Microsoft Japan tried a four-day workweek, and people got more done

Microsoft Japan tried giving employees a three-day weekend for an entire month.



What you need to know

Microsoft Japan tested a four-day workweek for an entire month.
The experiment led to increased productivity.
During the same time period, employees took less time off and used fewer resources.
Microsoft Japan gave employees an entire month of three-day weekends in July of 2019. The "working reform project" was part of the Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019 (via SoraNews 24). During the project, Microsoft Japan saw increased productivity by employees and a reduction of used resources.

As reported by SoraNews 24, employees took 25.4 percent fewer days off, used 23.1 percent less electricity, and printed 58.7 percent fewer pages during the project. Some resource reduction would occur simply by lowering the number of working days, such as reducing electricity use, but the reductions were higher than what would occur by simply reducing consumption by 20 percent.

During the same t...