Fifty shades of a long weekend, every week, every year
- Dynamix HR Solutions
- Jan 30, 2023
- 5 min read

Welcome to my first article for 2023, and a very Happy New year to all my readers. May it be a safe, healthy, and prosperous year for us all.
I remember as a young entrant into the world of personnel management some forty-odd years ago, being asked by my GM at the time to investigate the possibility of introducing a four-day working week at the company we were employed at. In those days, the number of working hours per week ranged anywhere between 46 hours per week in some sectors, to 40 hours per week in others. Some companies worked a 42, 44, or 45-hour week – weekly hours being spread over either a 5 or 5.5-day working week.
I remember basing my exercise on a 40-hour working week, 8 hours per day, 5 working days per week, Monday to Friday. My approach was very simple. To ensure the same levels of productivity, and to maintain the same levels of output per employee, I proposed condensing the 40 hours per week over 5/5.5 days, to 40 working hours over 4 days. This meant that employees would be required to work a 10-hour day/shift from Monday to Thursday, thus benefitting from enjoying a 3-day long weekend.
When conducting my research into the exercise, I established that many of our employees at the time, mainly managerial, supervisory, and administrative staff, were already working beyond their ‘normal’ 8-hour shifts per day, with some often exceeding 10 hours per day. The ‘formalisation’ of a 10-hour working day with the prospect of having a three-day long weekend was thus accepted, in principle, by the majority of our staff members at the time.
Blue-collar employees at the company were, however, getting paid overtime for time worked in excess of their 8-hour shifts and thus did not embrace the proposed reconfiguration of daily and weekly working hours. The 4-day working week proposal never got off the ground and was relegated to file-13 at the time!
It was thus with considerable interest that I read in a recent article published by BusinessTech that roughly 20 South African-based companies would be embarking on a four-day workweek pilot project as early as next month.
According to the BusinessTech article, 4 Day Week Global recently published its findings emanating from its most extensive four-day week pilot programme conducted in the UK, US, Ireland and Australia. The outcomes of which had revealed that participating companies had experienced increased revenue, with a commensurate reduction in absenteeism and resignation levels, whilst employees had experienced a significant increase in their health and well-being.
The four-day week is, according to 4 Day Week Global, based on the 100-80-100 model, which implies 100% remuneration to the employee for 80% of the employee’s time in exchange for a commitment from the employee of delivering 100% of the employee’s output. This model differs significantly from my proposed 100-100-100 model of forty-odd years ago.
The 4 Day Week Global findings came after more than 30 companies, and almost 1,000 employees in the aforementioned countries had concluded a six-month four-day week pilot programme – with the UK data, which began in June 2022, expected to be released imminently.
According to the report, employees felt less stressed and burnt out, and reported higher rates of life satisfaction. Findings also showed significant declines in the duration and frequency of commuting – which meant employees got more time to be productive.
The most notable outcomes of the report were:
On average, revenue increased across all companies by 8.1% over the trial period and increased by 38% compared to the same period in 2021;
Employee fatigue decreased by 10%;
Employee stress and mental health issues decreased by 32% and 38%, respectively;
On average, employees engaged in 27 minutes of additional physical activity per week;
Work and family life balance increased by 60%, while relationships with colleagues and family members improved by 44.9%; and
Overall, life satisfaction increased by 57.5%.
The report also noted that participating companies had rated the trial a nine out of ten, expressing extreme satisfaction with their overall productivity and performance – with none of the companies returning to a five-day week post-trial.
Additionally, 70% of the employees surveyed said they would require a 10-50% pay increase to return to a five-day work week.
The South Africa director at 4 Day Week, Karen Lowe, said in a recent interview that a four-day workweek pilot would be embarked upon in South Africa as early as February 2023. She added that 20 companies had already signed up for the trial and that the pilot would run for six months.
“I’m positive that the 38% increase in revenue seen in the new data was partly due to the Covid-19 recovery, but we’re seeing improvements in company performance, productivity, and phenomenal employee health and wellbeing data,” said Lowe.
Lowe said there are hopes that the same results will be seen after the pilot in South Africa – especially when considering sub-Saharan Africa’s current workplace sentiments.
According to Gallup’s State of Global Workplace 2022 report, only 21% of employees in sub-Saharan Africa felt engaged with their work and evaluated their lives ‘as thriving’.
Lowe is optimistic that the four-day week trial will provide a way to improve these statistics. “The first concluded pilot just reported happier, healthier, and engaged employees, and that’s what we hope to see in the results when we start piloting in February 2023,” she said.
There are, however, questions about whether South Africa is actually ready for the 4-day working week model.
Kirk Kruger, master reward specialist with the South African Reward Association (SARA), said South African businesses were ‘likely not ready to adopt a four-day workweek permanently’.
“I don’t think South Africa as a country or an economy is ready for this on a large scale and interested employers will want to test the waters before committing,” said Kruger.
Potential adopters are likelier to be niche organisations, such as smaller and medium-sized technology companies. Even then, he said that they should take time to investigate its impact on their operations, possibly running a pilot programme first.
Additionally, Abigail Butcher, the associate in the Employment Law practice at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, noted that South Africa has standing laws and negotiated positions around working hours, which complicate any formal shift in scheduling.
She pointed to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) which regulates the working hours of employees who earn under the ministerial threshold of R224,080.30, and specific sectors which are regulated by a sectoral determination.
“For South Africa to implement a four-day work week, this legislation would effectively need to be amended,” she said.
We await the outcome of the 4 – Day Working Week pilot programme in South Africa with eager anticipation.
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