In October 2019, Microsoft Japan announced that their experiment in a 4-day work week led to a 40% increase in employee productivity, and saved 23% in utility costs. This experiment sparked much discussion in the possibility of adopting a 32-hour week, which in turn, lead to a debate about the future of work culture and work-life balance.
Cira Apps Founder and CTO Vern Wetizman too was solicited for his opinion on the possibility of technology enabling people to work a four-day week. Vern believes that fundamentally we need to think deeper and harder about how work will change for all of us given how fast technology is changing and remote teams are becoming the norm.
David Roe’s CMS Wire article on the possibility of tech offering a four-day work week offered interesting insights on working efficiently and increased productivity and is worth a quick read.
Here are a couple of interesting insights in the article from Vern:
Thanks largely to technology, we have boosted productivity by probably thousands of percentage points over the last century (and a lot of that, just in the past 20 years). Still, human beings find ways to fill the time. There is always more work . . . But in the short term, I think some of the greatest improvements will come from simply improving the device we all have in our pockets: the smartphone.
Thanks again to David Roe for including Vern’s insights! If there are any reporters out there looking for an expert who can talk about productivity, new ideas, and innovations in technology, send an email to [email protected] to be connected to Vern.
More interesting reads about productivity and leadership below:
