Microsoft Japan Made A 4-Day Workweek Experiment, Noticed A 40% Increase In Productivity
This August, Microsoft Japan took on an experiment, called the “Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019” in which they trialed the 4-day work week for their entire workforce. Around 2300 employees were given five Fridays off with no reduction in salary and no days taken off of their annual leave. Naturally, the experiment proved to be a huge success with the increased productivity of almost 40 percent and greater employee satisfaction (92.1 percent of employees reported that they liked the shorter week). “Work a short time, rest well and learn a lot. It’s necessary to have an environment that allows you to feel your purpose in life and make a greater impact at work. I want employees to think about and experience how they can achieve the same results with 20 percent less working time,” said Microsoft Japan president and CEO Takuya Hirano.
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Microsoft Japan has announced the results of their 4-day work week trial
Image credits: Coolcaesar
The 5-day workweek is deeply entrenched into our work culture globally, although studies keep proving over and over again that they’re not as efficient as shorter workweeks. In the late 18th century, working 10-16 hours was considered normal, as factories “needed” to be run 24/7. It was only until Welsh activist and advocate for shorter workdays Robert Owen came up with the slogan “Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.” Today, no one bats an eye for the 8-hours a day, 5 days a week job – it is the new “normal.” However, more and more companies and scientists are reconsidering what is normal, including Microsoft Japan. As the International Labour Organization back in 2018 reported: “The best available empirical evidence shows that reducing full-time working hours can lead to numerous positive outcomes for workers, enterprises, and society as a whole: fewer occupational health problems and reduced health care costs; more and better jobs; better work-life balance; and more satisfied, motivated, productive employees resulting in more sustainable enterprises. In addition, shorter working hours can even make an important contribution to the “greening” of economies because the more we work, the greater our “carbon footprint”; so, cutting back on the number of days that we work – and therefore the number of times that we have to commute from our homes to our workplaces – is bound to have a positive impact on the environment as well.”
It may come as no surprise that the productivity of employees increased almost by 40 percent
Image credits: Manidis Roberts
To fit into the 4-day workweek, many meetings in Microsoft Japan were shortened, conducted remotely or cut altogether. Not only did the 3-day weekend trial result in a 39.9 percent increase in productivity, but employees took 25.4 percent less time off, electricity use was cut down by 23.1 percent and 58.7 percent fewer pages were printed. This means only one thing – not only the long weekends are better for employees and their wellbeing, but it’s also better for the environment itself, as fewer resources are being used.
Here’s how people online reacted
121Kviews
Share on FacebookPeople talking about 4/10s, do they mean 4 days of 10 hours? Are they insane? The whole idea of 4 day-weeks is 4 times 8. It's about working less, not about cramming the same time in less days! I've been working 32 hours for 4 years now and it's wonderful. I used to live for vacations, but now with every weekend being a long weekend, I even forget to take up my vacation days. Had to take a week off every 5 weeks in the third year, because I saved too many days :)
I haven't been working full time for a long time but I've been thinking about this a lot lately. No one has any time to do anything with a 5 day work week with only 2 days to rest.I work 8-5 Monday to Friday and I am exhausted on weekend... I'm in my 20's, I can't even begin to imagine what parents feel like! We're not supposed to be rushing around, not having time for ourselves and our families...
Do it! You're young, you can get used to having a little less money now. When you're older, with a mortgage, kids, hobbies, etc. it will be much harder to work less and earn less.
Load More Replies...Although it's not the first time I'm reading about a similar experiment, news like these are always welcome, and never enough. Hopefully things will change for the better. Even if I might be retired already by then....
Retirement? I don't think anyone Gen X and younger will see retirement unless they've had SIGNIFICANT help from their parents over the years. We'll all be working until the day we die because the Boomers f****d everything up for the rest of us.
