4 ms·

This is a very good bit of information, but most modern workplaces are not factory floors 'processing work items', so the analogy only goes so far. Also, it ve

This is a very good bit of information, but most modern workplaces are not factory floors 'processing work items', so the analogy only goes so far. Also, it very well could be that reducing to 4 from 5 does nothing but simply reduce the number of hours 'the factory is operating'. Surely there'd be a bonus because people might be more relaxed, but it's hard to weight that against the lost day. For example, my local coffee shop is open 7 days a week, let's say that their staff works 5 days on, 2 off so there's a steady rate of staffers. If they just switched to 4 on 3 off ... I'm not sure anything would materially change in terms of productivity etc. - and 'all else being equal' (i.e. demand, cost of goods, wages/hour), the staffers would simply make less money and I doubt they'd chose that. But maybe '3/4 days' would be better in some industries than others.

Swizec 7y ago
> most modern workplaces are not factory floors 'processing work items', so the analogy only goes so far. I recommend reading The Phoenix Project. It does a great job of dispelling the myth that software engineering is unpredictable and artisanal and whatnot. At the abstraction layer of a department or division manager it becomes indistinguishable and the same stochastic modeling principles apply. But that’s besides the point. A more important point is the idea of effectiveness. 4 days of effective work are often better than 5 days of being busy but ineffective. Personally I get more done in a 4 day week because I am more cut-throat about saying No to things that don’t matter.
necovek 7y ago
Even just "more relaxed" waiting staff would result in better relationships with customers, resulting in better tips and more returning customers. Again, this could only be (dis)proven in a large-numbers experiment (so no, not in a single cafe :)), but I don't think this is limited to any one particular area of work.

Swizec 7y ago

> most modern workplaces are not factory floors 'processing work items', so the analogy only goes so far. I recommend reading The Phoenix Project. It does a great job of dispelling the myth that software engineering is unpredictable and artisanal and whatnot. At the abstraction layer of a department or division manager it becomes indistinguishable and the same stochastic modeling principles apply. But that’s besides the point. A more important point is the idea of effectiveness. 4 days of effective work are often better than 5 days of being busy but ineffective. Personally I get more done in a 4 day week because I am more cut-throat about saying No to things that don’t matter.

necovek 7y ago

Even just "more relaxed" waiting staff would result in better relationships with customers, resulting in better tips and more returning customers. Again, this could only be (dis)proven in a large-numbers experiment (so no, not in a single cafe :)), but I don't think this is limited to any one particular area of work.