Happy employees, productivity rising, Microsoft Japan conquered by 4-day weeks

Microsoft had an intriguing experience in Japan: allowing employees to work only four days a week instead of the usual five days. An initiative with a result that is no longer positive, with staff morale boosted and overall productivity rising sharply.

While the issue of four-day workweeks is being posed in the United Kingdom by the Labor Party (the main opposition party across the Channel) and that same perspective is being raised by Democrat Bernie Sanders in the United States, Microsoft has taken the step. The California branch of the California giant has allowed its employees to trade their traditional five-day week, against only four days of hard work. The balance sheet is very positive for both Microsoft and its staff.

92% satisfaction and up to 40% more productivity

Among the figures relayed by the British newspaper The Guardian, Microsoft has managed to prove that presence heard at the office did not necessarily rhyme with productivity. By adopting the four-day weeks, productivity in Microsoft Japan has increased to 40%, while 92% of the workforce has expressed satisfaction with this new schedule.


Microsoft also pointed out that its employees took significantly shorter breaks on average, that the number of pages printed (by mistake) was lower and that the waste of electricity had also decreased. As the Guardian notes, other companies had already done similar tests (either by choosing shorter weeks or by reducing the number of hours worked per day), for similar benefits, benefiting the company. employee ... as to the employer.

Work less, but work better

This review of workdays at Microsoft Japan, however, has not translated into a reduction in the workload per employee, but the prospect of spending less time in the office seems to be paying off.


On the management side, the quasi-educational scope of the initiative is hailed: "  I want our employees to think and see for themselves that they can achieve the same results with 20% less work time  ", said Takuya Hirano, President, and CEO of Microsoft Japan. And if Microsoft had found a viable solution to the endemic problem of overwork encountered in many structures in Japan?

Sources: PC Gamer / The Guardian