Japan's government plans to encourage 4-day workweek, but experts split

Re:Japan's government plans to encourage 4-day workweek, but... by andyferris on Monday June 21, 2021 @06:11AM (#27577787)

Honest question: why does it “cost” the employer so much to have you on leave?

I heard this argument in North America but not here in Australia. I mean, small businesses might require critical people at critical times, but generally in larger orgs this shouldn’t be too hard.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Japan's government plans to encourage 4-day workweek, but... by jstummbillig on Monday June 21, 2021 @07:14AM (#27578093)

Say your employer makes 20k a week of the produce of your work. This means you having a single, unpaid week off will directly cost your employer 20k. Even if you would willingly take a (from your perspective) pretty hefty pay cut of 4k for that week off, the employer would still be down 16k compared to before.

This is the weird and intuitively wrong stuff that happens, when employers make more through their employees work than their employees do, even after factoring in their salary.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Japan's government plans to encourage 4-day workweek, but... by toomanybeersies on Monday June 21, 2021 @09:34AM (#27578996)

Is your employer going to write down a loss of $20k on the books when you take a week off work? Probably not, because opportunity cost isn't actually an expense.

[ Parent | on HN ]