Microsoft Japan Says 4-Day Workweek Boosted Workers' Productivity By 40%

[SaysWho?]

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776163853/microsoft-japan-says-4-day-workweek-boosted-workers-productivity-by-40

 

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Microsoft Japan says it became more efficient in several areas, including lower electricity costs, which fell by 23%. And as its workers took five Fridays off in August, they printed nearly 60 percent fewer pages.

 

All of the employees who took Fridays off were given special paid leave, the company says. Encouraged by the results, it plans to hold a similar trial in the winter.

 

Because of the shorter workweek, the company also put its meetings on a diet. The standard duration for a meeting was slashed from 60 minutes to 30 — an approach that was adopted for nearly half of all meetings. In a related cut, standard attendance at those sessions was capped at five employees.

 

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Four-day workweeks made headlines around the world in the spring of 2018, when Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand trust management company, announced a 20% gain in employee productivity and a 45% increase in employee work-life balance after a trial of paying people their regular salary for working four days. Last October, the company made the policy permanent.

 

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Many employees might be heartened by the prospect of a three-day weekend, but trials like the recent one in Japan are still only drops in a very large bucket of companies and workers worldwide. While employers could now be more likely to experiment by shortening their own workweeks, workplace analyst and author Dan Schawbel says that for the time being, employees are more likely to focus on a more common workplace perk: flexibility.

 

[CayceG]

This is wonderful.

 

But how exactly do they measure productivity?

In my line of work, productivity is essentially hours billed to a project. So if this were to happen to my company, I'd basically just have to do 32 hours of work in 4 days, just like I do 40 in a 5-day week. And I don't have a concept for what that changes going to Microsoft and whatever it is that they do. Also, I recognize that this isn't the same as doing 4x 10 hour days. Which is miserable. 

[Keyser_Soze]

You can hire me for 4 days a week.

[Nokt]

I work 4 - 10’s and even then I’d much rather work the 4 rather than 5 - 8’s. Every weekend feels like a mini vacation and I have so much free time. You can plan short trips around you, get stuff done around the house in a weekend. It’s glorious 

[SaysWho?]

14 minutes ago, Nokt said:

I work 4 - 10’s and even then I’d much rather work the 4 rather than 5 - 8’s. Every weekend feels like a mini vacation and I have so much free time. You can plan short trips around you, get stuff done around the house in a weekend. It’s glorious 

 

The short trips are the big thing for me. I like visiting family during the weekend, and a 3-Day would be fucking glorious.

[CitizenVectron]

So was the 40% boost in total over the previous level? Or was it 40% per hour, which is not as big since they had 20% fewer hours? Still a boost either way.

[Dodger]

Every time I have a 3 day weekend I think of just how perfect it is. Perfect work week, perfect amount of time off. 

[osxmatt]

I didn’t read the article, but was this four 10s or four 8s?

[Mr.Vic20]

I fondly, though vaguely, remember 40 hour work weeks! 

[Guest]

I’d guess most of the productivity gains were by doing the stuff like cutting down on meeting times, which the shorter week necessitated. But you could also just cut those things down anyway because most meetings are a waste of time!

[Dodger]

1 hour ago, sblfilms said:

I’d guess most of the productivity gains were by doing the stuff like cutting down on meeting times, which the shorter week necessitated. But you could also just cut those things down anyway because most meetings are a waste of time!

 

 

Meetings should never last more than 15 minutes. If you're meeting is over 15 minutes it sucks and is wasting everyones time. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

40 minutes ago, Dodger said:

 

 

Meetings should never last more than 15 minutes. If you're meeting is over 15 minutes it sucks and is wasting everyones time. 

Nope, there's a time and place for longer meetings, and they should only happen with clear objectives and a respect for others time.