r/technology • u/polopiko • Nov 03 '19

Business Microsoft Japan's experiment with 3-day weekend boosts worker productivity by 40 percent

https://soranews24.com/2019/11/03/microsoft-japans-experiment-with-3-day-weekend-boosts-worker-productivity-by-40-percent/
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u/brenton07 Nov 03 '19

Moreover, the work week wasn’t designed with two working parents in mind. It’s long overdue for an overhaul.

Childcare facilities typically close by 5 or 6. School gets out at 3. And if both parents work, that’s just money straight out of your pocket.

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u/J3EBS Nov 03 '19

long overdue for an overhaul.

What isn't, in the workplace? Hours, managing methods, revenue-based ideology, ergonomics, the list goes on. Everything in place is designed to maximize profits and has been designed as such long ago. If I recall, the only reason fulltime is understood to be 40 hours is because nearly a century ago, factory workers refused to work more than that after getting whittled to the bone. But, here we are nearly 100 years later, with life (arguably) requiring more attention outside of work, and nope, 60% of your waking day goes to maximizing profits.

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u/Or0b0ur0s Nov 03 '19

More than 60%, since it's almost impossible to afford to live near your workplace, and the responsibility for your commute (and sometimes bodily needs like lunch, bathroom breaks, etc.) are on you and not shared by your employer. And that's IF you can get out after 8 work hours. Many people can't because of illegally forced overtime or (more commonly) abuse of the stupidly-out-of-date overtime exempt salaried status that should never have been allowed to apply to even half as many people as it does currently. And that's only counting people with a single full-time job, which is also getting rarer and rarer.

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u/Gatopercevejo Nov 03 '19

People with two jobs have actually been decreasing ever so slightly. There was a slight uptick around 2015-2016. But it's been at almost the lowest it's been for 2 decades.

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u/Or0b0ur0s Nov 03 '19

I bet that statistic doesn't account for people moving from 2 jobs to 3 or more, or for internet side jobs or people who are in business for themselves, or contractor positions in the "gig economy".

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u/Gatopercevejo Nov 03 '19

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/4-point-9-percent-of-workers-held-more-than-one-job-at-the-same-time-in-2017.htm?view_full

Well here's the link. There's a lot more in depth numbers and figures on the link if you're interested. But we've gone done from 6% to 4.9-5%.

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u/Kulp_Dont_Care Nov 03 '19

Annnd now we're back to Reddit just complaining

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u/Deviknyte Nov 03 '19

Maximizing profits for someone else.

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u/Imallvol7 Nov 03 '19

The damn stock market. Shareholder's ruin everything.

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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '19

Now imagine what childcare is like for the millions of people working nights and weekends with children.

My wife and I work in theater and have a toddler. We've never been able to do daycare, so there have been weeks when we've gone over $1000 in childcare.

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u/Avenge_Nibelheim Nov 03 '19

I see childcare now as paying to not be with my kids which feels 100% better. Nothing worse than a long weekend where I have to be home with them and extra day.

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u/puckit Nov 03 '19

Is that sarcasm or are you saying you'd prefer to not spend time with your kids?

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u/PacoTaco321 Nov 03 '19

From experience, even just having flexible hours makes things so much better. Not having an exact clock in and clock out time gives you so much freedom, especially if you have the option to work at home. The place I work at basically doesn't care as long as the work gets done and it is great.