The will to work

For most people, work involves completing defined tasks in exchange for payment. The Japanese manufacturerHersteller, Produzentmanufacturer Disco Corporation, however, is quite different. found sth.etw. gründenFounded in 1937, Disco earns more than $2 billionMilliarde(n)billion in revenueUmsatzrevenue per year, making most of the precision machines and tools needed to cut and grind sth.hier: etw. schleifengrind semiconductorHalbleitersemiconductors. What’s special about Disco is the way it is run.

There are no managers and no hierarchy[wg. Aussprache]hierarchy. Each day, employees arrive at work and choose the tasks they want to do. They can join and leave teams as they wish. Introduced in 2011 by CEO Kazuma Sekiya, this system uses an internal currency, called “Will”, to motivate staff. Using a company-wide app, employees select their tasks — jobs that are less popular, because they’re boring or complicated, earn more Will. Translating a long legalhier: juristischlegal document, for example, is worth more Will than interviewing candidates for jobs. Every internal transaction has a price tagPreisschildprice tag.

Win some, lose some

Introducing Will made employees see that time is money from the moment they set foot in the office. It has helped improve productivity. The company’s operating profit marginUmsatzrenditeoperating profit margin rose from about 16 per cent to 26 per cent in the first eight years of using Will. In Japan, Disco is consider sth. sth.etw. als etw. erachtenconsidered a great place to work.

However, employees cannot only earn Will, they can lose it, too. Making silly mistakes, taking smoking breaks, even booking a conference room — things that are seen as inefficient — cost Will. Employees start each month with a negative Will negative balanceMinussaldobalance and must work their way back above zero. There’s also a weekly event, in which employees can suggest ways to improve productivity further. Winners are rewarded with Will.

We are made to feel like we really matter

No free will?

Most of Disco’s employees seem happy with the concept. “The company culture is unlikeanders alsunlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” one of them told Fortune. “We are make sb. feel likehier: jmdm. das Gefühl geben, dassmade to feel like we really matter and all ideas are important.”

The system also has criticKritiker(in)critics, however. Sekiya tried to get workers to come back to the office by offering Will. “The company currency offers behavioural incentiveAnreizincentives, and the choice is be up to sb.hier: jmdm. überlassen bleibenup to you,” he told Bloomberg. “We had to prove to employees that going to work isn’t scary (ifml.)schrecklichscary, although some felt it was harshstreng, hartharsh and several people have quit (ifml.)kündigenquit.”

Others have quit after feeling overwhelmedüberfordertoverwhelmed — overtimeÜberstundenovertime at Disco is significantly higher than what’s typical at Japanese companies.

Disco Corporation isn’t the first company to trial sth.etw. testentrial a decentralized system of management, known as a “holacracyHolakratie/Holokratieholacracy”, but it has been the most successful. Zappos, an American shoe retailerEinzelhändlerretailer, launch sth.hier: etw. starten, einführen, einsetzenlaunched one in 2013 but had quietly dropped the idea by 2020. Some global corporationUnternehmen, Konzerncorporations have shown interest. According to the Financial Times, curious managers from Sony, Toyota and Panasonic have visited to see the method in action. So far, however, none of those companies have tried it. Disco’s success proves that Will can work, but for many, it’s probably just a little too radical.