Disco, a Japanese maker of semiconductor equipment, has a novel approach to remote work — those who choose to stay home pay the colleagues who brave

Pay up to stay home is one company’s approach to remote work

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2021-07-05 21:00:05

Disco, a Japanese maker of semiconductor equipment, has a novel approach to remote work — those who choose to stay home pay the colleagues who brave the commute to show up in the office.

The Tokyo-based company is unusual in that for the past decade it has used an internal currency called “Will” to create a micro-economy where sales teams pay factory workers to produce goods, who in turn pay engineers to design products. Even office desks, PCs and meeting rooms have a price. When a sale is made, the coin trickles back through the supply chain. Leftover balances are paid in yen at the end of each quarter as bonuses.

When the pandemic hit, Disco didn’t have the option of letting all its employees log in from home. Someone had to show up to keep the factories running. So the company set up a system where those working remotely paid a certain amount of Will to be divided among the employees who came in.

“Ordering some people to go in while others stay home is unfair,” Disco’s CEO Kazuma Sekiya said in an interview. “The company currency offers behavioral incentives and the choice is up to you. That’s the power of Will.”