Work culture

CNN and multiple other news agencies around the world have reported that Microsoft introduced a program this summer in Japan called the "Work Life Choice Challenge." Microsoft shut down its offices every Friday in August. Managers also urged staff to cut down on the time spent in meetings, suggesting that these last no longer than 30 minutes.

The results were a bit counterintuitive as productivity, which is measured by sales per employee, rose by almost 40% compared to the same period the previous year. According to Microsoft, the effects were felt across the company. More than 90% of its 2,280 employees in Japan later said they were impacted by the new measures. By shutting down earlier each week, the company was also able to save on other resources, such as electricity.

Many business leaders still believe that time on-task equates to productivity. However, studies have shown that shorter amounts of sleep lead to both lower efficiency and slower completion of basic tasks. That is, sleepy employees are unproductive employees, and they generate fewer and less accurate solutions to problems.

Many people don't understand that when you are not getting enough sleep, you work less productively and thus need to work longer hours to accomplish a goal, creating a negative feedback loop.

The effects of sleep deficiency on CEOs and supervisors are equally powerful. On days when the supervisor was under-slept, the employees rated them as having worse self-control and being more abusive to others.

Allowing and encouraging employees, supervisors, and executives to arrive at work well rested makes them productive individuals who inspire and support one another. Ounces of sleep offer pounds of business in return.

On Wednesday, Melinda Gates joined LinkedIn (now owned by Microsoft) and penned her first column about changing the high-pressure culture.

She writes that in fact technology has made it harder to pull away from our jobs, and easier to wonder whether a night off or a long weekend is damaging our careers.

The result is a work ethic that hurts everyone. When companies demand that employees work themselves into the ground, those that want to balance career with family life lean out. Some of them leave the corporate world altogether, which limits diversity.

And those who stay are less productive. They have to dedicate so much energy to simply keeping their heads above water, instead of thinking of ways to create more value.