Happy Friday, Cape Town friends.

Nothing like ducking out of the office a little early – let’s say 2:30PM – and heading out of the CBD. Oh, except the traffic is already backed up for days and you’re bumper to bumper the whole way home.

I will spare you the details, because we’ve all fought and lost that battle, but there’s no denying that something needs to change.

The City of Cape Town knows this, which is why they’re now pushing for private businesses to further incorporate flexible hours and remote working.

BusinessTech reports:

“Cape Town is the most congested city in South Africa, and the 48th most congested city in the world…With 80% of the peak traffic currently made up of private car users, and peak travelling hours in the morning now recognised to be between 06:00 and 10:00, this stress negatively affects productivity,” it said.

Arriving at work after a slog through traffic isn’t anybody’s idea of a great start to the day, but here we are doing it time and time again.

Based off ‘travel demand management interventions’ that it has implemented for its own staff, the City wants to show ‘increased leadership on partnering for alleviating traffic congestion with other employers in Cape Town’.

Here’s where you need to pay special attention, because that will include:

• Developing tools to help employers understand the travel patterns of their employees and to assess the feasibility and acceptability of alternative travel arrangements;
• Obtaining increased commitments from employers to promote flexi-time work conditions and remote working models for employees, and to promote the use of car-pooling, public transport and non-motorised transport such as cycling.

Boom – the City of Cape Town wants employers to promote flexi-time and remote working models. In other words, why not work one day from home?

Maybe it’s a Monday, maybe it’s a Friday – whatever works, but I think it’s time you gave it a shot.

We know that a solid 50% of meetings are utter garbage, and could be done via Skype, or email, or Slack, or scrapped altogether, but too many South African businesses seem stuck in this outdated mode of thinking.

Cut out travel time and there’s an extra hour and a half of productivity to your day, and you don’t even need to change out of your pyjamas or athleisurewear.

To really drive home the point, chuck in the fact that businesses in New Zealand have had great success with the four-day work week.

You’re not even asking for the day off, but you are being selfless in wanting to minimise the traffic congestion that ruins so many days before they have even begun.

Remember, your boss might want to work from home just as much as you do.

I wish you luck, friends.

[source:businesstech]