The average employee spends eight hours, Monday to Friday, working away while watching the clock, hoping the sun makes its way jet-like speed back to the western horizon. Now than ever, it is evident that work as we know it will soon change, but what will this change look like, and when will it happen?
As a premise, work is as old as humankind. From the first technological invention, which was the discovery of fire when early humans sought ways to keep themselves warm and turned to friction to produce heat, humans have always proved to be industrious.
Progressive generations turned technological discoveries into an industrial process that created factories and work compensated by wages and salaries.
However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, everything changed. Apart from the tragedy in en masse loss of life, some lessons learnt from the pandemic are set to disrupt conventional cultures, especially in the workplace.
Pre-2020, office culture was synonymous with the 'cool' office-think places to lounge, reclining comfortable chairs, coffee machines, and team-building exercises meant to foster the feeling of 'family'.
Well, that is if you were lucky enough to work in a healthy organisational culture. In past years, these perks motivated many workers to stay in the office, in some cases, entire companies defined themselves by their office cultures. The likes of Google and Apple have been giants in creating office cultures that make employees want to come to work. In Botswana, the trend is slowly catching up for some major corporations, but it's dog day for the average worker.
When COVID-19 seemed to be wiping away humanity from the face of the earth with social distancing regulations enacted into law, human beings were forced to work from home. And that was a light bulb moment for many labour advocates and specialists. That productivity is not tied to the workplace and coming to work every day is not as noble a fret as we make it to be.
In the world of digitisation and growing connectivity, the computers workers sit in front of, at work are no different from the ones they have at home. The same brain at the workplace is the same one that will deliver work from home or anywhere for that matter. In countries like Botswana, where studies have been conducted on productivity, results of which have found Botswana is an unproductive nation, parallel models of work allow people to live their lives as holistic human beings with a sense of work-life balance and work from their convenient sites, a viable alternative to office work.
Despite its critics, there are still some advantages to the nine-to-five working model. While it does limit your flexibility, it can be a helpful way to draw a line in the sand between work and leisure time. The problem with flexible working situations is that “flexible” has become a code word for working more hours. It means people are still working their regular hours and taking work home. This trend may be contributing to overworking, increased stress and the mental health crisis.
It is evident that the world looks and feels entirely different than just a few years ago – yet many companies are still intent on recreating the office cultures workers left behind as they abandoned their desks in 2020. While these companies are making some gestures to adapt – for instance, redesigning spaces to accommodate new preferences and hybrid work habits – many are still set on bringing back what lured in workers before the pandemic.
Yet a plethora of employees are just not interested in going back. People aren’t interested in playing staff welfare games, chatting at coffee machines during coffee breaks at work, or working longer hours for overtime payment, as the focus is on humanity, spending time with family, and embracing holistic wellness.
Last year local businesses were invited to join a four-day working week pilot. Organisers said that other countries around the world, where the four-day week has been piloted, have reported improved productivity despite employees spending less time in the office.
The upcoming pilot will be the second in South Africa, with the pilot – in which 29 businesses in South Africa and Botswana are currently participating – having kicked off in February 2023.
Karen Lowe, director of 4-Day Week SA, said the pilots constitute a six-month trial. Participating organisations will benefit from workshop training and mentoring, delivered by 4-Day Week Global and organisations that have already successfully implemented a four-day week. Networking opportunities with other pilot participants provide opportunities to share learnings and experiences.
The 4-Day Week is based on the 100-80-100 model, developed by the co-founders of 4-Day Week Global, Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart, in the landmark Perpetual Guardian trial in New Zealand in 2018. The model prescribes 100% of the pay for 80% of the time, in exchange for a commitment to delivering 100% of the output, challenging organisations to rethink the nine-to-five workweek.
