WORKING FROM HOME AND THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES

By J S Khan

“I will be working from home tomorrow” was usually a phrase only reserved and uttered by senior managers, or someone who has been with the company a certain amount of time and earned that trust.  When overhearing this phrase as you passed through the corridors or in the canteen, a sense of envy would flow through the body and a moment of reflection would enter you mind.  You then convince yourself that you have also earned the trust, and so you pluck up the courage to ask your manager “Can I work from home?”.  The sheer sense of relief and joy that overcomes you when it is approved is indescribable and as you strut and gloat with your chest puffed out you feel a sense of achievement.  You cannot wait to bump into a colleague and utter the phrase “If anyone needs me, I will be working from home tomorrow”.

Fast forward to now, and the difference is staggering.  Working from home has now become the norm, and no longer is it only a privilege for a select few but almost encouraged at every level of an organisation.  The causation of this has been the pandemic, so is it here to stay and what are the consequences?

Working from home, remote working, flexible working and my favourite, the remote agnostic model are some of the terminologies used to describe working away from the office. Generally, tech companies are the innovators of new working models and go against the grain of traditional methods. One of the biggest tech firms Twitter announced employees will be allowed to work from home ‘forever’.  A company spokesperson said. “We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive”.  But is this a knee jerk reaction by Twitter?  Remote working in its early stages was a resounding success agreed by both the employees and corporate executives.  This was mainly due to the widespread availability of technologies such as Zoom, Teams, Slack, Google Hangouts and others, which enabled people to smoothly adapt to the new setup and stay in constant contact. Although as we think about it, they would say that.  Can you imagine the opposite statement from a CEO of a FTSE 100 company? Can you imagine if they said that staff “working from home has bought the company to its knees”, their share price would plummet. 

The other group that needs to be considered is the “bricks and mortar brigade”, those who are trying to convince everyone that working from home is a bad idea.  Could they have huge investments in the property market, needing the offices leased out to companies to stave off losing millions in rent?  We also must consider that pension investments are linked to property, so if the value of property goes down then pensions may be impacted.   

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It is easy to focus on the benefits, such as avoiding long commutes and saving on travel costs and expenses.  From an organisation’s point of view, there are potential cost savings from long-term leases no longer being needed.  However, there is a dark side that has emerged that needs to be seriously considered.  The social, mental, and physical aspects can impact the normal working life, and this extends to working away from the office.  It has been suggested that working from home means that you never really leave the working environment either physically or mentally, leading to inadvertently working longer hours, which can have a detrimental impact on mental wellbeing.  In terms of physicality, you become less mobile when you are at home than when you are in the office.  People can form lifelong friendships or even meet their life partner at work, so if we never go into the office again, what impact could this have on individuals?

People learn in different ways and an important way is through observation. You learn by seeing what others do, through language and behaviour, and these things are difficult to pick up through virtual meetings.  How will training new starters be conducted? There is nothing that can replicate the physical classroom setting, so young people coming into the work force may be particularly impacted when first starting out. 

At a more macro level, what impact will this have on the nation and the economy?  The biggest impact will be felt with the hospitality industry, within the towns and cities where the morning, lunch, and after work trade are a large source of income for these businesses.  We have already seen the impact on many of these businesses having to close their doors for good as more and more people are choosing to work from home.  We have already mentioned the property market which will also be impacted, particularly in the larger cities.  This will obviously have an impact on the economy, and as more businesses close, unemployment rates will accelerate, and taxes will have to be increased to offset the loss incurred.

Organisations simply looking at the financial savings of working from home may have misunderstood the complexities and the impacts of this change in working, and if they ignore the sociological impact then the consequences may be severe.  It has been reported that Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom, admitted that he has been suffering from “meeting fatigue” after too many meetings while working at home. The Chinese-born American entrepreneur also said that he was planning to call the company’s employees back to the office for at least two days a week.  Citigroup have introduced Zoom-free Fridays and HSBC will follow suit and have announced that they will be trialling Zoom-free Friday afternoons to tackle employee stress. The lines between home and work have been blurred and spending too much time in front of screens has health implications. 

