This week was the week I had my first in-person meeting. It was a prospect that generated both excited anticipation and a feeling of slight nervousness. It had been 15months after all.

The day arrived and a few things were indeed a surprise. In particular it was how quickly I fell into the same routine from before.

Signs of life

Yes, we were wearing masks, but if you got distracted it was all too easy to forget, almost as if the last year had not happened…. if this is the case more generally, once the brakes come off it is likely many things will bounce back quite quickly I think.

Yet the signs were still there, yes lots of traffic on the road, but few people on buses, in the streets or in the office. Regular retail chains open, with the omnipresence of plexiglass for employee safety, but many smaller restaurants, including a couple of good ones I used to frequent, closed and by the look inside not coming back…. there will still be impacts, especially in some specific sectors.

Shared experiences

In the office, there was clearly comradery amongst those that have been coming in over tall his time. Adversity often results in bringing people closer together and it seemed particularly the case for those in during the first lockdown. Everyone talked of it. It was clearly a strange time when nothing moved and they were all working in an empty city, quite different from later lockdowns… undoubtedly a shared experience and one we will all remember in our own ways too.

Technicolour

Workwise, there is no doubt that in-person meetings do have their benefits. It is an avalanche of non-verbal information, that in our process-driven world we can forget about. As human beings, it is something we have been built to process. In some ways it was like moving from black and white to full colour again.

However, as great as this was, a live in-person conversation obviously commands all your attention and takes time.

Nothing wrong with this, but there was less efficiency moving between meetings and a greater likelihood the meeting would be longer and/or overrun. We have got used to 30min focused meetings… they are going to be difficult to sustain, and I think will likely disappear again as we move to in-person again… it is just too hard but it will impact productivity.

Time for lunch

So I was thinking about the best analogy to help illustrate this whole experience. As usual, it seemed to gravitate towards food… but, returning to the office was like lunch.

Remote working is like having lunch at home. It is quick, easy, efficient, you can grab something quick (a cuppa soup or from the fridge), and move on with your day. The choice is more limited, but it’s cost-effective and can control what you consume. You can even eat at your desk to multitask and get some emails done while you ‘take a break’.

Working back in the office is like going to a restaurant. A pleasant environment, social, with great smells and sounds of sizzling food. The choice is wide, sometimes overwhelming and it can be hard to choose, falling into the same routines with the same people – Chicken Jalfrezi, please!. Dishes are tasty, but not necessarily healthy. It is a great experience, but not necessarily efficient nor less cost-effective, especially every day.

It is not one size fits all

Just like eating out, meeting in person, in the office is a rich, full colour rewarding experience. It is however less efficient, time-consuming, and more expensive than doing the same, for some tasks, remotely.

In some situations, it does have a unique advantage. Building relationships, understanding each other as people, is information that is harder to glean in other ways. But, the value of this reduces over time and if you need to be transactional, just get stuff done it soaks up the time you need elsewhere.

And herein lies our choice…. it is probably no one or the other, but a blend, based on the intended purpose and the situation itself. It will evolve… but likely mainly remote for efficiency, but with some special days in the office when needed…. it is not one size fits all, but will depend on the role, job, situation, and need… on-site, in the office team building, here we come!

All in all, an interesting week.

A couple of other stories this week too

• North of England accounts for half of pandemic property repossessions
• Bank of England will not hit panic button yet over rising inflation

In all likelihood, I will be out on the road next week. This will be the first time in over a year workwise, and I am really looking forward to it. It should be different and a refreshing change, I hope.

What this does mean is that I now need to get ready. It is going to be shirts not shorts, an early start on the road and I will, of course, need a bag or two.

There has not been much need for my laptop bag the last year. It is not that it has not been opened, it has, but for much of the year it has sat in the corner of the room, pretty much acting as laptop storage. But now, with it needing to be back in use a spring clean was needed and it was like walking back in time to our prepandemic life.

All the accoutrements, and detritus, of road warrior life were still there.

• The backup battery power pack – now flat
• 5 USB (micro B) cables – no idea what I used these for
• 3 headsets – different colours, and
• various assorted plastic bags – which seem to have previously lost their way to the bottom of the bag!

And, then there were the pointers to life pre-lockdown.

The old business cards, handwritten notes from meetings just before lockdown and of course the lemsip/cough sweets, trying to ward off that ‘cold’ we all seemed to have before we really knew about COVID.

Tidying up can sometimes be cathartic and sometimes reflective. A lot has happened over the last year. It will be interesting to see what has changed this week…

Other stories this week

Updates to the IVA protocol and DRO eligibility criteria were released. A widening of eligibility (DRO) to help more people get out of problem debt.

Significantly reduced impairment charges. Santander appeared to stand out, with the most significant drops in impairment reserve requirements, however, the pattern was also repeated across the rest of the banking sector too. It seems, maybe, that COVID has not been quite the disaster on lending payments as first expected back in 2020. Some of this is undoubtedly due to lower lending (pent-up demand?) and also hope this is a sign that things are looking up too. (It is also of course good expectation management on the banks’ behalf too).

Blockchain going mainstream. Increasingly, it seems, governments are becoming interested in blockchain and creating their own. More and more it feels like it is reaching a critical point for mainstream adoption. This is despite all fun and games around dogecoin and bitcoin this last week or so.

Lastly, with the news of sub-prime, near-prime lenders closing operations, you wonder how much fin-tech, and use of data to search for low risk can help customers find funding at low rates. JP Morgan is launching a credit card for people with no credit scores and data can be used to really personalize loans. The world of data, it seems, could change things a lot. It is one to watch developments closely.

Have a good weekend everyone…