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| Microsoft Japan study finds four-day working weeks and other reforms both boost sales and cut costs (AFP Photo/SAM YEH) |
Tokyo (AFP) - In a country notorious for overwork, Microsoft Japan trialled a radical idea: working less. And it found that four-day weeks and other reforms both boosted sales and cut costs.
The
Japanese unit of the US IT giant closed its offices every Friday in August,
giving all 2,300 full-time workers special leave.
It also
restricted meetings to a maximum of 30 minutes, and encouraged online chats as
an alternative to face-to-face communications.
The number
of participants at meetings was limited to a five, and workers were also
encouraged to use online communication instead of emails, it said.
The results
were positive, with sales per employee rising almost 40 percent in August from
a year earlier, electricity consumption down by a quarter and paper usage being
cut in half.
The firm
said the trial showed "employees want to have a variety of ways of
working" and that adopting the model more broadly could boost efficiency.
It plans to
launch a similar programme this winter -- but won't offer special leave.
Instead,
employees will be encouraged to use their existing holiday days, it said.
The
programme comes as Japan's government pushes for more "flexible work
styles," urging business to accept telecommuting, different part-time
schedules and off-peak commuting.
The effort
is part of an attempt to address the issue of "karoshi" -- death from
overwork -- and to encourage overworked and overburdened couples to have
children in a country that is struggling with a shrinking population.
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