Preparing for the return to workplaces

As more and more people get vaccinated against Covid-19, leaders and employees are starting to look ahead to a potential return to offices. Many organisations are considering a hybrid work model, in which teams come into the office a few days a week or a few key days a month. As a leader, your role is to give your people as much certainty about the future as possible. And while no one really knows what the world will look like six months from now, there are a few steps you can take today to make your people feel supported and safe ahead of an eventual return to the workplace. Firstly, be transparent. Don’t wait to communicate what you’re thinking, even if there’s limited information to share. Secondly, surface concerns early on. To support your people, start by getting a better understanding of where they are. And thirdly, discuss expectations. As where you work becomes less important, when you work will take centre stage.

(Adapted from “How To Prevent The Return To Offices From Being An Emotional Roller Coaster,” by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West-Duffy, published on Mar 18, 2021, by MIT Sloan Management Review)

Who’s paying for your streaming service?

As the streaming field grows more crowded, likely increasing the incentive for users to share their account credentials, Netflix recently started prompting some of its users to verify their identity through a text message. Netflix’s rivals, including HBO Max, Disney+ and Peacock, often email their customers when they notice multiple logins from various locations, according to people familiar with the companies’ policies. The emails usually say that the service wants to ensure the user’s account wasn’t hacked, the people said. But they also serve as a gentle reminder to customers that companies know when more than one person is using the account, industry experts said. Netflix hasn’t cut off any subscribers for sharing a password, a person close to the company said. With more than 200 million subscribers — nearly 74m million of which are in the US and Canada — Netflix is running out of room to grow in North America. US streaming platforms lost an estimated $2.5bn in revenue in 2019 because of password sharing, according to Parks Associates, a research firm.

(Adapted from “Using Someone Else’s Netflix Password Is Likely To Get Harder,” by Lillian Rizzo and Joe Flint, published on Mar 18, 2021, by The Wall Street Journal)

The importance of hobbies for being more productive

Hobbies help people feel satisfied and resilient, experts say. Engaging with outside interests can also make us feel in control, challenged, and relaxed — which lets us be focused, energetic and better able to handle difficulties at work. If you’ve been depleted or ticked off at work, a hobby can help you forget about it. Satisfied, resilient people are commonly a part of one group that meets spiritual needs, one that’s intellectually engaging (eg a book club), one that’s for exercise, and one that’s arts-related (for, say, going to museums or watching movies). Many twenty-some-things have a range of interests and friends. And then life happens and an accumulation of work and home responsibilities build up. They start falling out of groups that kept them engaged. Keeping up with hobbies mitigates stress during a life stage when many are bombarded with micro-stressors that distract from work and deteriorate our ability to focus.

(Adapted from “Interests Outside of Work Can Make Us More Productive On The Job,” by Arianne Cohen, published on Mar 23, 2021, by Bloomberg Businessweek)

The burden of old age

In Pakistan, the absolute level of old-age income support coverage is on the lower side. For instance, the pensions to GDP ratio stands at just 2.2pc while the proportion of the population participating in programmes that provide old-age contributory pensions, health and/or social security insurance is only 5.9pc — much lower than the developing economies average of 20.3pc. The old-age dependency ratio —the number of people aged 65 and above compared to the number of working-age people — is 8.5pc, and is expected to rise to 11.2pc by 2040. But even with such a low pension coverage in the country, reforms to public pensions have become unavoidable in the face of the worrying acceleration in the associated public sector spending witnessed over the last decade. This is mostly because public pensions are unfunded and thus are burdening the already tight fiscal revenue situation.

(Adapted from “The State of Pakistan’s Economy – First Quarterly Report 2020-21,” by the State Bank of Pakistan)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, April 5th, 2021