Load More Replies...It's been shown many times that shorter work weeks or less work hours improve workers' efficiency and wellness. It's about time for a new change, whether that's a 4-day work week or 5 daysx6hrs. It's exhausting not to have any free time, by the time the weekend rolls around you have to choose whether to use your two days to rest or do something fun. Right now my home-office days are the best benefit I have. We all know you don't work 8hrs straight every day and when I'm at home I can use the few hours I don't have any work to do some housework or attend to personal business. And I would happily trade this for shorter work weeks/hours.
They are doing more hours. you could also do 6 days on at 8 hours a day and 3 off
Load More Replies...Eight-hour workdays is not the norm for salaried employees in the US. Also, from my experience, most managers focus on hours worked and not productivity which is a shame and a mistake. If I'm productive and efficient and accurate, and work overtime frequently, I should be allowed on some days to work less than eight hours.
Would be nice if other companies will still pay the same as a 5 day week for a 4 day week. We couldn’t sacrifice the the wage for that time off unfortunately.
They should, and we should FORCE THEM TO. Capitalism is inherently evil. Everything we have, we have had to fight for, so this should be no different. They'd put children back in coal mines in a heartbeat if we let them.
Load More Replies...In Canada it is, almost. Quite a few months out of the year have a statutory holiday so long weekends aren't that infrequent. Plus we get paid for the day.
Load More Replies...I am so glad to hear that this four day work week was implemented as a test trail at Microsoft Japan. Japan is renown for its cutthroat work culture with both men and women working outrageously long hours. There have been articles and news reports speaking about “death from overwork” in Japan. Other countries also continue to hold on to this antiquated belief that working more hours makes you more productive. I came from a very harsh work environment and it pains me to see people brag about how long they work like it’s some source of pride; bragging about never taking a vacation just makes me sad. Working around the clock is bad for you physically and mentally. Not to mention that the added stress leads to increased mistakes because you constantly feel as though you are in a pressure cooker. Many of the Nordic countries already implement a shorter work week, and studies continue to point to increased productivity and worker happiness. I wish this practice would spread to more countries and companies.
Meanwhile, here in Korea, the company where I work considers eating a luxurious neccessary evil, so it doesn't count the lunch hour, therefore we are required to stay there 9 hours a day. Thankfully, there have been positive changes and improvements recently, regarding the working hours, but this one is still never brought up as a problem.
Load More Replies...Many of us assumed that they went to 4/10s but the article does not state that. It's interesting, Vouchercloud did a study in 2016 (I believe) that found that the average office worker was only productive between two and three hours per day. There was an interesting article in Business Insider about reducing full time hours to 32 per wk. (https://www.businessinsider.com/8-hour-workday-may-be-5-hours-too-long-research-suggests-2017-9 ) I have worked part-time and full time. While there was a financial impact, I loved working part-time and I was really productive during those shorter days.
Not a lot gets done those last hours of a 9- or 10-hour day. You're tired, and if you need to communicate with others, they are probably gone for the day. The day off is nice, but you can't get anything done after you get home on work days.
Load More Replies...Blood thirsty, greedy corporations will never go for this. After all, it was never about the workers.
Oh those greedy corporations. I lost my keys the other day. Damn corporations! By the way, when was the last time you turned down a pay raise because you already had enough money to pay your bills?
Load More Replies...Not only do 4 day work weeks help, not interrupting people during the day also helps. For instance, software developers stopped during coding to "ask a simple, quick question" can take 30+ minutes to get back to where they were in their coding. The proper way to manage software developers (and I would assume everyone else), is to set aside 1 or 2 hours in the morning for meetings and then allow everyone to go off and do their work WITHOUT INTERRUPTION. This allows people to get more done in the same time and forces people to know what they need and to get better at communications because mis-communications will lose them a day's work. I will not work in a software shop where people are allowed to interrupt the coders throughout the day. I'm over people not being able to do their jobs effective and dumping it on the coders at the last minute.
I worked for a local university in the 1970's, and we did 4/10s for each summer...it was great! the school saved money on AC costs, and employees saved money on child care and got to spend more time with family. And coming in earlier, leaving later meant commutes weren't so bad, either. Win-win all around!
