https://abcnews.go.com/Business/4-day-workweek-work-companies-share-results-after/story?id=107635577
在宅ワークの積極的な活用も含めて、実際に労働日数を減らすことは生産性を落とすのか？意外と上がるのでは？を検証する実験は、経営学者たちも当然やりたくなります。
いま複数の実験が世界で行われていますが、英国からの報告がこちらです。ちなみに、1年ほど前にMicrosoft が日本法人も含めて類似の実験を行ってましたよね。結果は確か、少々生産性が上がり、従業員の満足度がかなり上がったというものだったと思います。今回の英国での実験結果も、だいたい同じところに落ち着きます。だったら、やればよい。コストも節約できる。
昔のように、決められた製品を一定時間でどれだけ多く作るかが勝負であれば、労働時間が増えればそれだけプロダクトが増えますし、慣性の法則や規模の経済も働いてお得でしょう。でも、今やホワイトカラー ジョブの主なものは、分析とアイデア出しとイノベーションです。
疲れた体と脳みそで、それが起こせるわけがないと考えると、週に1日減らして社員にはリフレッシュしてもらって、ギンギンに平日に頭を使ってもらった方が、アイデアも結果も出やすいんではないか？というのは、実はそんなに不思議な仮説ではないですよね。
さて 皆さんの 働き方はどうでしょうか？
Does reducing the number of working days, including the active use of work-from-home programs, actually reduce productivity? Would it increase it unexpectedly? Management scholars are naturally eager to conduct experiments to test this hypothesis.
Several experiments are currently underway around the world, and here is a report from the United Kingdom. Incidentally, Microsoft conducted a similar experiment about a year ago, including its Japanese subsidiary. The results, as I recall, were a slight increase in productivity and a considerable increase in employee satisfaction. The results of this experiment in the U.K. are roughly the same. If that’s the case, then do it. It saves money and makes people happy.
If, as in the past, the competition was how many products could be produced in a given amount of time, the more hours worked, the more products could be produced, and the economies of scale and the law of inertia would be at play, too, which altogether justifies more working days. But now, white collar jobs are mostly about analysis, ideation, and innovation.
Considering that there is no way to make that happen with a tired body and brain, wouldn’t it be easier to achieve the goals if employees were given one less day a week to refresh themselves and use their brains on a busy weekday? It is not such a strange statement, is it?
Now, how about your working style?
(Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash)