Many of these types of articles (and the comments discussing them) seem to focus on the increased productivity of those 4 days, without talking too much about the reason _why_ they're (perceived) as more productive, or why that time off might be beneficial in its own right.
So firstly, a lot of this is incredibly subjective (so far) and somewhat difficult to measure accurately (again, so far), however based on past history of movements to decrease work days (probably most famously Ford), I'd wager to say there's a good chance that this is true now, as it was then. My personal bias would definitely lean on the side of it having a positive effect on productivity.
With that said, while the jury is out on the actual productivity increases, I don't think there's any doubt about the benefit of the extra weekend day. For example, it would probably be difficult to find anyone that would find positives in Saturday being a work day again, and having to work 6 days instead of 5.
Anyway, that being said... There are some subjective and anecdotal observations from my perspective that I feel are important to consider in this discussion, and to me even more important than the elusive "productivity" aspect. What I've observed is that taking time off to distance from the daily issues, especially during times of stress tends to have a positive effect on being able to solve problems effectively. The instinct while faced with a problem is to keep hammering at the problem until it is solved, and while that works for a while, over a longer period of time, or over prolonged periods of working without a break, I've usually witnessed either myself or collogues get frustrated and less engaged in their work, or making poor decisions that wouldn't otherwise be made.
My intuition based on this tells me that it is important to give the brain time to rest and disconnect from a problem in order to come up with better _quality_ solutions. So my hypothesis would be that if you want better _quality_ results, it's better to give people more time to rest and disconnect.
But that's just based on what I've read and observed so far. I would love to see more research into this, especially more nuanced takes on it. We need to be clear about what we mean by "productivity" in these discussions, and also realize that sheer output does not give us a full picture of this subject. _Quality_ matters just as much, if not more in some circumstances.
So firstly, a lot of this is incredibly subjective (so far) and somewhat difficult to measure accurately (again, so far), however based on past history of movements to decrease work days (probably most famously Ford), I'd wager to say there's a good chance that this is true now, as it was then. My personal bias would definitely lean on the side of it having a positive effect on productivity.
With that said, while the jury is out on the actual productivity increases, I don't think there's any doubt about the benefit of the extra weekend day. For example, it would probably be difficult to find anyone that would find positives in Saturday being a work day again, and having to work 6 days instead of 5.
Anyway, that being said... There are some subjective and anecdotal observations from my perspective that I feel are important to consider in this discussion, and to me even more important than the elusive "productivity" aspect. What I've observed is that taking time off to distance from the daily issues, especially during times of stress tends to have a positive effect on being able to solve problems effectively. The instinct while faced with a problem is to keep hammering at the problem until it is solved, and while that works for a while, over a longer period of time, or over prolonged periods of working without a break, I've usually witnessed either myself or collogues get frustrated and less engaged in their work, or making poor decisions that wouldn't otherwise be made.
My intuition based on this tells me that it is important to give the brain time to rest and disconnect from a problem in order to come up with better _quality_ solutions. So my hypothesis would be that if you want better _quality_ results, it's better to give people more time to rest and disconnect.
But that's just based on what I've read and observed so far. I would love to see more research into this, especially more nuanced takes on it. We need to be clear about what we mean by "productivity" in these discussions, and also realize that sheer output does not give us a full picture of this subject. _Quality_ matters just as much, if not more in some circumstances.