Yes, I’m a WFH wastrel. And it’s no less productive than working in the office

Being in the building is no more difficult or important than beavering away at home. Either way, there should be more to life

What has been the British government’s biggest mistake since the war? For Charlie Mullins, the boss of Pimlico Plumbers, the answer is obvious: letting people work from home. It’s a surprising line from a plumber. Surely homeworking has been a bonanza, with central heating being run all day, domestic loos in constant service, and dishwashers flogged like oxen? Not to mention people kicking bits of pipe in frustration when they read news stories. Even better, when the plumber comes, someone will always be in. Turn up any time between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.

In fact, Covid could have been engineered by plumbers. Can it be a coincidence that Mullins recently sold the company for somewhere north of £120m?

Continue reading...

Coronavirus | The Guardian

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The world’s economic recovery from Covid-19 looks likely to be uneven | Nouriel Roubini

The bounce-back will be stronger in the US and China, but Europe and Japan face a slower restart Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage After the most severe global recession in decades, private and official forecasters are increasingly optimistic that world output will recover strongly this year and thereafter. But the coming expansion will be unevenly distributed, both across and within economies. Whether the recovery is V-shaped (a strong return to above-potential growth), U-shaped (a more anemic version of the V) or W-shaped (a double-dip recession) will depend on several factors across different economies and regions. With the coronavirus still running rampant in many countries, one key question is whether the emergence of virulent new strains will trigger repeated stop-and-go cycles, as we’ve seen in some cases where economies reopened too soon. One particularly ominous possibility is that more vaccine-resistant variants appear, heightening the urgenc...
Read more

Coronavirus live news: UK starts vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds; China reports 49 new cases

Children will be offered jabs at school from Monday; China cases down from 66 a day earlier Gordon Brown calls for urgent action to avert ‘Covid vaccine waste disaster’ Australian Olympic gold medallist Madi Wilson admitted to hospital with Covid Chris Rock says he has Covid-19 and urges doubters: ‘Get vaccinated’ Slow but steady has seen the EU win out in the vaccine race See all our coronavirus coverage 6.32am BST China reported on Monday 49 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the mainland for Sept. 19, down from 66 a day earlier, according to National Health Commission data. Of the new infections, 28 were locally transmitted, all of them in the southeastern province of Fujian, the health authority said. That compares with 43 local cases a day earlier. China reported two new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, which it does not classify as confirmed infections, compared with 19 a day earlier. No new deaths were reported. As of Sunday, mainland China had recorded 95,738 co...
Read more

As Australian I’m lucky that I got my first jab. I’m confounded why luck had to come into it | Van Badham

Is Australia really in the grip of ‘vaccine hesitancy’, or is the national affliction ‘government vaccine failure’? I got my coronavirus vaccine last week. I celebrated at a favourite burger joint, slurping a milkshake as big as my head and dancing around the table to Daft Punk, even as news broke that an outbreak in my home state of Victoria foreshadowed another lockdown. Even as my needled arm began to gently throb. Missing a childhood measles vaccine almost killed me ; it’s now unlikely coronavirus will have that chance. I woke up the next day with a warned-of hazy brain, a little nausea and a strong feeling I may need to gnaw my aching arm from a bear trap. Mostly, however, I felt relieved – as if the one decision I made to try my luck with eligibility, book an appointment and hop to the pop-up clinic at my local Mercure has negated a lifetime of more – ahem – questionable self-care choices. Continue reading... Coronavirus | The Guardian
Read more