Can we afford to take a break?

22 April 1998

With the plethora of public holidays around this time of year, the mutterings of managers and economists echo liberally in boardrooms and offices around South Africa - "declining productivity! disruption of the workforce! economic downtime! losses in foreign-exchange! profit sacrifices!" But are these "non-economic" bubbles of time really unproductive?

Let's start by getting the facts on the table. In 1998, formally employed South Africans will spend 13 days on public holidays and 104 days on weekends. Add to this say 15 days on annual leave and 5 days sick leave. Probably on average, there's another day spent in strike action. So, we're left with 227 real working days. That's 62% of the year.

Now, South Africa's gross national product (GNP), the official measure of the country's economic activity, is approximately R450 billion per year. That's almost R2 billion for every day the population is at work. So, what would I suggest if I donned my detached industrialist, economist or politician's hat?

Well, bearing in mind the pressure to be internationally competitive, a global player and all that, I would say that South Africans should work harder and longer and preferably get healthier. Cut down on public holidays to 6 days, annual leave to 10 days, sick leave to 3 days. Hey presto - South Africa's GNP grows by R28 billion, or 6%.

Mmm …that meets the target of the Growth Employment and Redistribution Strategy … But what if we also banned strikes and made everybody work every second Saturday too? Good thinking, that adds another R53 billion and brings economic growth up to 18%. Now tell me THAT won't make international investors sit up and take notice!!

Aahh … the games we can play with statistics. No wonder holidays are in the line of fire by those who are employed to count shekels or multiply golden loaves and fishes. But the question remains, does "time off" really damage economic productivity as the numbers suggest?

Consider first that "idleness" - the time and space needed to relax, reflect, to heal and to re-create - is considered as one of nine fundamental human needs. This is according to the ground-breaking post-Maslow psychological framework of Chilean development economist Manfred Max-Neef. Failure to adequately satisfy this need will predictably detract from people's ability to achieve their fullest potential in their work.

At the most basic level, common sense tells us if we're stressed or tired, we're less effective in our work. Not to mention the roll-on negative effects on our health. Put another way, compromising society's opportunities for rest or play may in fact compromise the very productivity some are striving to promote.

Then one needs to question whether trying to extend the hours of an already stretched employed workforce is really appropriate, given that more than 10 million others in the country have no formal work at all? Why not take note of countries like France and the Netherlands where a shorter working week is being actively encouraged?

Of course, ultimately we want to be moving away from the classic industrial mindset of a division between work and leisure, employee and "family man". We are whole human beings, with a complex web of needs and aspirations. Productivity is NOT about maximising the amount of goods and services we can produce and choose to measure. Productivity IS about optimising our overall well-being and contribution to society, whether we choose to measure it or not.

There are no holidays from life, except

eath (and many would argue that it doesn't end there either). But leisure is a mental state, more than a count of days on a calendar or hours on a weekend. Perhaps our goal should be to find balance in everything we do. To blur the lines between work and play. To break down the walls between office and home. To recognise our economic-social-spiritual needs as fluid intermingling currents in the same stream of our being.

As to whether we can afford to take a break … gimme a break!!!