EDITION 839
12 OCTOBER 2020

As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to 50,000+ subscribers each Monday at 10am. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can subscribe, learn and engage. I'd be very grateful if you did.

1. How to stay forever employable. Many of us chart out our career plans early on in life. But things do not always turn out the way we want them to – some find that their passion lies elsewhere, while some struggle to envision the second half of their careers in terms of seniority, salary and fulfilment. The answer to this is in staying forever employable by developing expertise in one domain and allowing new opportunities come to you. READ MORE

2. Labour level with Tories after losing three-point lead. Labour and the Tories are neck-and-neck again, according to the latest Opinium poll. The two parties recorded 40% support, with Labour’s three-point lead from a fortnight ago evaporating. The public is also split over who they prefer as prime minister, with 32% opting for Boris Johnson and 33% backing Keir Starmer. Some 42% think Johnson is out of his depth handling coronavirus. The Observer

3. Global economy faces slow recovery. The global economy faces a “long, uneven and uncertain” road to recovery, the head of the International Monetary Fund said. In June, the IMF forecast a 4.9% contraction in GDP for 2020, the sharpest fall since the Great Depression. Kristalina Georgieva said the global economy was “coming back from the depths of this crisis,” as the IMF prepares to make a small upward revision to its world economic forecasts due to be unveiled next week. But the managing director warned policymakers against cutting off support too soon. Financial Times

4. Hear people out (literally). People may want to pick up the phone more often to talk - not text, suggests a new study. Researchers found that people often opt for text-based communications because they fear feeling awkward during conversations, but an experiment found that people felt more connected to others after a phone call than those who chatted via email. There was no difference in how awkward either group felt. While not all discussions or communications need to be on the phone, researchers suggest there is value in literally hearing someone out from time to time. Daily Mail

5. Resisting the urge to multi-task. For workers around the world, the pandemic has presented fresh demands on our time, our attention and our resolve. In such moments, we may find ourselves attempting to do several things at once, a recipe for doing nothing particularly well at all. How can we resist the allure of multitasking? Take a hard, honest look at your environment, your tools and your priorities. Make your workspace as comfortable and distraction-free as possible; decide what truly needs to get done and what can be delayed a bit; and ditch the screens in favour of pen and paper here and there, to give your mind a rest from the digital world. Editor

6. Are you ready for WFH dress codes? Sweatpants are comfortable but they may be holding workers back and making employers worried. Recent research showed about half of people working from home don’t follow their employer’s dress code, reports the Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM]. The issue is that 80% of people wearing work clothes felt productive, compared to 70% in gym clothes and 50% of those in sleepwear. Additionally, some employers may be concerned with how casual some workers have become on video calls. The issue may lead to these bosses looking into dress codes for remote workers, according to one expert. The Telegraph

7. Keeping work from blurring your life. The boundaries between work and personal life have grown blurrier in recent months, as many professionals across the world work from home amid the pandemic. We may want to take a cue from Germans who embrace a concept called "Feierabend," which highlights the importance of drawing clear lines between the workday and your personal time. Such boundaries can come in the form of changing into different clothes come quitting time, or taking a bike ride to mimic your previous commute. The idea is to develop a ritual that makes it clear that you have left work mode. BBC

8. Were they always this annoying? If you’re working from home with your partner for the first time, you might be finding them even more irritating than usual. With the time and space that comes with trekking into the office each day now a distant memory for many, some couples say they’re feeling increasingly frustrated by their significant other's previously undisclosed annoying habits - such as using a new mug for every cup of tea, typing too loudly or workaholic tendencies. Experts suggest couples share their day’s plans each morning, designate quiet areas for meetings and try not to treat each other like co-workers. The Times

9. Researchers find cities are as kindly as small towns. A study has found that you are as likely to be helped by a stranger in urban Britain as in much smaller towns. The researchers carried out nearly 1,400 experiments in neighbourhoods across 12 cities and 12 towns to gauge the kindness of strangers. The researchers at University College London said there’s no evidence that urbanicity or population density affects the chance that you get help. Metro

10. The bottom line. The annual cost to every household in Britain that will result from behavioural shifts, such as working from home and being less inclined to go out, is £1,200, based on pre-pandemic 2019 economic output. The Independent