To celebrate a notable event last week, I decided to pick up pizza and save my wife some cooking time. Two months into the 4 Day Week SA pilot programme and I’m becoming keenly aware of how my family spends their time. My wife and daughter both love pizza, the little one maybe more than your favourite ninja turtle and they were pleasantly surprised when I returned home with two. We were even able to have leftover slices for supper.
Having enjoyed a filling lunch and a quick round of tea with my parents, we returned to have Lezarne and Isabella prepare our dinner. With me catching up on my latest Steam addiction, the two of them devoted themselves to the preparation of our feast. The meal turned out better than what I’ve had at most restaurants, but that was not even the highlight. The fact that I could bear witness to our 4-year-old concentrating on cutting up mushrooms with a butter knife, made me realise a few things.
Children should be given more freedom to play and explore. This applies equally to adults too. I feel we’ve forgotten something important, a motivating factor that had us pursue the career we’re in. However, because of constant work pressures and numerous work-life imbalances, we’ve lost touch with that initial spark that had us in pursuit of this dream job. If you are currently putting in more hours than you initially intended, is the return on investment still worth it?
Celebrate the small wins, even if it’s just pizza with your family. Help out with dinner, even without an extra day off, you can still plan accordingly to make room for this. Play more and if you can’t find a job that allows you to do that, find something in your current role that you can gamify. Once all that is done, enjoy a meal in the company of those you hold dear.
4 Day Week SA, INFJ, dear INFJ, 4 Day Workweek, 4 Day Week, Future Of Work, Entrepreneurship, Lead With Empathy, South Africa’s Digital Revolution, Work Time Reduction, Reduced Workweek Revolution, Wellbeing In The Workplace, Proudly South African
David-John Wayne Bailey is an INFJ from Cape Town, a proud pioneer pilot participant of 4 Day Week SA and an advocate of a four-day week for everyone working in South Africa.