4 ms·

Microsoft Japan tested a four-day work week. Productivity jumped by 40%

10 points by mojuba 7y ago

ptah 7y ago
I wonder if it is the novelty factor at play here. it will be interesting to see if these effects last long term EDIT: I found a company that did a six month trial and had the same effects https://www.prweek.com/article/1596231/pr-agency-implements-four-day-week-successful-trial https://www.prweek.com/article/1596231/pr-agency-implements-...
- fbnlsr 7y ago
  It's been tested already, and proven to be working really well. Here's a similar experiment from last year: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/asia/four-day-workweek-new-zealand.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/asia/four-day-workw...
mojuba 7y ago
To be completely honest, how this can give positive results is beyond me. Personally I use my free time for side projects except only for social events on weekends. If my work time was reduced to say 6 hours, or alternatively to a 4-day work week, I'd use more time on side projects which are the same in nature as my main job. I don't think that would affect my productivity neither for the main job nor for the side projects, it would just change the time allocation and therefore the amount of work done on each side. That's all. I'm in my early 50s and I just can't stop doing this. While I can imagine a lot of people in the world would only applaud to any official reduction of work time, again, I just don't understand how that can increase their productivity at work.
- gridspy 7y ago
  "Work expands to fill the time available" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_law Basically with less time, people focus instead on what really matters. A lot of the fluff that was actually a burden is dropped.
  - mojuba 7y ago
    So the fact that the experiment worked at Microsoft only says that Microsoft is terribly unproductive otherwise. Which should be true for the majority of large organizations.
- leaveyou 7y ago
  I suspect you would understand if you spent less time at work or doing side projects and more time resting.. some insights come after having some time to get bored.
tsukikage 7y ago
So, since the trial apparently worked so well, why haven’t they continued with the 4-day week? Anyone know?
reportgunner 7y ago
This was posted here yesterday. The "experiment" only took one month and the employees were paid for the day off every week. The results are inconclusive at best.
- TsomArp 7y ago
  So you were expecting the person not to be paid for the day off even after increasing productivity 40%?
  - reportgunner 7y ago
    No. I was expecting the productivity to rise.
merricksb 7y ago
Discussed yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21433710 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21433710 (540 points/205 comments)

10 points by mojuba 7y ago

ptah 7y ago

I wonder if it is the novelty factor at play here. it will be interesting to see if these effects last long term EDIT: I found a company that did a six month trial and had the same effects https://www.prweek.com/article/1596231/pr-agency-implements-four-day-week-successful-trial https://www.prweek.com/article/1596231/pr-agency-implements-...

fbnlsr 7y ago
It's been tested already, and proven to be working really well. Here's a similar experiment from last year: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/asia/four-day-workweek-new-zealand.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/world/asia/four-day-workw...

mojuba 7y ago

To be completely honest, how this can give positive results is beyond me. Personally I use my free time for side projects except only for social events on weekends. If my work time was reduced to say 6 hours, or alternatively to a 4-day work week, I'd use more time on side projects which are the same in nature as my main job. I don't think that would affect my productivity neither for the main job nor for the side projects, it would just change the time allocation and therefore the amount of work done on each side. That's all. I'm in my early 50s and I just can't stop doing this. While I can imagine a lot of people in the world would only applaud to any official reduction of work time, again, I just don't understand how that can increase their productivity at work.

gridspy 7y ago
"Work expands to fill the time available" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_law Basically with less time, people focus instead on what really matters. A lot of the fluff that was actually a burden is dropped.
- mojuba 7y ago
  So the fact that the experiment worked at Microsoft only says that Microsoft is terribly unproductive otherwise. Which should be true for the majority of large organizations.
leaveyou 7y ago
I suspect you would understand if you spent less time at work or doing side projects and more time resting.. some insights come after having some time to get bored.

tsukikage 7y ago

So, since the trial apparently worked so well, why haven’t they continued with the 4-day week? Anyone know?

reportgunner 7y ago

This was posted here yesterday. The "experiment" only took one month and the employees were paid for the day off every week. The results are inconclusive at best.

TsomArp 7y ago
So you were expecting the person not to be paid for the day off even after increasing productivity 40%?
- reportgunner 7y ago
  No. I was expecting the productivity to rise.

merricksb 7y ago

Discussed yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21433710 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21433710 (540 points/205 comments)