Microsoft Japan's Four-Day Week Experiment Yields Surprising Results

Microsoft Japan conducted an experiment in August 2019 where it gave roughly 2,300 employees five consecutive Fridays off without cutting their pay. The company closed all offices on those days, but allowed employees who had to work on Fridays for customer services or business requirements to take the special leave on another date by the end of September.

The goal was to encourage a shorter working week and improve employee wellbeing. The experiment also included changes in how meetings were conducted, with teams being asked to make meetings 30 minutes by default and keep attendance to five people where possible. Remote meetings increased by 21% compared to the April-to-June 2019 period.

The results showed that sales per employee were 39.9% higher than in August 2018, despite a working calendar that was 25.4% shorter. However, Microsoft clarified that this increase was not solely due to the reduced working week, but rather due to various factors including changes in meetings and communication.

The experiment also had an impact on resource usage, with electricity consumption falling by 23.1% and printed pages falling by 58.7%. Employees broadly approved of the arrangement, with 92.1% rating it positively.