"It seems to me that the only way they could work a day less and not affect the companies productivity is if those employees did nothing during that day anyway.

"It seems to me that the only way they could work a day less and not affect the companies productivity is if those employees did nothing during that day anyway." OR, if work-disrupting absences (appointments, etc) were all scheduled for the weekday off, rather than being distributed through the week and interfering with meetings, collaboration, etc.