The arrogance of Apple

Can flexible working get the best out of what a ministerial press release calls ‘hardworking Brits’ – or is it a couch potato’s charter? As of 6 April, employees have had the right to ask for flexibility – including remote working and hours to suit – from their first day in a job; employers can reject unworkable requests, but are obliged to consider and consult.

If you’re an optimist, you’ll think workers whose family lives are accommodated by enlightened employers will be happier, more loyal and more productive: ‘5 a.m. will be the new 9 a.m.,’ declares the HR Director, for parents who choose to ‘tackle work before attending to childcare commitments’ then ‘wrap up earlier… prioritising family time’. If you’re a pessimist, you’ll harrumph at news of Office for National Statistics workers voting to strike after being asked to attend their workplace two days a week.

We can never measure the productivity fall or rise that follows from these changes in workers’ rights, which will be dwarfed by whatever a Labour government enacts. But if it’s true that we’ve become a work-shy, sick-note nation, trailing our international competitors, then this must be one more small step in the wrong direction.

Retail reputations

The media couldn’t find much to say about Jason Tarry, the next chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, beyond the fact that he’s a Tesco ‘lifer’, having spent his whole career to date with the supermarket titan. Unlike the incumbent Dame Sharon White, a former Treasury official who, as I’ve said before, was unlucky to have been offered the JLP job for which she had no experience, Tarry is steeped in the ‘retail is detail’ ethos of good shopkeeping and should find no surprises at John Lewis and its Waitrose grocery arm.