EDITION 978
17 JULY 2023

There is no escaping it: too much news is bad for you. It should come with a government health warning: “This intellectual diet is fine taken in small doses, and preferably in weekly instalments, via a well-balanced newsletter, such as 10 things from William Montgomery."

So, as another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. Please feel free to share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can also subscribe, learn and engage. I would be very grateful if you did.

William Montgomery
Editor and CEO of TEN

1. How to write emails people will read. Corporate employees receive and send more than 100 emails a day on average, and competition for readers’ attention is fierce. Luckily, crafting emails that encourage people to read and act is relatively easy. READ MORE

2. How much do meetings cost? To meet or not to meet? Canadian e-commerce firm Shopify has introduced a calculator that estimates the cost of meetings. The tool, embedded in the calendar app, takes into account the average compensation data across roles, meeting length and attendee count to gauge the cost to the company. The price tag for a 30-minute meeting with three employees ranges from $700-$1,600 (£540-£1230), going up to $2000 (£1540) if a C-suite executive is involved. Research has shown that unnecessary meetings can cost big companies $100m a year. But does cutting down on meetings enhance productivity or discourage employees from speaking up and leave people out of decision-making? Bloomberg

3. AI will hit high-skilled jobs. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) believes the roles that are most threatened by AI-driven automation are highly skilled jobs. Law, medicine and finance, which often require many years of education, are among the industries set to be impacted the most, according to the OECD, which has 38 member countries, including the UK, Japan, Germany, the US, Australia and Canada. The influential organisation added that the latest crop of "generative AI" platforms can create content that is indistinguishable from that of humans, and major economies could be at a tipping point. For now, AI is largely changing jobs rather than replacing them entirely, the OECD said. The Guardian

4. Are rising wages pushing up prices? Pay in the UK grew at an annual rate of 7.3% in the three months to May, thehighest growth on record. The average pay growth for the private sector was 7.7%, while the public sector saw 5.8% growth, according to data from the ONS. The pace of growth has fuelled fears that inflation could stay high longer as, faced with increased costs, companies are likely to raise prices further. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and chancellor Jeremy Hunt have called for wage restraint to curb high inflation in their Mansion House speeches. However, despite the record growth, pay rises are still lagging behind inflation - currently at 8.7%. Job vacancies also fell by 85,000, dropping for the 12th consecutive time in the period from April to June. The Financial Times

5. UK economy 'listless' with little growth in four years. The UK economy contracted slightly in May, declining 0.1% between April and May, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. This was less than the 0.3% drop expected by economists. The contraction was largely attributed to an extra bank holiday for the King's coronation, which reduced economic activity. Key sectors like manufacturing, construction and services were all negatively impacted by the extra holiday. In the three months to May, output was flat compared to the previous quarter. The data shows the economy was already struggling before the full impact of interest rate hikes is felt. BBC

6. Sleep protects against ageing. The link between exercise and better cognitive function in older age is well established; but a new study has found that too little sleep in late middle age can wipe out the benefits of keeping fit. A team at University College London looked at data on around 9,000 people over 50 whose cognitive function had been assessed over ten years. They’d also filled in questionnaires about how long they slept each night, and their exercise levels. Initially, those who were more active had better cognitive function, regardless of sleep; but in their 60s, these short sleepers (with less than six hours a night) started to experience more rapid decline. The Daily Mail

7. Airport with highest crime rate revealed. Luton Airport was the UK airport with the highest number of reported crimes per passenger in 2022, according to a study. Based on data from Freedom of Information requests, Luton reported 959 crimes throughout the year, amounting to 7.2 crimes per 100,000 passengers. Manchester Airport, Glasgow, Newcastle and Heathrow make up the rest of the top five. The airports with the lowest crime rates per passenger were Leeds Bradford Airport and Edinburgh. Evening Standard

8. Truss has highest hourly rate. Liz Truss is paid £15,770 an hour for second jobs. MPs with second jobs have an average wage of £233 per hour -17 times the national average and over 22 higher than the minimum hourly wage. Former prime minister Truss, who has the highest hourly rate for a current MP, was paid at a rate of £20,000 per hour - nearly 1,500 times the UK average hourly wage - for a speech in Taiwan. Boris Johnson, who resigned as an MP last month, has an hourly rate of £21,822. Sky News

9. Marriage à la mode. The average rate on two-year mortgage deals hit the devilish figure of 6.66% this week – creating a new dilemma for couples in the throes of divorce. Who will get to keep the low mortgage? Divorce lawyers report that the “remortgaging cliff that homeowners are about to fall off” is making separation more complicated than ever, with interest rates “one of the first things” new clients talk about. Paying off a loan at 1.5% will save thousands of pounds, compared with having to get a new one at 6-7%. “Getting custody of the low-rate mortgage is akin to getting the house in France or the expensive car.” The Daily Telegraph

10. The bottom line. 91% of UK adults aged 18 to 65 say they feel happy or okay, and eight in ten of them believe their personal life will stay the same or improve. However, 70% say they feel as though “we’ve lived through a collective trauma”, and eight out of ten believe the “world out there” will remain the same or get worse. The Guardian