Saturday Star reports that the debate around whether SA is ready for a four-day work week is gaining momentum as more businesses sign up for a pilot, due to kick off in February 2023.

But not all the experts agree that this could work in SA. The project is the brainchild of the Stellenbosch University (SU) Business School’s director, Professor Mark Smith, who said the five-day work week was a made-up rule after the Industrial Revolution and the pilot would present many opportunities to work differently. “But I don’t want people to see this as some kind of magic bullet. Work will become more intense. You will have fewer spaces in your work day.” According to Smith, the four-day work week was already working well in the UK and Europe and was showing that people were more effective. IQbusiness, SA’s largest management and technology consulting firm, last week took the lead in announcing its participation in the pilot. Director of the 4-Day Week SA, Karen Lowe, said smaller companies and those in the professional services sector were generally the early triallists because it was easier for them to make big changes. But, Professor Dieter von Fintel, from the Department of Economics at SU, said he believed only high-end service sector companies who employed professional workers would opt in. “It is my opinion that it is infeasible for the majority of employees to work fewer hours and get the same outputs, and that the four-day work week is only suited to a small group of highly skilled workers. In other words, I don't believe it is broadly suited to the structure of our labour market,” he stated.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Norman Cloete at Saturday Star

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