Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut in output

Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by maxxxxx on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @12:58PM (#19201116)

"a New Zealand financial services company, switched its 240 staff from a five-day week to a four-day week last November and maintained their pay. Productivity increased in the four days they worked so there was no drop in the total amount of work done"

And soon some genius will come in and think "How about we worked a few hours more? This would give us even more output" and soon we are back to normal.

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Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by Bartweiss on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @02:08PM (#19201796)

And the worst part is, they might be correct.

If the productivity gain really was about improved focus and energy, they'll be wrong and waste everyone's time. But there are some hints in the article that it wasn't just that; other companies have seen productivity rise than fall back, while Perpetual Guardian implemented performance improvements to offset the change.

I assume diminished hours directly improved productivity some. But if half the gain was from process improvements or increased motivation, then some clever wag is going to come along and notice that they can use those gains to cut staff instead of hours.

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Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by mrath on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @04:16PM (#19202881)

This is so true. Over years I have realised that my productivity is pretty much similar if I worked 7/8/9 hours. Over time the longer I work the less productive I am. There was a nice quote I once read on HN - everyone have fixed budget for quality thinking. working longer does not increase that.

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Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by kajmagnusmobile on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @09:58AM (#19208287)

You can refresh the fixed budget via a siesta power nap

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