Venezuela is currently  in the midst of an energy consumption crisis so extreme that the government has ordered public sector employees to reduce their working week to two days.
According to the BBC, the vice president, Aristobulo Isturiz, has advised the country’s 2.8 million civil servants to only work on Mondays and Tuesdays in a bid to reduce Venezuela’s energy consumption as the country is being impacted by a severe drought.
“There will be no work in the public sector on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, except for fundamental and necessary tasks,” he said.
The vast majority of the country’s near 3 million state workers have already been given Fridays off during April by President Nicolas Maduro, who has said:
“We are requesting international help, technical and financial aid to help revert the situation. We are managing the situation in the best possible way while we wait for the rains to return. Several countries in the region have been affected by the drought, caused by El Nino. But Venezuela has the highest domestic consumption of energy.”
Venezuela’s energy crisis is so serious at present that the government has taken steps to cut power for four hours a day to reduce consumption, as well as moving the clocks forward a half an hour lessen the national demand for electricity, especially in the early evenings.