Can fully support this. I have a zero workday schedule for some years now and I've never been happier and more productive.
Experimenting with 4-day work-weeks has been going on for years. The experiment as a reaction to the japanese workers dying from overwork seems a bit too delayed to be correlated. Is there a connection between Microsofts sudden interest in the experiment and it's finalized partnership with OpenAI one month prior, which will be the main contributor to Technological Unemployment?
I would be curious about this for a long term study. It seems like since it was an experiment it would be easy for the employees to work extra hard for the duration of the experiment.
As a DJ, Paris Hilton got half a million $ in two weekend nights. What's the buzz?
All of this assumes office work. There are so many jobs that are not 9-5 Monday to Friday, yet sometimes it seems like people think that this is the only working week there is.
Few things, its not less hours, just less days, it has been experiemented with several companies in several countries, in fact Koch Industries (regardless of what you think of their politics, that is not relevant to this) was one of the first to try it and instead went to a flex hour system, but they are one of the Pioneers in this.. But what a 4 day work week is the same 40 hours a week, but less days, and in some countries it works and in some it doesnt. Culture plays a large role in that. Also Robert Owen borrowed his phrase from Maimonides who wrote "8 hours of work, 8 hours of life which shall be broken into 5 hours of service to god and 3 for eating and family, and 8 hours of sleep". But he did popularize it and modified it to fit his labor needs
The article implies they worked fewer hours per week. People in the comments keep mentioning that but the article says: "...the same results with 20 percent less working time" implying they genuinely moved to working 4 days a week with the same per-day hours.
Load More Replies...yeah… people without kids maybe, but with kids i couldn't do a 10 hours a day job. i have a 8 hours a day job and even that it's hard. it's not for everyone. when i had not kids i'd like to have a 3 day weekend, but not now
A better shift is 7 days on 12 hours and 7 days off. you can take a VACATION in that 7 days off. or book one week off and get 3 Weeks off before your even supposed to have that much time at once
12 hours for seven days in a row? That sounds absolutely grueling!
Load More Replies...How is there less electricity being used and less paper being printed when they are working 4 days on with 10 Hour days which is EXACTLY the same as 5 days 8 hours a day?? This is the shift I work, I went from 6am to 14:00 monday to friday. Now I work 6am to 16:00 and get thursdays and weekends off
I don't think they did move to 10 hour days? People in the comments keep mentioning that but the article says they worked 1 day less per week:: "...the same results with 20 percent less working time"
Load More Replies...Wait are we talking 4 10 hr days or 4 8 hr days..cause noone is gonna drop down to parttime status. Companies dont give benefits to those not fulltime. Happier? How am i happier if i have less money and no health insurance
I'm so sorry that you're living in a society that doesn't even allow people to live their life as they want. Perhaps your next president will make America reasonably livable again, so health insurance is your constitutional right instead of a privelige for a select few. rich people.
Load More Replies...JuanCarlosGuzmanAdorador4.23@Gmail.com & S' PARRA. www.justapaz.org & www.olivoverd.org www.enlace.og WWW.MC.12.COM www.ebenezer.hn www.lakerwooo.com JuanCarlos...100450.jpg
People talking about 4/10s, do they mean 4 days of 10 hours? Are they insane? The whole idea of 4 day-weeks is 4 times 8. It's about working less, not about cramming the same time in less days! I've been working 32 hours for 4 years now and it's wonderful. I used to live for vacations, but now with every weekend being a long weekend, I even forget to take up my vacation days. Had to take a week off every 5 weeks in the third year, because I saved too many days :)
I haven't been working full time for a long time but I've been thinking about this a lot lately. No one has any time to do anything with a 5 day work week with only 2 days to rest.I work 8-5 Monday to Friday and I am exhausted on weekend... I'm in my 20's, I can't even begin to imagine what parents feel like! We're not supposed to be rushing around, not having time for ourselves and our families...