It is widely agreed that the 5-days in the office structure will probably become something of the past. The future approach will most likely look very different, but a mixture of home working and office working can meet the best needs of the employees and employers alike in terms of achieving productivity, creativity, and work life balance.  When done right, the results could lead to a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce.

GET YOUR MASKEY ON!

By J S Khan

The announcement of job losses has become all too familiar over the last few months and, according to the Independent, unemployment in the UK is set to surge to 3.5 million this year.  Some of the UK’s biggest companies such as British Airways, HSBC and John Lewis have been forced to cut thousands of jobs. According to City A.M, UK companies are collectively set to make over 85,000 job cuts due to coronavirus, with over 120,000 roles being cut overall.

Whilst the government’s furlough scheme has helped to ease a UK unemployment spike, and provided businesses with some breathing space, it is predicted that the job loss rate will further surge as furlough ends.  The government is trying its upmost to kick start the recovery of the economy through various initiatives and we will just have to see how this year turns out.

Many existing businesses have been forced to be creative in order to ensure the sustainability of their business model throughout the pandemic and beyond. Whilst the immediate future looks bleak there are new and innovative businesses that have surfaced in the face of adversity and many budding entrepreneurs have come to the fore. None more so than Adam Freeman with his new business that is bucking the trend and creating jobs and opportunities.

I had the pleasure of meeting entrepreneur Adam Freeman (pictured below), CEO and founder of Maskey, who had his eureka moment when trying to find a suitable face mask. On speaking to his friend who owns a suit manufacturing company, Adam realised there was a connection to be made, hence the birth of Maskey.  

The two friends have gone on to repurpose an existing tailoring business in order to launch Maskey, the UK’s first-ever manufacturer to offer fashionable face masks for sale through a contact-less vending machine. Maskey was born in April 2020 and their first Maskey vending machine was set up on the high street in Chigwell outside of a local convenience store. It went live on 10th May 2020, and according to Adam “The response was beyond what we could have expected. Within four days we had exceeded sales forecasts and the first Maskey machine was featured in a full-page article in one of the UK’s leading newspapers.”

The London-based company specialises in washable face coverings and has seen demand grow because of the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent mandatory face covering on public transport and more recently in shops.

Maskey has created almost 50 new jobs in the last 2 months with a further 20+ planned as demand for the product increases. In addition to this they are currently in the process of building a second mini factory based in London which will create even more jobs. With 50 locations already in place, including Hamleys, they will be opening their fifth shop later this month and have recently signed a distribution deal with WHSmith to supply Maskeys to hundreds of their stores.  In terms of production, Maskey is currently manufacturing 25,000 masks a week from its London factory.

Since the emergence of Maskey, there has been an overwhelming positive media coverage on the company from various tv broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV, and print media including The Huffington Post and the Metro, with further coverage on various radio stations.

Adam comes across as a very unassuming guy, dressed in a black top, jeans and trainers with an air of confidence, but speaking to him it was clear within the first 10 seconds that his mind is working on multiple levels. It was evident that Adam possesses all the characteristics of a brilliant entrepreneur and this is evidenced by other successful businesses that he has set-up in the past.   

I couldn’t help but feel inspired by Adam and his approach towards life and business. It was clear that money was not the motivating factor in this enterprise as Adam stated, “Money is just a by-product of a great idea and hard work”.

WHERE WILL THE NEXT GOLDEN ERA OF BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS SHINE?

By Philippe Lefevre

In 2015, against a backdrop of fish and chips and a traditional British Pub, David Cameron toasted to a new “Golden Era” in UK-China relations. This was to be a harbinger of close economic and social ties as the British government prepared to wheel in European reform and present themselves to the world as a sleek economy accompanied by partners everywhere. Of course, knowing as we do now, this was never going to be as easy as it seems, and whilst the rhetoric of a ‘Global Britain’ has remained strong, UK-China relations have not, and neither has the “Golden Era” mentality of British diplomatic relations. However, British diplomacy must continue to look to new countries and form closer relationships to partners if they are to have any chance of fulfilling the Global Britain ethos or to make any headway in the increasingly fractured international system. The question now becomes, where will the Foreign and Commonwealth, and soon to be Development, office look to?

