Feeling exhausted and burnt out? Need a holiday but the work pace is unrelenting? Welcome to a booming economy.
We do not need statistics and growth numbers to tell us that something extraordinary is happening around us.
Burnout is taking over from crime as the number one dinner conversation as well as frustration at the lack of supply of goods and services as hardware stores run out of cement, just when you are trying to complete your renovations and no one can give you a quote until next year because they are too busy.
Working longer hours and faced with daily frustrations of lack of delivery, not to mention traffic congestion, means more money is being made but stress levels are also soaring.
Day spas like the Saxon in Sandton are seeing a major pick-up in business as customers come not for beauty therapy but for stress-Ârelieving massages. Chamilla Sanua, a practising pharmacist and owner of two Weleda pharmacies, says that every year people face burn out, but this year it is definitely exacerbated.
The pharmacy has employed someone just to provide vitamin B injections and she is treating people for depression, anxiety and sleep problems. Sanua believes the levels of traffic congestion are one of the major triggers for stress.
Apart from traffic lights not working, the roads have simply become busier. According to economist Mike Schussler the number of new cars on the road exceeds the population growth.
Last year there were 43 5000 new cars on the road compared to a net population growth of 41 500 people.
So it is not surprising that South Africa is operating at its highest capacity in 10 years, with demand in the manufacturing sector doubling since 2001, which is outstripping supply.
We have already had sporadic shortages in petrol, gas, electricity, cement and carbonated soft drinks. Observers say capacity constraints can be expected from time to time in these and other commodities as the economy kicks into a higher gear. Schussler points out that the shortage of electricity, a result of demand, is also adding to the hours people have to work to catch up on lost productivity.
Schussler says the capacity utilisation in manufacturing is running at more than 85%, which by definition means that we are working at full capacity. Lack of skilled labour and materials is the only thing stopping us from producing even more. If we had more skilled labour and materials our capacity utilisation would be more than 90%.
As people work harder they make more money and buy more things. This means that the pressure on labour and materials is going to get even greater and that pressure on supply, especially in skilled labour, is only going to get worse. Take, for example, the growth in the cellphone market with the number of cellphone contracts growing at double the population growth. “There’s more cellphone sex than actual sex,” Schussler says.
“I don’t think we fully understand the affects of the boom,” says Schussler, who believes that when the revised GDP figures for 2005 are released next week we may find the economy growing at more than 5%. That would make it the highest growth rate since 1981. As Schussler points out, in the Eighties the economy was only driven by the commodity boom, this time we also have consumer demand creating a broader goods and services demand.
One just has to look at the activity on the JSE to realise that corporate activity is sky-rocketing and that for some a slowdown during the festive season is a pipedream.
While the JSE has had 14 listings this year, there will be five more before the end of the year. Altx has had 16 listings so far with a further three next week and two more before the end of the year. There are many companies that will be working through December in order to list in the New Year.
According to Stephen Rothgiesser of The Coaching Company, which provides coaching and change management consulting to a wide range of top South African companies, South Africa is experiencing a convergence of several growth factors, including the property boom, retail boom, commodity boom as well as increased financial activity because of BEE.
Added to these sectors, Rothgiesser says his clients in the export market are now also starting to benefit with the softening of the rand. “There is a lot of money being made and spent, so people are busy.”
This creates a lot of opportunity but also stress and pressure. Rothgiesser says that while executives are seeing enormous opportunities for deals, there are concerns about taking on more than they can chew.
A big issue is the war for talent. The shortage of skilled workers is putting increased pressure on those with skills, especially in management and leadership positions. As a result, already stretched managements are caught between focusing on the hard issues of growing their businesses in this opportunistic period but, at the same time, having to focus on the softer people issues in order to obtain and retain skilled people.
Rothgiesser says that it takes around six to 12 months to ensure that a new staff member is properly trained and inducted to the company, but this is time corporations don’t have. So staff are feeling overwhelmed, and there is too much pressure to deliver.
Economic growth comes at a cost. If you want to survive to the new year, Sanua recommends avoiding the radio, television or newspapers, which will make you take on other people’s stress. Just listen to beautiful music when sitting in the traffic jam and go with the flow.