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.

IS THE WORLD WAKING UP TO CHINA?

By Christine Wallace

It is difficult to pick up any newspaper today and not read a story on China. Whether it is over China’s encroachment on Hong Kong’s independence, the ever-increasing naval tests around the South China Sea or the Human Rights infringements against Uighur Muslims. Rather than asking why China is in the news so much lately, it seems more appropriate to ask why has it taken this long for the news to catch up with China? China’s global influence is not new by any means, but it appears that China’s more riskier policies are only now coming in to play or at least becoming so visual to the rest of us. One could argue that the lessened secrecy of China’s actions come as they become more settled in their enhanced global positioning and the likeliness that will not face severe consequences.

With the projection of becoming world’s biggest economy by 2024, having the largest navy in the world, and the third largest foreign investment balance sheet of $117.2 billion in 2019, is China now becoming so powerful it cannot be stopped? With so many countries depending on energy, resources, technology, investment and labour from China, are they willing to pay the economic or possibly even confrontational price of standing up to China?

It is only as China begins to slowly increase testing its hard power that the world seems to have become aware of how entrenched and far reaching China’s soft power is. This leaves the question of what can really be done to prevent China from acting without consequences? The Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, stated to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee recently that the UK has not ruled out boycotting the Winter Olympics over the human rights abuses of Uighur Muslims in Tibet and Xinjiang. Yet these sorts of actions seem almost trivial when in relation to the atrocities being committed.

In June this year, 20 Indian soldiers were killed by Chinese forces for supposedly crossing the ‘Line of Actual Control’. The Indian Government’s response however was almost non-existent, especially when comparing it to the air strike India sanctioned after Indian soldiers were killed by a Pakistan based terrorist group. Ironically, territory crossing is a practice China regularly participates in around the South China Sea when holding naval practices in Taiwanese waters. This practice alone has cost the Government of Taiwan almost $900million as they have had to scramble their air forces almost 3,000 times this year alone.

Are the words of Ai Weiwei true, has China’s influence become so great that it cannot now be effectively stopped? The optimist in me would like to say no. In an age of globalism and with multi-nation organisations such as the UN, WTO, NATO and Five Eyes, surely a single nation cannot overpower a joint response. I am not naïve in thinking it will not come at some cost. The U.S. trade war with China is said to have cost U.S. companies $1.7 trillion in stocks, whilst the U.K.’s ban on Huawei 5G kit by 2027 will delay infrastructure and bring about additional expenses. However, should a U.K. provider seize the opportunity and step up and provide 5G infrastructure it would create jobs and add to the economy. With companies such as H&M and Sony moving production out of China, they lessen China’s economic hold and create economic opportunities in competing countries. As awareness spreads and the private and public sectors begin to diversify their dependence on China it creates an opportunity to put pressure on China’s current Human Rights infringements and actions in the South China Sea. As more join the call to hold China to account, the thinner the burden will spread.

Christine Wallace

Christine Wallace

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”.