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I'd be curious to see a similar study for a 6 day workweek. In a way, if a 6 day work week increases productivity as well, it becomes more curious that 4 day wo

I'd be curious to see a similar study for a 6 day workweek. In a way, if a 6 day work week increases productivity as well, it becomes more curious that 4 day would too. I say that because I think the challenge here is measuring productivity, and people are just mentally skeptical that less working hours could equal more productivity. I hope it is true, but I too feel like really? So maybe a counter data-point could make things clearer. If the 6 day experiment has worse outcome, at least we'd start to suspect that overworking might be detrimental to output. And that could reinforce the theory of 4 day work week.

kgin 6y ago
I might be misunderstanding, but I think they're talking about productivity in the sense of work output / time worked. A big part of the productivity increase could be explained by Parkinson's Law of the same amount of work getting done in less time. I don't think they're saying that 40% more work was completed overall.
- didibus 6y ago
  Someone else said it is measured by: sales revenue per employee So I think you're right. I still think people will be suspect. Like why couldn't more work be done in a 5 day week compared to a 4 day week? Why would 4 day produce the same work which result in the same sales as 5 day? And it's hard to logically argue for or against. But if you tried a 6 day week, you could try to answer: well does more working hours result in more work with more sales output? And if not, then maybe the truth is that there's a max budget of real work per week for employees, and more work hours just go to waste. And in turn that could explain why 4 day over 5 didn't see a big change on sales output.
BlargMcLarg 6y ago
At that point, I'd prefer if they would also toss in any kind of scheduling to begin with. Where I live, 5x8 9-5 gets emphasized a lot, and any alternative that isn't working earlier or reducing the days gets incredible backlash. I'm young and fairly carefree outside work, I'd love to try more extreme patterns like 3x12 (especially with WFH) and have more days I can turn my head off completely regarding work, including a shift so I don't get chastised for coming in at 9:30. Someone else might prefer 6x6 starting from 6:30 and quit a bit before noon.

kgin 6y ago

I might be misunderstanding, but I think they're talking about productivity in the sense of work output / time worked. A big part of the productivity increase could be explained by Parkinson's Law of the same amount of work getting done in less time. I don't think they're saying that 40% more work was completed overall.

didibus 6y ago
Someone else said it is measured by: sales revenue per employee So I think you're right. I still think people will be suspect. Like why couldn't more work be done in a 5 day week compared to a 4 day week? Why would 4 day produce the same work which result in the same sales as 5 day? And it's hard to logically argue for or against. But if you tried a 6 day week, you could try to answer: well does more working hours result in more work with more sales output? And if not, then maybe the truth is that there's a max budget of real work per week for employees, and more work hours just go to waste. And in turn that could explain why 4 day over 5 didn't see a big change on sales output.

BlargMcLarg 6y ago

At that point, I'd prefer if they would also toss in any kind of scheduling to begin with. Where I live, 5x8 9-5 gets emphasized a lot, and any alternative that isn't working earlier or reducing the days gets incredible backlash. I'm young and fairly carefree outside work, I'd love to try more extreme patterns like 3x12 (especially with WFH) and have more days I can turn my head off completely regarding work, including a shift so I don't get chastised for coming in at 9:30. Someone else might prefer 6x6 starting from 6:30 and quit a bit before noon.