This morning, as you do… I’m having my English Breakfast Tea, scrolling on my social media and noticed that Nico Orie shared a brilliant article on LinkedIn.
Firstly, go follow Nico on LinkedIn, and secondly – you got to read the article he shared… for those wondering what it was – it was that Microsoft in Japan, trialed a 4 day work week, which meant, the employees had every Friday off.
What this meant was staggering! Productivity increased by 39.9%! 23% less electricity being used!
Here’s the link to Nico’s post – https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nicoorie_microsoft-japan-experimented-with-a-three-day-activity-6596854917795852289-81UI
And here’s a link to the actual article that showed the information – https://www.inc.com/betsy-mikel/microsoft-japan-experimented-with-4-day-work-weeks-to-combat-overwork-results-were-pretty-incredible.html
So I started to read up a little more – it seems like there’s a number of companies that are trialing this 4 day week, with a Friday off…. and all the results show an increase in productivity. Why?
Because – firstly, this allows many employees to do things on a Friday that they struggle with during the week – for example, seeing the doctor, going to the bank (though many do online banking, a few still go to a bank), having the car MOT’d (if you’re in the UK, that’s mandatory), and many more things that you delay to the weekend or would have to do after work.
Also, it changes the mental attitude. Most of us complain about how short the weekend is. Now… you’ve essentially got an extra day! – the whole work life balance just got that little bit better!
Will we all move to adopt the 4 day working week – I don’t think it’ll happen overnight, but can definitely some companies and industries moving to this model. Some won’t be able to – because the way they are structured or how their business models work.
I’d like to take this opportunity, on this Monday morning to show my support for a 4 day working week! – And let the productivity increase commence!!