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TICKER VIEWS – Should your boss pay you to work from home?

Published

3 years ago

May 2, 2021

The pandemic has completely reshaped the way many of us work. In March 2020, the whole world turned upside down, as the realisation swept across parliaments and businesses that we were in for an unprecedented journey.

Almost overnight, and for some, definitely overnight, they were suddenly working from home, if they were working at all.

Let’s be honest, it felt like the beginning of a great holiday. Zoom calls in your PJs – more time with the dog.

But as time went on, a bit like two weeks in hotel quarantine, we started to notice a few key issues. Firstly, humans like to change up their surroundings. It’s why we go on holidays to different places, have dinner at different restaurants.

We also miss seeing our colleagues. Just the general office banter of “how’s your weekend?” or “Did you see MAFS?” was suddenly missing from our lives. Don’t get me started on Zoom fatigue. That was day three right?

But the thing most people noticed… was their utility bills went through the roof. Suddenly, many of us were home… all the time. In the cooler states, that meant we were blasting the heater while powering our devices.

Essentially what happened, without anyone really thinking about it, as companies were able to shift their costs of doing business… to the employees.

And it’s big business.

Google pocketed $268 million in related savings during the last quarter, which equates to $1 billion on an annual basis. Essentially all those Google workers got on their little colourful bikes and rode home, never coming back.

A billion dollars in savings!

But some people have been fighting back. I’m aware of a law firm where the staff began invoicing their bosses. First it was for thing like laptops and iPads. Makes sense right? And why shouldn’t they pay.

Then it turned to splitting the electricity and water bill – making sure employees were fairly paid for the extra power they were consuming at home.

Some even went a step further. I’m aware of one company whose employees started invoicing them for toilet paper! It was a law firm, so I’d love to know how that one ended up.

It’s not all bad

But while we tally up the total cost to employees, there are also some amazing savings we’ve seen too. For example, the savings in tolls and commuting fees like public transport tickets. In London, March 2020 saw a 95% drop off in user trips. That’s incredible. And anyone who has used the London Underground would know… it’s not cheap.

Then there’s the coffee budget. I’m a strong skinny latte man myself. Usually about $4.50. That becomes pretty expensive when you have it every day, and then reach for a second on around 11am right. So many of us have turned to Nescafe or the dreaded International Roast to get by! While others have seen a walk to the nearby suburban coffee shop as a good way to get out of the house between Zooms.

But now it’s time to return

I’m a big believer in the saying “no man is an island”. A home should not be a prison, and as people we really do need to connect. I’ve spoken to other employers who really struggle with keeping the team together, and being able to make sure tasks are being completed. We have all just emerged from a shockingly real human experiment. For some introverts, WFH has been the best thing ever (I call them cat people) – but for others, it’s been a year of anxiety and uncertainty. And usually the best antidote for that is human connection, and a good laugh. And for that, I’d happily pay a train fare.

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Ticker News is available on podcast apps and iHeartRadio

Published

8 months ago

September 1, 2023

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News

Trump’s campaign tactic – debase and disgrace the legal process

Published

11 months ago

June 12, 2023

Bruce Wolpe

Donald Trump, former president of the United States, hated Arraignment Day I in Manhattan two months ago, the first time a former president had been criminally charged.

Trump was being forced against his will into a proceeding he had utter contempt for. He was being arrested and fingerprinted and photographed under an indictment under the jurisdiction of Manhattan in New York City for allegations of hush money payments and fraudulent bookkeeping practices to conceal criminal activity. Trump heard the charges read out against him and he entered a plea of not guilty.

Trump had a terrible day. Trump wore a scowl throughout. His countenance was fearsome. What Trump hated most about his arraignment in New York is that he had to sit at a table with his counsel side by side with him — equal to him — and with the judge above him looking down on him. Trump could not control the discussion and could not interrupt to make his points.

Trump was subordinate to the judge. He was subordinate to no one as president.

Arraignment Day II

Arraignment Day II in Miami will be worse from Trump, even more stressful. The charges are substantially more serious: the alleged violation of federal criminal statutes involving the alleged mishandling and illegal possession of classified documents, lying to legal authorities, and obstruction of justice. Potential penalties run to years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.

Trump throughout his business life had always crafted his affairs to avoid being a defendant. But in his term in office, he was caught up in it big time. He was a defendant in two impeachment trials – again, unprecedented events – and left office in disgrace.

But Trump does not feel disgraced. He never does. Trump does not have a reverse gear. He never retreats. Never admits. Never concedes. Never yields. Trump is never embarrassed. Trump never feels ashamed. When something goes wrong, it is always the fault of someone else.