It is easy to start with the obvious United States as a favourite for a renewed diplomatic era. Boris Johnson has much in common with Donald Trump and, even should the latter be removed, the current government has gambled a lot on a US-UK trade deal to counter the blow of Brexit. Tensions still exist between the two however, from Huawei, to chlorinated chicken, to the killing of Harry Dunn and the NHS, a myriad of smaller and larger issues keeps both sides of the Atlantic restrained in expressing their warm admiration of each other. It does not help that many of the UK’s greatest assets, it’s diplomatic network, development aid, and security focus, are at best complimentary to the US, and at worse a challenge. Doubtless the US and UK will remain steadfast allies in the coming years, but being outside of the EU, and no longer the unsinkable carrier in Europe that the UK once was, could tarnish the “Special Relationship” before it’s even had time to redevelop.

So perhaps let us move to South Africa, Kenya, or Nigeria. Three powerhouses in the vast continent of Africa that past and present Prime Ministers have touted as important and close allies. Boris Johnson has already hosted one of the largest summits with African leaders in London as a testament to his desire to work closer with them. However, if this really is to be the next area to feature heavily in our new Golden Era, then certain obstacles need to be addressed first. British relations with many African countries have been borne of economic necessity to capitalise on their economic booms, and with far less value-driven and properly understood context to the future of UK-African relations. Furthermore, the move to downgrade the British International Development office to be another branch of the FCO takes one of the UK’s biggest and best tools of foreign relations away. Without a renewed approach to African development and diplomacy, a new Golden Era on this vast continent will be impeded.

A further and more obvious move would be to build closer ties with our already steadfast commonwealth allies such as Canada, Australia, Pakistan, or India. India, Canada, and Australia have already featured heavily in new initiatives with the UK, from working against the negative presence of China, to new ideas on migration and trade. India has the biggest chance to become a new “Golden” ally, noting its incredible economic change, recently surpassing the UK in Nominal GDP, and huge potential. Indeed, Dominic Raab recently spoke at India Global week on the incredibly close relations between the two countries during the crisis and through multinational organisations. However, actual trade relations are rather poor between the two countries compared to other commonwealth allies like Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. Both still compete with big sectors such as defence and keep vastly different counsel in their respective regions. Furthermore, there still exists the controversial matter of British actions during the British Raj, which will continue to hamper relations until steps are taken to soothe them.

Lastly, of those other countries currently seeking a stronger audience on the world stage, who would be most amenable to closer ties with the UK? Japan, a country which William Hague once touted as Britain’s closest partner in Asia, has the potential to become a closer ally, sharing an island history and a new role in the International system. Yet their contextual differences could become too much to overcome with simple diplomatic symbolism. Japan’s desire to become more noticeable on the world stage still relies far more heavily with the United States and has little to gain from a closer relationship with the UK. Furthermore, as we’ve seen with current trade negotiations, Japan has few qualms twisting better deals from the UK if it feels it can get them. The UK similarly has not much to gain from closer relations with a country it already considers an ally, and so little is likely to change soon.

There is of course the need to evaluate the many other different countries in the world which the UK might seek to tie stronger relationships with soon. What I wished to do here was to simply lay out some of the debates that must be going on in the minds of senior diplomats concerning how the British diplomatic strategy could work post-Brexit and in favour of a Global Britain. Potentially the ‘Golden Era’ of relations could slip to some unlikely partners, perhaps even inside of the European Union.  All that is certain is that when targeting the entire world with renewed diplomatic vigour, one country must stand out from the rest, and let us hope that the clinking of pint glasses celebrating this won’t be as bittersweet as past pints have sometimes been.

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