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Four day workweek story: Microsoft's great depression in Japan

The standard workweek in the United States since the Great depression was at least 40 hours ' workweek, which lasts five days, Monday to Friday, but about a quarter of U.S. workers today do not work that way. 

People have been playing for over 80 years with the idea of a four-day workweek. Here's how the idea developed from the Great Depression to the new successful experiment from Microsoft.

Throughout the twentieth century, researchers and activists have estimated the average worker will fall by hours with increased productivity. In 1928, economist John Maynard Keynes expected a workweek of 15 hours within a hundred years. In 1965, an even short 14-hour week with seven weeks of holidays was predicted by a Senate subcommittee by 2000. 

[Photo: bruce mars/Pexels]

Many highly qualified technical administrators such as Google's co-founder Larry Page have praised the concept of four days ' work, and studies have shown that it could have advantages such as reducing burnout and reducing gender inequality. 

However, there is still a large scale to take hold of a four-day workweek.  

Microsoft is the latest example of the idea being tested by a company. The tech giant headquartered in Seattle recently implemented a four-day workweek in Japan, resulting in a productivity leap of 40%. The company closed the office in August on Fridays and limited meetings that, despite working less hours, made employees more productive than the previous August.


According to Wharton professor Adam Grant, reducing workweeks from 60-plus hours to 40 might actually increase productivity in the 1920s and 1930s, businessmen like Henry Ford noticed. In 1933, Congress passed a 30-hour workweek bill to cut hours as a solution to unemployment during the Depression, but it failed because critics called it "communist." Other New Deal legislation was a way to keep 30-hour workweek advocates satisfied, such as the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Labor Standards Act, which required overtime pay after 40 hours. 

Now Karen Decrow feminist
Karen DeCrow, president of the National Organization for Women, shouts to a crowd during a NOW parade held in Philadelphia, October 25, 1975, AP Photo/Bill Ingraham

According to Wake Forest economics professor Robert Whaples, after the Depression ended, hours rose and averages hovered about 40 hours. The campaign has decreased to shorter hours. Kellogg's was a notable exception, and in 1946 workers voted in favour of a working day of six hours. But the company moved slowly to an eight-hour day, and the last department moved to those hours in 1985. In the latter half of the 20th century, second-and third-wave feminism stressed giving women access to paid work, and forcing men to devote more to unpaid domestic work, rather than cutting total paid work hours. 

great depression
Bettmann/Getty Images

Several environmental activists have indicated that it might be beneficial to work less to combat climate change because workers use less energy during their travels. In the case of Microsoft, electricity consumption fell by almost 25 percent. Rethinking the 9-to-5 workday is commonplace in the 21st century, Monday to Friday as tech firms try through disrupt all aspects of life. In order to cut costs, many organizations moved to this schedule. The Utah government worked four 10-hour days a week between 2008 and 2011. New Zealand company Perpetual Guardian was so pleased with four-day workweek results in 2018 that it made the experiment permanent. 

People's Policy Project

According to a 2019 survey, 40 percent of U.S. employees will like a four-day week, and a development company that analyzes these findings reports only four hours of work per day is performed by staff. ZipRecruiter posts referring to four-day weeks this year are reportedly up 67 percent and have risen in similar numbers over the past few years as companies compete to attract top hires. Compared with other countries, the US is an outlier. The average employee in the United States works about 1,780 hours a year, compared to about 1,300 in Germany. 

Reference: 
1. Governing 
2. Business Insider
3. Quartz 
4. The New York Times
5. USA Today







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Location: Minato City, Tokyo, Japan

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