2020 Retailers in trouble thread
Discussion
eldar said:
Anonymous-poster said:
This will be something we tell our grandkids!
In 12-18 months time it will be as if it didn’t happen.
Yup, we’ll have paid off a trillion of debt, created a few million jobs, and all be rushing to Debenhams In our newly purchased TVRs.In 12-18 months time it will be as if it didn’t happen.
Super,I’m booking my holibobs in Yemen tonight.
sim72 said:
Yes, but since schools have been open throughout for staff (like me) that isn't going to have made any difference either.
AIUI, most children are not in school and are receiving tuition (of varied standard) from teachers who are also not in school. A rotating fraction of Years 10 +12 are now in, as is some of the primary population.Advice to schools throughout has been that if staff can work remotely you should work remotely. The schools I'm familiar with have functioned for key worker children, but that has required a small fraction of full staffing, and in at last one case I'm good knowledge of, several schools have coordinated to house all those children at one site, leaving the others completely closed, no access to staff at all.
Combined, I'd expect a significant reduction in school staff commuting.
One thing everyone here is missing, due to our ages probably, is that young people love cities.
And young people need managing, mostly face to face, at the early stages of their careers.
Businesses need young people to keep the wheels spinning.
I can see there being an increase in WFH of course but not of the kind speculated on here.
And young people need managing, mostly face to face, at the early stages of their careers.
Businesses need young people to keep the wheels spinning.
I can see there being an increase in WFH of course but not of the kind speculated on here.
Saweep said:
One thing everyone here is missing, due to our ages probably, is that young people love cities.
And young people need managing, mostly face to face, at the early stages of their careers.
Businesses need young people to keep the wheels spinning.
I can see there being an increase in WFH of course but not of the kind speculated on here.
I agree, it's very difficult to progress within a company and/or start from scratch virtually, particular for youngsters perhaps with no direct experience of the role.And young people need managing, mostly face to face, at the early stages of their careers.
Businesses need young people to keep the wheels spinning.
I can see there being an increase in WFH of course but not of the kind speculated on here.
The amount of stuff I also picked up from just over hearing other people speak is incredible. Completely lost in a virtual environment.
lauda said:
snuffy said:
I used to drive the length of the M56 (Chester to Manchester) and the difference in term time was night and day. I don't understand it either, since the cars were not full of school children on the motorway. However, the traffic was way heavier in term time.
Probably because parents take time off work when their kids are on school holidays and therefore aren’t commuting to their jobs. dantournay said:
I have another client (software developer) which employed 300 in the UK and last year started shifting roles out to Vietnam. The new staff are fluent in English and educated to degree or masters levels yet are a third of the cost of UK staff. C19 has only accelerated process.
But are they familiar with UK culture, working practices etc ? Asian culture is very different.Try getting them to say no to something, for example. They simply won't do it. They will say yes
and agree to almost anything to save face. That's their working culture. Nothing wrong with how
they do things, just different from the Western European way of doing things.
Timezone differences are the least of your worries. Getting sub contracted staff in a different
culture, even if English speaking, to do anything complex in the software development area,
while managed from the UK, is a major cultural challenge.
In one particularly bad case I experienced, software was delivered that passed the test suite which
defined acceptance and so payment, but that's *all* it did. It didn't function as required in any meaningful way.
I had to use the special "rm *.c" Linux C compiler and have it written in the UK.
sim72 said:
dcb said:
I had to use the special "rm *.c" Linux C compiler and have it written in the UK.
Ha. Been there, mentioning no names (insurance company that used to sponsor a major sporting event). Really difficult to get anyone to say they don't understand, ask a question, ask for help or deliver what you want - and much the same whether fully outsourced or brought in on contract. Even hand holding and fully worked examples just don't help. Takes longer, costs more, doesn't deliver what you want, then you have do it all yourself anyway. And don't even try doing a spec that outlines a problem to be solved and expects a solution, unless maybe they get extra lucky on Stack Overflow.
It's all a brilliant idea on paper but reality doesn't really work out. I think most outsourcing for anything to anywhere (stores, test equipment, HR, IT) ends up with things becoming slow and expensive. I think it's often only done because the contracting cost is visible and cheaper, but the knock-on cost gets hidden in everyone's time and overheads.
CoupeKid said:
snuffy said:
They are all very good points.
Also, if you WFH (like I have for 20 years now), you need to be fully set up. A laptop on the kitchen table won't cut it for it for very long. You need one room as an office in your house. If you have a spare room that you can use then that's great, but not everyone does of course.
I live in a nominally 4 bedroom house. 3 reasonable bedrooms and a box room.
The box room is the office. Ikea desk, second screen, office chair etc. That’s fine for one person WFH but we’re both WFH so I am literally hot desking in my own house!
I actually have two ‘offices’ one in the house and a garden office. Have desk phones and tripple screens in both.
When the house is empty i work in the house and the garden when the kids are on holiday.
The wife and the youngest have used my office in the house for the last 3 months and i stayed in the garden office.
So no impact and I feel extremely lucky to have such flexibility and the space to do that.
I think houses outside the big smoke with lots of room for a at least one home office and multiple living rooms will become highly desirable going forwards.
three bed s
tbox with no garden in london - no thanks pquinn said:
sim72 said:
dcb said:
I had to use the special "rm *.c" Linux C compiler and have it written in the UK.
Ha. Been there, mentioning no names (insurance company that used to sponsor a major sporting event). 
JxJ Jr. said:
pquinn said:
sim72 said:
dcb said:
I had to use the special "rm *.c" Linux C compiler and have it written in the UK.
Ha. Been there, mentioning no names (insurance company that used to sponsor a major sporting event). No one has ever outsourced anything to anywhere more expensive.
Fittster said:
JxJ Jr. said:
pquinn said:
sim72 said:
dcb said:
I had to use the special "rm *.c" Linux C compiler and have it written in the UK.
Ha. Been there, mentioning no names (insurance company that used to sponsor a major sporting event). No one has ever outsourced anything to anywhere more expensive.
Fittster said:
jakesmith said:
Surely some of the big high street retailers are going to announce job cuts soon- I’d imagine what with all the healthcare stuff they sell, Boots is the only safe place to be right about now.
Have you been keeping up with the news today?Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff