Ly was a sales manager at a real estate company for three years before quitting and looking for employers who offered two-day weekends or allowed remote work on Saturdays.

She says she wanted more time for her family and two children.

She had worked six days a week and often had to respond to work situations outside office hours.

With just one day off a week, she found it difficult to arrange short family trips around Hanoi or visits to her hometown in Phu Tho Province, and spent most weekends taking her children to nearby cafes or bookstores, saving the longer trips for her annual leave.

“Not having Saturdays off feels suffocating. One Sunday a week is not enough time to do anything,” she says.

She does not want to miss important stages in her children’s development as they move from primary to secondary school.

Aware that full weekends off are a luxury at many companies, Ly prioritizes flexible workplaces and is willing to stay connected online after hours as long as she is not required to be in the office on Saturdays.

The work can be handled on a laptop while visiting relatives or taking her children out, she adds.

Cam, an event organizer in Hanoi who wants to be identified only by her given name, made a similar decision a year earlier after spending years with little or no weekend time. Her former company required employees to work until noon on Saturdays but work often continued throughout the day. Messages about projects and deadlines regularly arrived outside office hours.

Cam was responsible for multiple tasks, including event planning, guest coordination, promotional content, and social media management. To meet deadlines, she frequently worked from cafes on weekends. Despite the growing workload, her income was unchanged.

She asked management to review her salary after taking on nearly twice as much work but the request was rejected due to financial difficulties. Most events took place on weekends meaning she had little time to rest or visit her family. On the rare Sundays she was free, she spent the day catching up on sleep.

“Once I asked for time off to take my mother to the hospital but my boss still texted me, demanding that an event plan be completed the next morning. That was when I decided I should quit,” she says.

After taking a month’s break, she took a job creating content for a real estate publication for a 20% lower salary and two-kilometer longer commute, but no longer has to go to the office on Saturdays. She occasionally handles urgent tasks or freelance assignments on weekends to make up for the lost income.

While these decisions are not yet common, they reflect a growing trend in which workers also value work-life balance alongside incomes. The shift comes as Vietnamese employees work increasingly long hours.

According to a 2024 Labor Force Survey by the erstwhile General Statistics Office, the average weekly working hours had increased from 42.2 in 2022 to 42.5.

Some 46% of workers logged 40 to 48 hours a week, while nearly 29% worked more than 48 hours. Employees at foreign enterprises worked more than 50 hours compared with 43.3 hours in the public sector and 42.5 hours, in the domestic private sector.

The chairman of the trade union at a textile company in Quang Chau Industrial Park, Bac Ninh Province, says the factory previously allowed workers to leave at noon on Saturdays, and many welcomed the time with family and for rest.

But that arrangement ended after the factory adopted its parent company’s standard work schedule of a 48-hour workweek, requiring them to work through Saturday. He hopes the government will introduce a road map for reducing the number of working hours to 44 per week, giving workers more time to care for their families.

Women make up a large portion of the garment industry workforce, with many raising young children. With parents often leaving home early and returning late, particularly with overtime, grandparents often assume caregiving responsibilities.

Nguyen Anh Tho, director of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Science, says the growing demand for jobs with two-day weekends, remote work, and flexible schedules indicates a stronger desire for work-life balance.

He says companies with workweeks shorter than 48 hours are not necessarily at a disadvantage in terms of productivity . Flexible and remote working arrangements can help reduce operating costs while maintaining employee performance, and improve companies’ ability to attract and retain workers, he says.

“Reducing working hours and increasing weekend time off is a global trend. This is also an appropriate time for Vietnam to consider a road map for adjustment when revising the Labor Code.”

The Labor Code limits standard working hours to 48 per week. The public sector has operated under a 40-hour workweek since 1999. The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and many experts have continued to advocate reducing working hours at businesses from 48 to 44, and setting a long-term goal of 40 hours.