A four-day work week sounds radical in comparison to the normative five to six days of work that the majority of the world's nations have adopted.
However, different models of work structure exist across the globe, such as China's 996 system (where employees work from 9.00 am to 9.00 pm, six days per week or 72 hours per week) that its government has attempted to quell.
When the four-day work week was tested in New Zealand by the company Perpetual Guardian, the organisation found that it increased employee satisfaction, company commitment, teamwork and also decreased stress levels.
“The four-day week is not just having a day off a week – it’s about delivering productivity, meeting customer service standards and meeting personal and team business goals and objectives, said Perpetual Guardian founder, Andrew Barnes.
In the experiment, the business sought to test its assumptions about productivity and came away advocating for a shift in the world of work.
“Give employees time to think about how they can work differently and encourage them to come up with their own measure of productivity. Encourage staff to consider how they can organise time off within teams while still meeting customer and business imperatives. Begin with a trial, and engage outside consultants to evaluate qualitative and quantitative measures of success,” they encouraged other companies.
The world's largest trial of a four-day work week began in the UK in June this year. More than 3,300 workers from 70 organisations consented to work one fewer day in exchange for full compensation and a promise to maintain their usual levels of productivity.
Closer to home, though, economists and business owners are not as optimistic. So this revolutionary type of work week may not be heading for Mzansi any time soon.
As a country or an economy, South Africa is not ready for this on a large scale, and interested employers will want to test the waters before committing. This is according to Kirk Kruger, master reward specialist for the South African Reward Association (SARA).
“In the slightest chance that this would occur in the country, the onus of making the decision should be among companies and their employees and not by politicians or the government.
“We have exceptionally high numbers of unemployment, and reducing work days would not create more jobs. Instead, they will be scarcer because the economy will suffer, and people will become less productive,” said economist Dawie Roodt.
For entrepreneur Sibusiso Hlangu, such a work structure would undo all the hard work he has done. The retail store owner said his business is open seven days a week but that he is still barely scraping by.
“If people did not come to this side of the city to work for a day, I would lose a lot of customers. I have rent to pay and a family to feed. The idea is just ridiculous. As a country, we should be working more, not less,” said Hlangu.
Business magnate Vuyiswa Ramokgopa argued that a four-day work week won't help SA accomplish its goal of increasing productivity and integrating as many people as possible into the workforce because it is a developing nation.
“This includes increasing employment. With a large youth population that needs to be employed to meet our national growth targets and address our numerous socio-economic challenges, it is premature for our country to be debating the idea of a four-day work week,” said Ramokgopa.
IOL Business