Microsoft Japan Tries Out The Four-Day Work Week Policy & Sees 40% Boost In Productivity

A four-day weekend is just a dream for all of us. Work has taken over our lives in ways unimaginable, some hardly find the time to take a deep breath amid numerous deadlines and meetings.?

But across the world companies are trying their best to change 'busy culture' that's been blown out of proportion. One of the most popular experiments being the four-day work week.?

Back in 2018, a New Zealand financial rolled out a four-day work week on a trial basis in order to test how employees performed. They were so impressed with the results by the end that they decided to make it permanent.?

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According to a report in?Guardian, 250 staff at Perpetual Guardian - a trusts and estate planning firm - tried out a four-day working week over March and April of 2018. They worked for four eight-hour days but got paid for five days of work.

A?panel of academics who studied the effects on Perpetual Guardian's employees, workers showed lower stress levels, higher levels of job satisfaction and an improved sense of work-life balance.??

"What we've seen is a massive increase in engagement and staff satisfaction about the work they do, a massive increase in staff intention to continue to work with the company and we've seen no drop in productivity," Company founder Andrew Barnes told the New Zealand Herald.?

The experiment had potential implications for everything from work/life balance to the gender pay gap and the mental well-being of workers, states the report.

Mr Barnes said plan must start a worldwide trend and urges other New Zealand business owners to give it a go.

The NewsHub quoted him as saying, "The biggest resistance is from leaders. We all look at this and say no it wouldn't couldn't possibly work. Just try it. What's the worst that can happen?"

Seems like this policy is quickly catching up across the world.?

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In 2019, Microsoft carried out a 'Working Reform Project' called the Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019 for one month - giving 2,300 employees every Friday off, in addition to Saturday and Sunday.ble with chemicals alone."

According to reports, the four days pushed everyone to get things done for the week, many meetings were cut, shortened, or changed to virtual meetings instead of in-person.?

That's not all, 25.4 per cent of the employees fewer days off during the month and used 23.1 per cent less electricity in the office - that's also contributing to sustainability.?

?92.1 percent of employees said that they liked the four-day workweek at the end of the trial.?

Many companies around the world have also held similar trials, and reported favourable results.?

In 2018, a study conducted by the?International Labour Organisation showed shorter hours generally resulted in?higher productivity.?Reports state that Microsoft Japan reportedly plans to repeat its four-day work week experiment next summer.