041culture columnist Mvume Ndimba takes a candid look at end of year fatigue and how work culture influences our daily lives.
2023 has been a journey.
For many of us this has been the first real year back after the pandemic, our respective industries have returned to “normal” (whatever that means) those of us who hid behind the wall of social distancing to finesse a work from home situation are now back in the office, fighting over the temperature of the air conditioning, back to listening to Dave from the factory floor violating company sexual harassment policy by discussing his deepest darkest desires with one of your colleagues, back to hearing about Sharon’s freaky ass husband who’s into watching other men sleep with her while he sits in the corner and coaches the whole process.
So if you’re anything like me you’re asking yourself “whose bright idea was this working shit anyway?”
To answer that question we have to go back, way back, back in time to the industrial revolution, one of my favourite eras of modern humanity, the era where for the very first time, human labour took a backseat to technology as the cotton gin revolutionised our drip as a species birthing, amongst other things, the fashion industry.
The first industrial revolution was in many ways the blueprint for the way business and technology would exist in harmony to cut the legs out of the working man, to reduce the working man’s billable hours with buzz words like efficiency and productivity all these are dog whistles for “we’re paying you less.”
As AI prepares to take us into 2024 with targeted ads of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates telling South Africans about the “wonderful investment opportunity that is perfect for you” we have to think back on the brave men and women who are fighting to maintain human dignity and human work against the advancements of Chat GPT, Grok and whatever other techie name they came up with for an AI model that quickly learns how to make your job obsolete, we need to salute and respect them for their bravery to speak up against the new cotton gin. Because if there’s one thing the first industrial revolution taught us, its that those brave men and women will be silenced permanently, RIP to the legend of Ned Ludd.
As expected in this “normal” year, our fatigue has set in and every day after the 1st of December that has us getting up before Jesus and going to bed after the Boogeyman from that one Power Puff GIrls episode feels like a personal attack on you and your loved ones, remember, we’re on the precipice of the fourth industrial revolution, this may be our last December, this may be the last time Sharon invites you to her “intimate get together and ‘spit braai’ with her husband” and Dave explains what he means by “spreading homegirl in HR like quarter to 3” on the face of his comically big Casio, remember the lessons we learned during the pandemic, namely:
1. We’re all broke, even our companies couldn’t survive a couple months without sales
2. Your barber is a privilege, not a right. Treat that man like the king he is.
3. Sometimes, life is going to rob you, either take it or leave it.
Happy December Gqeberha. Stay strong, we’re almost there, I’ll see you outside !
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