Bill Barr SLAMS his former boss:

“He’s not a victim here. He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has…He had no right to maintain them and retain them”pic.twitter.com/VViNFpwbzt
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 11, 2023

And Trump never repents.

Trump can feel this way because Trump is waging war on behalf of his armies in “the final battle” for the future of the county. In his first, fiery post-indictment speech in Georgia, Trump said, “They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement, to thwart the will of the American people. In the end, they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you … “Either we have a Deep State, or we have a Democracy…Either the Deep State destroys America, or WE destroy the Deep State.”

It is a powerful formulation, and his true believers love it.

Hours later, In North Carolina, Trump mainlined his distilled message for the Republican crowd:

“We are a failing nation. We are a nation in decline. And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement.

It’s totally corrupt and we cannot let it happen.

.@RepDanGoldman: "Donald Trump believed the law does not apply to him, and that he would do anything he could to conceal and maintain possession of highly, highly classified national security information that would jeopardize our national security." https://t.co/IfX8bV4EVk pic.twitter.com/Gvjv8aNFkn
— The Hill (@thehill) June 11, 2023

This is the final battle.

With you at my side we will demolish the Deep State.

We will expel the warmongers from our government.

We will drive out the globalists.

We will cast out the communists.

We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.

We will roll out the fake news media.

We will defeat Joe Bide and we will liberate America from those villains once and for all.”

Any lesser mortal would be staggered by these events. Any other presidential candidate would be driven from the race. But not Trump.

Debase and disgrace

Trump is using the same playbook today as he successfully triggered after being charged in New York: debase and disgrace the legal process by terming it completely political. Trump said the federal indictment is “election interference at the highest level.”

Almost every other Republican running for president has adopted this line, insulating Trump from pressure to leave the field.

Trump’s chief opponent, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said after these indictments: “The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.”

Republican congressperson Nancy Mace: “This is a banana republic. I can’t believe this is happening.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Democrats are arresting their political enemies. and they work together in their corrupt ways to get it done.”

Trump is using his affliction to raise millions of dollars from his base.

Trump will likely face Arraignment Day III in Georgia in August. A state prosecutor is expected to charge Trump with criminal interference in the certification of Georgia’s vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

As of now, there is no sign of cracks in Trump’s support among Republican voters. There is no surge to another candidate. What remains to be seen is whether Republican voters, as they see Trump spend his days in courtrooms and his evenings at rallies around the country, reach a conclusion that this is a spectacle too far, too much to bear, and that they want to turn to another conservative populist who stands for them in the political trials— and not the criminal trials – of 2024.

News

Donald Trump’s legal woes will serve him well

Published

11 months ago

June 10, 2023

Ahron Young

It’s not often that a U.S. President faces federal indictment, but if it’s going to happen to anyone, it might as well be Donald Trump first.

The news that Donald Trump is facing a federal investigation over the removal of secret documents from the White House in 2021 came as no surprise.

Keen watches of the Washington soap opera have seen this playbook before, albeit in a different form.

There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a Washington outsider. But as seriously damaged as he may be (thanks to the events of January 6), his support base has only grown whenever he faces scrutiny.

For his supporters, his legal woes mirror their own relationship with the government – a giant, unfair beast that picks and chooses its fights.

Trump is accused of storing sensitive documents—including those concerning matters of national security—in boxes, some even in a shower.

The documents were seized last August when investigators from the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.

The Department of Justice has historically avoided charging people who are running for public office. Whether they should do that is a debate for another day. But it’s happening now. And it’s making it all too easy for Trump to claim there is a concerted campaign to get him away from the White House.

Trump exposed the deep state. IF they exist, they probably don’t want him back in power. Whether they exist doesn’t matter really, because plenty of Trump’s supporters agree with him, and believe the secret state is working against them. Call it QAnon, call it a conspiracy – it doesn’t matter in a democracy.

The DoJ now has to go all in. Failing to secure a conviction would be a serious embarrassment for the department.

This is the second time Trump has been indicted in recent months, yet the opinion polls show he only increases his popularity among MAGA and Republican voters. It leaves the Republican party in a difficult position. Support their leading candidate or support the law?

As other Republicans rallied around the embattled candidate, Trump held on to his loyal base of supporters.

For the Democrats, and for Biden, another reality will soon sink in – if Trump becomes President, and they lose office next year, how will a Trump-run DoJ deal with them?

Broadly, the tit-for-tat one-up-manship of U.S. politics is breaking tradition and potentially breaking the country.