The Friday problem for businesses in South Africa

The new world of work means that Fridays exist in a strange space – not a typical workday nor the weekend, which is creating serious problems for businesses in the country.

“We may have returned to the office, but many workers are still home on Fridays. It used to be the day the boss might invite the team to leave work a little early, or the more formal dress code might give way to casual wear,” Linda Trim, Director at Giant Leap, said.

Although Friday used to be just another day at the office, Covid significantly changed this.

“There was nothing special about a casual dress code once we were living full-time in PJs and shorts, and nothing exciting about leaving work a little early to get home because many of us were already doing that,” Trim added.

There are also new challenges regarding working culture and work etiquette, creating several questions for employees and employers.

“Can you set up a hybrid schedule where different team members come into the office on different days, or will the Friday staffers always feel like they’ve drawn the short straw? Can you ask a client for a Friday call, or is that intrusive?”

“Can you tell your boss that you’re working Fridays from home, or will that make you seem like a slacker? Can you close the office altogether on Fridays, or do you need to leave the doors open for the handful of employees who prefer going to work on the day it might be a ghost town?

“All this confusion is bad for business, teams and employees who need to know how to plan their days and weeks.”

Amongst this confusion, deciding whether Friday is a weekday, weekend, or something in between is crucial.

Solutions

Trim said that it is possible to create a hybrid schedule where Friday sees employees rotate on who can work from home on Fridays. However, this could create an organisational headache and confusion for employees who are unsure who is physically in the office.

“Another option is to declare Fridays part of the weekend, embracing the four-day workweek. There’s now plenty of evidence that a shorter workweek preserves productivity and boosts employee well-being,” she added.

However, the four-day workweek may have problems in the five-day world, forcing some employers to use a staggered schedule, as some clients may need the business to be open during Friday hours.

“If you’re not prepared to turn Fridays into a weekend, there’s there’s another way: keep Friday in the notional workweek, but run it on different rules,” she said.

This would entail employees turning off their phones and emails until Monday, with them instead tackling focused work which won’t be interrupted. This differs from the four-day workweek as it isn’t a day off by default.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the Friday dilemma, but what is universal is the challenge of planning a workweek when one-fifth of our workweek is now in a grey zone,” Trim concluded. 

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