COULD LOAD SHEDDING BE USHERING US INTO THE PARADIGM OF A 4-DAY WORKWEEK?

could configure your weekly diary in any way you chose, as long as it was mutually beneficial for you and the company and as long as you communicated and were transparent with the rest of the team.

There was no one to police you. You were responsible for performing your duties and managing time and resources effectively. This was empowering! It gave us a chance to be in touch with the future in the present time, long before the buzz of a just transition that the country is contending with right now.

We were working in an industry of the future with an office culture to complement it. The pandemic changed everything; at least I thought so with the rise of virtual meetings and remote work. We were back to industrialist working hours after the lockdown ended. Eskom should have one full black-out per week (rotating) instead of the daily interruptions. This should coincide with any fifth day of the week that companies should use for personal development and well-being.

For a long time, our quest for transformation has been focused on racial arithmetic and other forms of diversity. With global economic systems in transition as well as lessons from climatic and pandemic pressures, the fifth day is crucial for a necessary skills revolution, capacity building, and creating transformative workspaces in order to become resilient in this VUCA world instead of going to work to experience three blackouts in one day.

It is for this reason that South Africa must adopt a 4-day working week to complement its hopes of economic recovery in the face of a worsening energy crisis. As disaster capitalists like to say, we dare not waste this good crisis.