Do it! You're young, you can get used to having a little less money now. When you're older, with a mortgage, kids, hobbies, etc. it will be much harder to work less and earn less.
Load More Replies...Although it's not the first time I'm reading about a similar experiment, news like these are always welcome, and never enough. Hopefully things will change for the better. Even if I might be retired already by then....
Retirement? I don't think anyone Gen X and younger will see retirement unless they've had SIGNIFICANT help from their parents over the years. We'll all be working until the day we die because the Boomers f****d everything up for the rest of us.
Load More Replies...It's been shown many times that shorter work weeks or less work hours improve workers' efficiency and wellness. It's about time for a new change, whether that's a 4-day work week or 5 daysx6hrs. It's exhausting not to have any free time, by the time the weekend rolls around you have to choose whether to use your two days to rest or do something fun. Right now my home-office days are the best benefit I have. We all know you don't work 8hrs straight every day and when I'm at home I can use the few hours I don't have any work to do some housework or attend to personal business. And I would happily trade this for shorter work weeks/hours.
They are doing more hours. you could also do 6 days on at 8 hours a day and 3 off
Load More Replies...Eight-hour workdays is not the norm for salaried employees in the US. Also, from my experience, most managers focus on hours worked and not productivity which is a shame and a mistake. If I'm productive and efficient and accurate, and work overtime frequently, I should be allowed on some days to work less than eight hours.
Would be nice if other companies will still pay the same as a 5 day week for a 4 day week. We couldn’t sacrifice the the wage for that time off unfortunately.
They should, and we should FORCE THEM TO. Capitalism is inherently evil. Everything we have, we have had to fight for, so this should be no different. They'd put children back in coal mines in a heartbeat if we let them.
Load More Replies...In Canada it is, almost. Quite a few months out of the year have a statutory holiday so long weekends aren't that infrequent. Plus we get paid for the day.
Load More Replies...I am so glad to hear that this four day work week was implemented as a test trail at Microsoft Japan. Japan is renown for its cutthroat work culture with both men and women working outrageously long hours. There have been articles and news reports speaking about “death from overwork” in Japan. Other countries also continue to hold on to this antiquated belief that working more hours makes you more productive. I came from a very harsh work environment and it pains me to see people brag about how long they work like it’s some source of pride; bragging about never taking a vacation just makes me sad. Working around the clock is bad for you physically and mentally. Not to mention that the added stress leads to increased mistakes because you constantly feel as though you are in a pressure cooker. Many of the Nordic countries already implement a shorter work week, and studies continue to point to increased productivity and worker happiness. I wish this practice would spread to more countries and companies.
Meanwhile, here in Korea, the company where I work considers eating a luxurious neccessary evil, so it doesn't count the lunch hour, therefore we are required to stay there 9 hours a day. Thankfully, there have been positive changes and improvements recently, regarding the working hours, but this one is still never brought up as a problem.
Load More Replies...Many of us assumed that they went to 4/10s but the article does not state that. It's interesting, Vouchercloud did a study in 2016 (I believe) that found that the average office worker was only productive between two and three hours per day. There was an interesting article in Business Insider about reducing full time hours to 32 per wk. (https://www.businessinsider.com/8-hour-workday-may-be-5-hours-too-long-research-suggests-2017-9 ) I have worked part-time and full time. While there was a financial impact, I loved working part-time and I was really productive during those shorter days.
Not a lot gets done those last hours of a 9- or 10-hour day. You're tired, and if you need to communicate with others, they are probably gone for the day. The day off is nice, but you can't get anything done after you get home on work days.
Load More Replies...Blood thirsty, greedy corporations will never go for this. After all, it was never about the workers.
Oh those greedy corporations. I lost my keys the other day. Damn corporations! By the way, when was the last time you turned down a pay raise because you already had enough money to pay your bills?
