Banks making out like bandits. Energy companies making out like banks. Wholesale Energy prices down again.
Economists are using the wrong model
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Really interesting discussion on inflation trends I thought. I have a feeling this topic will continue to dominate for the coming months at the very least.
On the working from home topic: I myself have exercised that bargaining power where I demanded that I show up in the office whenever I feel like it.
Before the pandemic I would waste two hours of every weekday travelling into town just to be seen at a desk. I have three young kids, and I would see them for 15 to 30 minutes in the morning and not make it home for their bedtime. By the time I got home I was exhausted, finding it difficult to muster up the energy to exercise or look after myself. I crashed on the sofa and ate rubbish.
At that desk in the office, I would spend most of the day,…. dialling into meetings!! Even with people based in the same office, on the same floor! There’s not the meeting rooms for every meeting to occur in person, and if there was, the inefficiency or rambling around a whopper building all day going from one talking shop to the next while nobody is getting any real work done drives me bananas.
Being middle management with no ambition to climb the soul destroying corporate ladder any further (you can tell I’m a real delight to my co-workers), the informal networky interactions are a complete and utter distraction from me getting on with the job. Instead of the odd after work pint, what I do nowadays is meet up with people who don’t talk about work! More time off for me! Hurray!
Prior to the pandemic companies said they couldn’t possibly let everyone work from home because the IT infrastructure investment was insurmountable and the whole place would fall apart. Within two weeks it was all sorted and everything worked fine if not better.
I can now drop my kids to school, see them when they get home and during the day when I go get much needed coffee. I have the energy to exercise more after work and eat more healthily. I get more work done with more freedom and less meddling from the incompetence of senior management. They never really understood what I do anyway, the only difference now is they have less scope to ask stupid questions or insist on the nonsensical. I even have some spare time to work on a start up idea!
I would rather take a pay cut than lose all of that if I’m honest. Like it or not, that flexibility is now a big feature of the overall package on offer. I think working from home is here to stay quite frankly. I certainly can’t see everyone back five days a week anytime soon.