Shorter Work Time is Better for Everyone - Microsoft Japan's Experiment

The Japanese branch of Microsoft conducted an experiment to reduce working time to four days a week. This not only reduced power consumption, but also improved staff satisfaction and productivity.

Krzysztof Kaluzinski

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More than 92% of Microsoft Japan's employees were pleased with the reduction in working time.

In August this year, Microsoft Japan tested a project called Work-Life Choice Choice Challenge Summer 2019 to extend weekends by one day at standard salary. Reducing working time to four days was very much welcomed by the wemployees and increased productivity.

All Microsoft Japan employees, i.e. 2300 people, took part in the project. The experiment insisted on shortening the time of meetings to 30 minutes and on more frequent use of Internet conversations. Compared to the same period in 2018, the consumption of electricity (by 23%) and paper for printers (59%) decreased, while the productivity of employees increased by as much as 40%. The participants of the project were not only more relaxed and rested, but also less took breaks 25% less often.

I want employees to think and see how they can achieve the same results in 20% less time," said Microsoft Japan CEO Takuya Hirano.

Of course, this was only an experiment, but the result is certainly arousing interest and may influence Microsoft's future activities. All the more so because the project was tested in Japan, a country known for its diligence and even workaholism.

However, this is not the first initiative of its kind in the world. The Guardian reminds us, among other things, of the Perpetual Guardian company, which in 2018 introduced a four-day week of work for two months. As a result, employees were more focused and their stress level decreased by 7%. The experiment was conducted with the participation of scientists. The results were so positive that the owner of the company, Andrew Barnes, decided to discuss with the management the possibility of permanent changes.

  1. Microsoft - official website
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Krzysztof Kaluzinski

Author: Krzysztof Kaluzinski

At GRYOnline.pl, works in the Newsroom. He is not afraid to tackle various topics, although he prefers news about independent productions in the style of Disco Elysium. In his childhood, he wrote fantasy stories, played a lot on Pegasus, and then on a computer. He turned his passion into a profession as an editor of a gaming portal run with a friend, as well as a copywriter and advisor in a console store. He doesn't care for remakes and long-running series. Since childhood, he wanted to write a novel, although he is definitely better at creating characters than plot. That's probably why he fell in love with RPGs (paper and virtual). He was raised in the 90s, to which he would gladly return. Loves Tarantino movies, thanks to Mad Max and the first Fallout he lost himself in post-apo, and Berserk convinced him to dark fantasy. Today he tries his hand at e-commerce and marketing, while also supporting the Newsroom on weekends, which allows him to continue cultivating old passions.

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