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

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

Workers at Microsoft Japan enjoyed an enviable perk this summer: working four days a week, enjoying a three-day weekend and getting their normal, five-day paycheck. The result, the company says, was a productivity boost of 40%.

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.

In a blog post announcing the plan in July, Microsoft Japan said there was often no reason for meetings to run an hour, or to tie up multiple people from the same team.

Citing the need for a shift in time management, the Microsoft division also urged people to use collaborative chat channels rather than "wasteful" emails and meetings.

The news prompted excitement among many workers in Japan. A sampling of comments from the Asian news site Sora News 24 ranges from "Here's to hoping my boss reads about this" to "So I guess me feeling like I'm ready to be done for the week by Wednesday is pretty natural."

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.

The Microsoft trial roughly doubled Perpetual Guardian's productivity gain. But for now at least, the company isn't saying whether it will test the four-day workweek policy in other locations or consider making it permanent.


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for this to happen in Japan of all places is pretty huge actually.

So from 0% to 40%?
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cash money!
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Up
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I'm looking to only have 4 days of classes in my next semester at college >->
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More like they busted ass short term to trick them into 4 day weeks
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I wish I had a 4 day work week. It's available as an option, but the reality is my customers expect us to be open 5 days a week (plus be reachable outside office hours) so...

At least I get to work flexibly.

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Honestly I work a five day 9-5 and many of my office mates are constantly on their phones, taking breaks, etc. if it were a four day week I think thered be less of that and people would work harder to get their shit done (incl me )

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4-day workweeks should become the standard.
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Japanese workers are some of the least productive per hour in the OECD so this is probably more than you would see in the average Western country.

https://www.rieti.go.jp/en/papers/contribution/morikawa/12.html

As someone who works in Japan I can't say that surprises me. So much of work here is simply being at work, and sleeping at your desk or just screwing around on YouTube is basically okay. I kind of wish some of the people here would do more, especially frustrating when I stress how important something is and someone makes an excuse and then I see them screwing around watching Let's Play on their computer (one time someone was watching fucking hentai). Also three day weekends are super common here to begin with because of how many holidays there are. Assuming you take no paid leave (I am pretty bad about this myself, I think I have 30 days stockpiled right now), there are 15 official holidays plus most people get some extra time off around Obon and New Years. It definitely averages out to working less than 5 days a week overall.

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4 Day Work Week should be the top priority of the American middle class
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ssjevot posted...

so in other words horrible japanese work culture is a lie and it's actually a dream

cool
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Having worked a four day week before, I actually prefer the five day, if the hours are equalized anyway.

Ten hour shifts feel excruciatingly long >_>

Now if im getting a five day, 40 hour paycheck for 32 hours of work? Obviously I can get behind that. Otherwise to me personally the change isnt worth it <_>
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Damn_Underscore posted...

4 Day Work Week should be the top priority of the American middle class

I think it would be good to aspire to for many developed economies but it feels like this will only make the ascension of other countries as economic superpowers even easier.

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Damn_Underscore posted...

so in other words horrible japanese work culture is a lie and it's actually a dream

cool

Uh no, not at all. You spend a lot of time wishing you could go home, because nothing is actually getting done, but the boss hasn't left yet and you shouldn't leave before the boss, so you're just staring at the clock, it's 9 PM, you ate supper at your desk, you had hopes of maybe playing some games tonight, but you're still there doing nothing, and even if you did do something you know you aren't going to be able to get any of the people who allegedly work under you to do anything so it's pointless to even bother at this point if you need them.

Working in Japan has caused me to become independent to as large a degree as possible because of how bothersome it can be to get other people to actually do things in a timely manner. As a researcher this isn't that bad, but some things just literally cannot be done on your own (I can design an experiment, do the programming, do the data analysis, write the paper, etc., but I still need to wait on IRB approvals, recruit subjects, and come up with shit for people who allegedly work in my lab to do, because they have to write some reports). The absolute worst part is how much pointless paperwork I fill out, and then find out days later some bullshit needs a minor correction or they need more paperwork only to wait a few more days while the clock is ticking on a submission deadline. One time when getting reimbursed for some equipment I lost my patience and said I would just pay for it myself, and they were like you can't do that, it's for research. I was caught in some infinite loop where I can't pay for it myself, but I can't provide satisfactory paperwork to get them to pay for it.

Also fax machines and landline phones. I hope you like using those.

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I highly doubt anyone actually works 8 hours a day in Japan. They might "officially" work that long, but everyone I know with those kind of jobs that keep track of hours have people working unofficial overtime anyway. My girlfriend has a job with theoretical 8 hour days as a software engineer, but she is often work well past official closing time. Her job also has massive downtime and she hates it though. It's usually waiting on someone to actually do the thing they said they would do.

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RedWhiteBlue posted...

So is this 4 days at 10 hours each or 8 hours. Please tell me it's less hours...

Sounds like they just completely eliminated a day, I don't think there'd be a reason to forcibly shorten meetings and limit participation if there wasn't.
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Oh and Japanese meetings, look up a concept called "ringi". It's awful. I am lucky my boss is high enough status to not attend many meetings he doesn't want to and to exempt me from the majority of them as well. He is a bit of a rebel, but too important to face any consequences.

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Damn_Underscore posted...

4 Day Work Week should be the top priority of the American middle class

And won't do a damn thing for the service and retail industry. Guess what people would do with another day off? Go out to eat and shop even more.

So it's really just a nice idea for people who already have a desk job.
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Zikten posted...

for this to happen in Japan of all places is pretty huge actually.

Agreed. Very strange.
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My girl in Mexico has to work 6 days a week for 9 to 11 hours a day. It's pretty ridiculous. She's gonna be so relieved when she gets back here.
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SolKarellen posted...

Damn_Underscore posted...

4 Day Work Week should be the top priority of the American middle class

And won't do a damn thing for the service and retail industry. Guess what people would do with another day off? Go out to eat and shop even more.

So it's really just a nice idea for people who already have a desk job.

I mean, it's not hard to schedule different people to work different days. In fact, those industries already do that.
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I've been doing 4 day 10 hour shifts for the past 3 years it's great I cant go hack to 5 days.

Call in sick or take a day off and you got a 4 day weekend its wonderful.
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ArmieBuff posted...

They apparently work less hours than the OECD average too
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/the-countries-where-people-work-the-longest-hours/

Most people here are working unofficially off the clock. It's extremely common.

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ArmieBuff posted...

Best me to it. I was about to mention that.

Had a brutal deadline last week so I was working most days 9 to midnight. I still officially worked 40 hours last week. Almost everyone here (myself included) has a bed in their office. It's not a secret.

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In college I worked a 4 10-hour day work week, and aside from my bad sleeping habits at the time screwing with me, I loved it. You could do everything you needed to do around the house and run errands and whatnot on Friday, and then you had Saturday completely free to do whatever the heck you wanted.

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