Microsoft: Workers should have 3 weekends

The vast majority of employees feel happier and more energetic with the new vacation schedule.

So far, Microsoft has always been famous as one of the technology corporations with a corporate culture that places great emphasis on employee productivity. In a highly specialized and competitive environment like at Microsoft, the opportunity for advancement is still completely open if you are hard-working and have excellent performance at work. Therefore, many people choose to work hard, even sacrificing weekends to improve productivity.

However, a recent study conducted by the Microsoft Japan team has shown that with only 4 working days in a week, everyone can be effective at work not inferior, even a little bit better than working 5, 6 days a week in some specific cases. In other words, shortening working hours can completely positively affect labor productivity.

More specifically, in August, Microsoft Japan conducted a test in which an entire month of employees will take 3 weekends (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). This is included in the leave and does not affect the employee's regular holiday allocation.

Some results have been predicted in advance.

Microsoft: Workers should have 3 weekends Picture 1 Microsoft: Workers should have 3 weekends Picture 1

The vast majority of employees feel happier and more energetic with the new vacation schedule. At the same time, the number of days they took leave was greatly reduced.

Not only that, the company also benefits from this holiday schedule by saving an average of 23.1% on electricity and 58.7% of the need for the printer compared to the usual.

However, the number of most concern is labor productivity. Accordingly, work efficiency has increased by an average of 39.9%, because the time for unnecessary meetings or activities is reduced, instead of online meetings and interactions. This project has been approved by 92.1% of employees, showing that the majority of workers are satisfied with the increase of weekends.

The trial involved 2,300 employees, and Microsoft is planning to do it again the following summer to be more sure of the outcome before making the change on a larger scale.