Potential POSITIVE effects of corona virus

[moka]

Many people like working from home. It will mean less commuting, less traffic, and less demand for commercial office space, less customers for CBD cafes and retail.
To help plot the immediate future, Vocus NZ surveyed its 600 staff. Callander freely admits he was a bit shocked when only 5 per cent said they wanted to return to the office fulltime.
Of the rest, 46 per cent said they would like to work solely from home and 49 per cent said they would prefer a home/office combo.
Of those who wanted a hybrid setup, 20 per cent wanted to spend just one day a week in the office, 46 per cent wanted two days, 28 per cent three days and 6 per cent four days.
Kiwisaver manager AMP, which found 70 per cent of workers preferred a combination of working from home and the office, while 22 per cent said they wanted to work primarily from home.
JB HiFi is another that says working from home will now be a permanent part of the mix for head office and admin staff.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12339408

[Baa_Baa]

Many people like working from home. It will mean less commuting, less traffic, and less demand for commercial office space, less customers for CBD cafes and retail.
To help plot the immediate future, Vocus NZ surveyed its 600 staff. Callander freely admits he was a bit shocked when only 5 per cent said they wanted to return to the office fulltime.
Of the rest, 46 per cent said they would like to work solely from home and 49 per cent said they would prefer a home/office combo.
Of those who wanted a hybrid setup, 20 per cent wanted to spend just one day a week in the office, 46 per cent wanted two days, 28 per cent three days and 6 per cent four days.
Kiwisaver manager AMP, which found 70 per cent of workers preferred a combination of working from home and the office, while 22 per cent said they wanted to work primarily from home.
JB HiFi is another that says working from home will now be a permanent part of the mix for head office and admin staff.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12339408

The law of unintended consequence. Many people find that they enjoy working from home. No commute, more productive, flexible when they work, integrate better with family life, and the list goes on, not to mention huge savings in travel time and cost. The place I work with is grappling with only a 10% return to the office, the bosses are upbeat about going back (party line) but stop at insisting on it. Massive savings for business on unnecessary lease space and massive savings for workers not commuting. Good for the environment too. Fast forward 10 years has happened in three months, COVID lockdown has exposed the future in remote working for office people, technology has proven itself as quite capable of supporting business interactions and working remotely, there’s no going fully back to the 100% open plan hot desk (yuk) nonsense, challenge is finding the new normal.

[Chippie]

NZ Super Rugby coverage in USA. This has got to be good opportunity for NZRU and SKT to sell coverage if not already done?
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/13/s...ntl/index.html

[moka]

The law of unintended consequence. Many people find that they enjoy working from home. No commute, more productive, flexible when they work, integrate better with family life, and the list goes on, not to mention huge savings in travel time and cost. The place I work with is grappling with only a 10% return to the office, the bosses are upbeat about going back (party line) but stop at insisting on it. Massive savings for business on unnecessary lease space and massive savings for workers not commuting. Good for the environment too. Fast forward 10 years has happened in three months, COVID lockdown has exposed the future in remote working for office people, technology has proven itself as quite capable of supporting business interactions and working remotely, there’s no going fully back to the 100% open plan hot desk (yuk) nonsense, challenge is finding the new normal.

Your personal experience is interesting. Thanks for sharing. Personally I am surprised how many people want to work from home. When working from home one issue is privacy or confidentiality for example if you work for Inland Revenue or MSD. During lockdown people did not have visitors, but with normal life you may have friends or relatives staying or people just dropping in. And not everyone has a home office. In one article I read people in flats preferred to go to work. One woman who is working from home told me she can’t wait to go back to work because she misses bouncing ideas off her colleagues. I certainly valued the social contact aspect when I was working.
https://www.dw.com/en/an-office-of-o...ity/a-53666357
An office of one's own: how work from home magnifies inequality. Better-paid positions are less vulnerable to distancing policies, which have already cost millions of jobs. Less than 30% of US workers can actually work from home, a statistic that differs enormously by race and ethnicity.

[Sideshow Bob]

Your personal experience is interesting. Thanks for sharing. Personally I am surprised how many people want to work from home. When working from home one issue is privacy or confidentiality for example if you work for Inland Revenue or MSD. During lockdown people did not have visitors, but with normal life you may have friends or relatives staying or people just dropping in. And not everyone has a home office. In one article I read people in flats preferred to go to work. One woman who is working from home told me she can’t wait to go back to work because she misses bouncing ideas off her colleagues. I certainly valued the social contact aspect when I was working.
https://www.dw.com/en/an-office-of-o...ity/a-53666357
An office of one's own: how work from home magnifies inequality. Better-paid positions are less vulnerable to distancing policies, which have already cost millions of jobs. Less than 30% of US workers can actually work from home, a statistic that differs enormously by race and ethnicity.

