[HN Gopher] 4-Day Workweek Boosted Workers' Productivity by 40%,...
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4-Day Workweek Boosted Workers' Productivity by 40%, Microsoft
Japan Says
Author : evo_9
Score : 79 points
Date : 2021-06-16 21:36 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
| ekianjo wrote:
| Npr repeating the PR lies...
| EGreg wrote:
| Imagine how many companies would give their workers 4 day work
| weeks and enjoy greater productivity, if we introduced a UBI (and
| abolished labor unions and minimum wage laws).
| hartator wrote:
| Shouldn't productivity increase mathematically when reducing
| number of hours?
|
| Like if you reduce everyone to 10h per week. Sales may go down
| from 4M to 3M but because hours went 4x less you can still claim
| 300% increase in productivity. It doesn't meant anything in term
| of efficiency, creativity, or actual performance of the
| organization. I would be interested to see actual studies on
| this.
| forbiddenvoid wrote:
| Productivity increased per week, not just per hour which is
| significantly different.
| routerl wrote:
| You're confusing efficiency and productivity. Your example is
| correct but is about efficiency. In the case of Microsoft
| Japan, 40% more work was done in four fifths of the time, which
| is a greater than 40% increase in efficiency.
| jeffchuber wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
| scotuswroteus wrote:
| "This interpretation was dubbed "the Hawthorne effect,"
| although the data does not support that view."
| thinkingkong wrote:
| Hidden in here is the "reasonable default" change for meetings
| from 1 hour to 30 minutes.
|
| If you havent already done so, go and change your entire
| organizations default meeting length to 30 minutes. Force people
| to justify why they need an hour. Still not sure why it isnt the
| default.
| dpeck wrote:
| 25 minutes and everything starts at either XX:05 or XX:35.
|
| People get to be human and do things like use the restroom, or
| get a drink in between meetings without being flustered and
| apologizing for being late.
| travisjungroth wrote:
| I've seen early endings but not late starts. That seems way
| better.
| zaphod12 wrote:
| Everyone ignores early endings, late starts is so much
| better!
| macjohnmcc wrote:
| I only lost 2 hours to meetings yesterday give or take.
| FredPret wrote:
| ...or even 0 minutes!
| [deleted]
| trentnix wrote:
| 7-minute-abs! </something-about-Mary>
| Philip-J-Fry wrote:
| It's an old article, so did they continue it?
|
| We see reports like this all the time but barely any companies
| actually have the balls to go through with it long term.
| hbcondo714 wrote:
| From 2019, this is a popular topic on HN!
|
| 210 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21433710
|
| 242 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21441689
|
| 149 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26495933
|
| 30 commennts: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21919721
| jonas21 wrote:
| The top comment in the third link points out that Microsoft
| Japan later walked back the productivity claim:
|
| _In the announcement dated October 31, one of the listed
| "improvements" from the 2019 Summer Work-Life Choice
| Challenge was an increase of 39.9% in labor productivity
| (sales revenue per employee) in August 2019 compared to
| August 2018, with a graph below._
|
| _While this number is factual, it is not solely the result
| of this challenge, and was achieved due to a number of
| different factors._
|
| _To avoid misunderstanding, we have removed that claim from
| the above summary of the direct effects of the challenge._
| cuddlybacon wrote:
| Yeah. I'm interested if it was extended or not. I cannot really
| tell from the article.
|
| I expect this works great for 2 to 3 months when it is novel
| and everyone is keen to prove it works, but will begin to
| regress back after that. Where it ends up longterm is the big
| deal.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Hopefully the results out of Spain's trial are positive!
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/15/spain-to-
| launc... (March 2021: Spain to launch trial of four-day
| working week)
| hellbannedguy wrote:
| Construction should be a 4 day work week.
|
| I remember my father telling me about a push to a 4 day work week
| in the 80's at local 6 in San Francisco.
|
| For some reason, the union officials didn't want it. Looking back
| the contractors probally nixed it?)
|
| I remember how sad my father was over that. He was getting older,
| and wanted a job easier on his body, and he thought the 4 day
| work week would be enough time to start a side business.
|
| I did electrical for awhile, and mirrored his thinking. I used to
| think 10 hr days were not a problem. (Union construction. Mon-
| union construction is way harder work.)
| tamrix wrote:
| I feel like they're trying to sell me 4 day work weeks when they
| include cut electricity cost and paper usage in their opening
| paragraph.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| > they printed nearly 60 percent fewer pages
|
| What on earth are they _printing_ at Microsoft?
| robotresearcher wrote:
| Draft resumes?
|
| </friendly_banter>
| kosvke wrote:
| Unfortunately, everything is printed in the work culture in
| Japan.
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(page generated 2021-06-16 23:00 UTC)