VIDEO: Microsoft Increased Productivity 40% in Japan By Taking Fridays Off

It may be counter intuitive but Microsoft actually increased output by 40% in its 2500 person Japanese operations by mandating three day weekends in August 2019.  Most of the performance gains came from:

• reduced meeting length
  • the majority of meetings changed from one hour meetings to 30 minute meetings
• having more remote meetings
  • primarily using Microsoft Teams

More than 90% of staff said they preferred the 4 day work week to the traditional 5 day and Microsoft intends to run the test again in 2020.

Fareed Zakaria’s CNN show GPS (Global Public Square) produced a handy chart show that workers in Germany, Canada and France far out perform workers in the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom.

 

---