Japan tests out four day work week

This article discusses an experiment conducted by Microsoft in the workplace. Microsoft tested having a four day work week for workers starting in August and productivity increased by nearly 40%. Within the article, it mentions that workers primarily communicated through messaging rather than in person and face to face. Although this proved to be more efficient, cutting of that human connection would not be good in the future. Overtime, if workers are encountering each other less and less, even if they work in the same building or even on the same floor, I think people would feel very lonely and would be less happy. This experiment had positive reviews from workers, “80% of the 1,000 respondents answered positively” about having four day work weeks. The article mentions that there has been government involvement with attempting to change the workplace dynamic in Japan. According to an article from CNBC,  “The government considered several initiatives to curb the number of hours spent at the office, including making it mandatory to take at least five vacation days per year and requiring a “rest” period between the end of one day and the start of another. In 2016, a new holiday “Mountain Day” was started, bringing Japan’s number of annual public holidays to 16. Last year, the government launched an initiative called Premium Fridays, in which it encouraged companies to allow their employees to leave at 3 p.m. on the last Friday of the month, but a study found that not even 4 percent of employees in Japan actually left early on the first Premium Friday.”(https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/01/japan-has-some-of-the-longest-working-hours-in-the-world-its-trying-to-change.html). Compared to the United States however, “American workers clocked in more average annual hours than Japanese workers in 2016” (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/01/japan-has-some-of-the-longest-working-hours-in-the-world-its-trying-to-change.html). America and Japan have VERY different workplace dynamics. There is a lot more individuality within the American workspace, even within the most corporate space. In Japan, every single idea is approved or disapproved by the boss. Japanese workspaces are stressful and require long hours because everything has to be passed by someone in a higher position than you. (https://www.businessinsider.com/differences-between-japanese-and-american-work-culture-2018-3#in-both-countries-employees-work-long-hours-and-take-few-breaks-50) . This experiment raises a lot of questions regarding balancing life and work. If companies only had four day work weeks, in the future would work days continue to decrease? If people worked less days would they get paid less? I wonder what the effect would be on the economy due to the decrease in the number of work days.