Load More Replies...Not only do 4 day work weeks help, not interrupting people during the day also helps. For instance, software developers stopped during coding to "ask a simple, quick question" can take 30+ minutes to get back to where they were in their coding. The proper way to manage software developers (and I would assume everyone else), is to set aside 1 or 2 hours in the morning for meetings and then allow everyone to go off and do their work WITHOUT INTERRUPTION. This allows people to get more done in the same time and forces people to know what they need and to get better at communications because mis-communications will lose them a day's work. I will not work in a software shop where people are allowed to interrupt the coders throughout the day. I'm over people not being able to do their jobs effective and dumping it on the coders at the last minute.
I worked for a local university in the 1970's, and we did 4/10s for each summer...it was great! the school saved money on AC costs, and employees saved money on child care and got to spend more time with family. And coming in earlier, leaving later meant commutes weren't so bad, either. Win-win all around!
Can fully support this. I have a zero workday schedule for some years now and I've never been happier and more productive.
Experimenting with 4-day work-weeks has been going on for years. The experiment as a reaction to the japanese workers dying from overwork seems a bit too delayed to be correlated. Is there a connection between Microsofts sudden interest in the experiment and it's finalized partnership with OpenAI one month prior, which will be the main contributor to Technological Unemployment?
I would be curious about this for a long term study. It seems like since it was an experiment it would be easy for the employees to work extra hard for the duration of the experiment.
As a DJ, Paris Hilton got half a million $ in two weekend nights. What's the buzz?
All of this assumes office work. There are so many jobs that are not 9-5 Monday to Friday, yet sometimes it seems like people think that this is the only working week there is.
Few things, its not less hours, just less days, it has been experiemented with several companies in several countries, in fact Koch Industries (regardless of what you think of their politics, that is not relevant to this) was one of the first to try it and instead went to a flex hour system, but they are one of the Pioneers in this.. But what a 4 day work week is the same 40 hours a week, but less days, and in some countries it works and in some it doesnt. Culture plays a large role in that. Also Robert Owen borrowed his phrase from Maimonides who wrote "8 hours of work, 8 hours of life which shall be broken into 5 hours of service to god and 3 for eating and family, and 8 hours of sleep". But he did popularize it and modified it to fit his labor needs
The article implies they worked fewer hours per week. People in the comments keep mentioning that but the article says: "...the same results with 20 percent less working time" implying they genuinely moved to working 4 days a week with the same per-day hours.
Load More Replies...yeah… people without kids maybe, but with kids i couldn't do a 10 hours a day job. i have a 8 hours a day job and even that it's hard. it's not for everyone. when i had not kids i'd like to have a 3 day weekend, but not now
A better shift is 7 days on 12 hours and 7 days off. you can take a VACATION in that 7 days off. or book one week off and get 3 Weeks off before your even supposed to have that much time at once
12 hours for seven days in a row? That sounds absolutely grueling!
Load More Replies...How is there less electricity being used and less paper being printed when they are working 4 days on with 10 Hour days which is EXACTLY the same as 5 days 8 hours a day?? This is the shift I work, I went from 6am to 14:00 monday to friday. Now I work 6am to 16:00 and get thursdays and weekends off
I don't think they did move to 10 hour days? People in the comments keep mentioning that but the article says they worked 1 day less per week:: "...the same results with 20 percent less working time"
Load More Replies...Wait are we talking 4 10 hr days or 4 8 hr days..cause noone is gonna drop down to parttime status. Companies dont give benefits to those not fulltime. Happier? How am i happier if i have less money and no health insurance
I'm so sorry that you're living in a society that doesn't even allow people to live their life as they want. Perhaps your next president will make America reasonably livable again, so health insurance is your constitutional right instead of a privelige for a select few. rich people.
Load More Replies...JuanCarlosGuzmanAdorador4.23@Gmail.com & S' PARRA. www.justapaz.org & www.olivoverd.org www.enlace.og WWW.MC.12.COM www.ebenezer.hn www.lakerwooo.com JuanCarlos...100450.jpg
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