It's the employer's call, and short term there are no obvious downsides there as all the effects are longer term (burnout, depression, quitting) and business is

It's the employer's call, and short term there are no obvious downsides there as all the effects are longer term (burnout, depression, quitting) and business is mostly blind to anything beyond 4 quarters. The 'productivity' thing is intangible as long as the business doesn't switch to a performance based model as opposed to a sociopolitical hierarchy. And their lies the rub, because a performance based system doesn't mesh very well with middle-management, which is the 'backbone' of our archetypal company model.