $200 plus/h consulting (double if I need to market to find work).

Then 20h/w is enough.

Become a consultant and set your own hours.

Took a 30% pay cut to do software for less demanding but more rewarding company.

I'll take a 60 hour work week and mandatory 12 hour weekend shifts for a total of 84 hours a week right now. I'll take minimum wage. How on earth are y'all getting and keeping jobs such that you can whine about not having enough time to spend your fortunes?

* Increase your value. In my case I have decades in senior management in a part time job managing up to 30 people. There were many times the stress of the part time job absolutely dwarfed that of the full time job. These experiences supremely advanced my communication skills, public speaking, and administrative capabilities generations beyond that of my developer peers. This means my employer knows I am capable in ways others are not and will provide me wide latitude of free time in case something critical comes in.

* Increase your skills. I spend a lot of time writing ambitious personal software. I have learned to measure things and challenge common assumptions from that personal software. Time and effort are different on personal projects because you aren’t getting paid, so you learn to minimize tech debt and time waste to maximize for learning and experimentation. At the day job you just do the tasks assigned how they want you to do them. I always try to hide my personal resourcefulness and criticality and just fit in, but given enough time employers will always see that you struggle less and are severely under utilized.

* Be extremely gifted at written communication and detail orientation. Nothing increases your free time like pushing back on incomplete ideas and assumption elimination.

The bottom line is that if you want to spend 7 hours of your work day watching television or playing games then you need to get all your work done in less time, ensure clarity around your assignments, and ensure management values you enough to provide you increased flexibility.