I think many jobs will be a hybrid, with some days at home, and some days in the office (hotdesking might come back?). Social interaction is a big one - most people spend more (waking) time with their workmates than they do with their significant other. I can see 'working from home' on Fridays or Mondays might be a little politically incorrect.

I've got another screen and docking station at home and will work 1-2 days per week. Just gives a bit of flexibility and not sure if more productive or will spend more time cruising share trading websites...…

But I can see it now, the H&S crackdown (read gravy train) will be people working from home and risking a paper cut.

[fungus pudding]

Where's Fungus Pudding at - the tide has turned a bit on old Trumpy aye. Finally **** seems to be sticking and he's well down in the polls. Interesting times, but it now seems more and more likely that, for some, a positive from Covid could be that Trump is a one term president!

What do you mean? Where am I at?

[jonu]

What do you mean? Where am I at?

The bottom of a petri dish?

[BlackPeter]

Just looking at the latest C-19 numbers ... and some interesting stats falling out.

Have a look at Singapore. They do have a relatively high case number (which is probably related to their very high number of tests), i.e. I am pretty sure they catch nearly every case they have) and they do have a very low mortality number, which is probably related to their top nudge health system as well as great health care procedures and a disciplined people.

SingaporeC-19.JPG

Closed cases: 32712 recovered and only 26 people died.

This is a closed cases mortality rate of only 0.08 % - which is actually less than the case mortality during a bad flu season (0.1%).

I think this is great news. Manage the virus appropriately and it is not even as bad (from a health perspective) than the normal flu. Obviously - I am not talking here about the economic outcomes of the control measures.

Of course - things look pretty different in third world countries controlled by populist idiots like the US (current case mortality 11.5%), the UK (case mortality around 17%, they don't count the number of patients recovered), or Brazil (case mortality 8.6%) but one still wonders whether the world could have reacted in a more sensible way to this virus ...

[fungus pudding]

Was trying to get your attention. Sorry, we might be from different generations?

Perhaps replace, with "Fungus, how are you? You know how we were discussing Trumps approval rating numbers, and his likelihood of getting re-elected?".....

No I do not. I hope he doesn't get reelected though but it's a distinct possibility he will. He's not just a clown. He's a narcissitict dangerous fool.
That has been my opinion since before he was elected as various posts will show. And yes, I come from an English speaking generation.

[moka]

Can We Have Prosperity Without Growth?
· If humanity is not to destroy the planet’s life support systems, the global economy should slow down.”
· A larger G.D.P. doesn’t necessarily mean a rise in human well-being—especially if it isn’t distributed equitably—and the pursuit of it can sometimes be counterproductive.
· Rather than chase “the growth mirage,” governments should concentrate on specific measures with proven benefits, such as helping the poorest members of society get access to health care, education, and social advancement.
· The phenomenon of slow growth is often bemoaned as “secular stagnation.”
· The movement of women into the workplace provided a onetime boost to the labor supply; in its aftermath, other trends dragged down the growth curve e.g. smaller families.
· A switch in spending patterns from tangible goods—such as clothes, cars, and furniture—to services, such as child care, health care, and spa treatments.
· In 1950, spending on services accounted for forty per cent of G.D.P.; today, the proportion is more than seventy per cent.
· And service industries, which tend to be labor-intensive, exhibit lower rates of productivity growth than goods-producing industries, which are often factory-based.
· “In the end, that reallocation of economic activity away from goods and into services comes down to our success.
· We’ve gotten so productive at making goods that this has freed up our money to spend on services.
· Slow growth, it turns out, is the optimal response to massive economic success.
· Vollrath’s analysis implies that all the major economies are likely to see slower growth rates as their populations age—a pattern first established in Japan during the nineteen-nineties.
· China and India lifted millions out of extreme deprivation by integrating their countries into the global capitalist economy, supplying low-cost goods and services to more advanced countries. The process involved mass rural-to-urban migration, the proliferation of sweatshops, and environmental degradation. But the eventual result was higher incomes and, in some places, the emergence of a new middle class that is loath to give up its gains.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...without-growth