Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Microsoft’s Japanese division found that reducing its working week to four days throughout the month of August caused an increase in productivity and a decrease in costs. Sales per employee rose by 40 percent compared to the same period in the previous year as a result of the company’s “Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019,” reports Bloomberg.
Microsoft is not the only organization to explore the idea of a shorter working week. In New Zealand, one trust management company trialed a four-day working week over two months last year and found staff focus improved and stress decreased. In the UK, one London-based science research foundation explored plans to give workers Fridays off without any pay penalty, but scrapped the idea due to its…