Andrew Barclay is a businessman.
Flexible working is not a new phenomenon. It has been around for decades, with varying degrees of success depending on the companies and industries that have implemented it. You do not need to be a working-from-home (WFH) evangelist to realise that working patterns have changed in recent years. Certain jobs, such as lawyers or journalists, can tolerate a level of WFH without a noticeable impact on performance.
However, it is important to note that prior to Covid, its uptake amongst businesses has been very limited.
The only reason it is plaguing our economy now, is not because businesses and start-ups across the nation have realised the phenomenal improvement in productivity. Far from it. It is simply because government-directed WFH orders, subsidies, and now policies have created a false sense of normality as well as a false labour market.
And it is doomed to fail, like many so many state interventions, created far away from business reality.
Just this week we have seen Meta change their tune on their “distributed workforce” policy, JP Morgan requiring managers back 5 days a week, and a large study by Microsoft concluding that WFH is killing their innovation. They join the likes of Amazon and others who, faced with rising interest rates and a bleak economic outlook, have realised the deep flaws in flexible working.
Ultimately it means less output, less innovation, and less growth. That being said, businesses left to their own devices are quick to realise a failed experiment when they see it in the numbers and adapt accordingly in order to survive. As they have done.
However, the real danger is the concept creeping its way permanently into our business laws, following the well-trodden path of so many “temporary“ measures brought in by the central government.
Alongside distorting the market over the last 2.5 years, the Government has legislated to give employees the right to request flexible working from day 1. You do not need to stretch your imagination to see where this is going.
My guess is that the “right to request flexible working” will quickly become a campaign for the “right to flexible working” from the usual left-wing campaigners on the hunt for an anti-business cause. No doubt, this will not stop until government policy looks something more like a 3-day working week.
As a founder and investor in technology start-ups, I have seen what it takes to build a successful company from nothing but thin air. The early days (12-24 months) are crucial, with your company so vulnerable that anything going wrong can result in an extinction event.
You and your team need a laser focus as you react to these extinction events in real-time, fighting fires and trying to perfect your business model. It can only be done through long, in-person hours physically working together as a team. In short, it requires a herculean effort that is not dissimilar to an elite unit of special forces on a dangerous mission.
The Government’s approach in giving all employees the right to request flexible working on day one would mean founders would spend their crucial first days as de facto HR managers focused on negotiating individual flexible working contacts. Legislation enshrining it would disincentivize and frustrate innovators from trying in the first place or at best heavily increase their chances of failure.
The appropriate working policies are best decided by the businesses themselves, who understand their own unique situation as opposed to the state taking a top-down blanket approach. These are fundamental conservative values that a Conservative government should understand.
In an increasingly confrontational world, it’s important that we prioritise the development of homegrown breakthrough technologies and ensure that we possess superior cyber capabilities than our competitors. The Government is therefore right in their stated ambition to be a science and technological superpower.
But if the big tech giants like Microsoft and countless others have concluded that flexible working harms innovation – how can the Government realistically succeed in their stated ambition at the same time as passing legislation that we know will severely decrease the chances of achieving that ambition? We can’t have it both ways.
The UK is currently a brilliant place for technology entrepreneurs to create a start-up. After the USA and China, the United Kingdom ranks as the third best country in the field thanks in large part to our historically pro-business and pro-technology approach. We must do everything we can to keep it that way. Whichever field you choose – energy, healthcare, defence, or others – the answer to all of society’s challenges relies on the huge advances in science and technology.
For the fanatics, entrepreneurs, and inventors who decide to take that leap, a pro-innovation, pro-technology, and pro-business Conservative government needs to do everything in its power to support and encourage them. Our country’s future prosperity endepends on it.
Andrew Barclay is a businessman.
Flexible working is not a new phenomenon. It has been around for decades, with varying degrees of success depending on the companies and industries that have implemented it. You do not need to be a working-from-home (WFH) evangelist to realise that working patterns have changed in recent years. Certain jobs, such as lawyers or journalists, can tolerate a level of WFH without a noticeable impact on performance.
However, it is important to note that prior to Covid, its uptake amongst businesses has been very limited.
The only reason it is plaguing our economy now, is not because businesses and start-ups across the nation have realised the phenomenal improvement in productivity. Far from it. It is simply because government-directed WFH orders, subsidies, and now policies have created a false sense of normality as well as a false labour market.
And it is doomed to fail, like many so many state interventions, created far away from business reality.
Just this week we have seen Meta change their tune on their “distributed workforce” policy, JP Morgan requiring managers back 5 days a week, and a large study by Microsoft concluding that WFH is killing their innovation. They join the likes of Amazon and others who, faced with rising interest rates and a bleak economic outlook, have realised the deep flaws in flexible working.
Ultimately it means less output, less innovation, and less growth. That being said, businesses left to their own devices are quick to realise a failed experiment when they see it in the numbers and adapt accordingly in order to survive. As they have done.
However, the real danger is the concept creeping its way permanently into our business laws, following the well-trodden path of so many “temporary“ measures brought in by the central government.
Alongside distorting the market over the last 2.5 years, the Government has legislated to give employees the right to request flexible working from day 1. You do not need to stretch your imagination to see where this is going.
My guess is that the “right to request flexible working” will quickly become a campaign for the “right to flexible working” from the usual left-wing campaigners on the hunt for an anti-business cause. No doubt, this will not stop until government policy looks something more like a 3-day working week.
As a founder and investor in technology start-ups, I have seen what it takes to build a successful company from nothing but thin air. The early days (12-24 months) are crucial, with your company so vulnerable that anything going wrong can result in an extinction event.
You and your team need a laser focus as you react to these extinction events in real-time, fighting fires and trying to perfect your business model. It can only be done through long, in-person hours physically working together as a team. In short, it requires a herculean effort that is not dissimilar to an elite unit of special forces on a dangerous mission.
The Government’s approach in giving all employees the right to request flexible working on day one would mean founders would spend their crucial first days as de facto HR managers focused on negotiating individual flexible working contacts. Legislation enshrining it would disincentivize and frustrate innovators from trying in the first place or at best heavily increase their chances of failure.
The appropriate working policies are best decided by the businesses themselves, who understand their own unique situation as opposed to the state taking a top-down blanket approach. These are fundamental conservative values that a Conservative government should understand.
In an increasingly confrontational world, it’s important that we prioritise the development of homegrown breakthrough technologies and ensure that we possess superior cyber capabilities than our competitors. The Government is therefore right in their stated ambition to be a science and technological superpower.
But if the big tech giants like Microsoft and countless others have concluded that flexible working harms innovation – how can the Government realistically succeed in their stated ambition at the same time as passing legislation that we know will severely decrease the chances of achieving that ambition? We can’t have it both ways.
The UK is currently a brilliant place for technology entrepreneurs to create a start-up. After the USA and China, the United Kingdom ranks as the third best country in the field thanks in large part to our historically pro-business and pro-technology approach. We must do everything we can to keep it that way. Whichever field you choose – energy, healthcare, defence, or others – the answer to all of society’s challenges relies on the huge advances in science and technology.
For the fanatics, entrepreneurs, and inventors who decide to take that leap, a pro-innovation, pro-technology, and pro-business Conservative government needs to do everything in its power to support and encourage them. Our country’s future prosperity endepends on it.