Ok, so I wasn’t expecting this tweet to get (checks numbers) 865 likes and 93 retweets:
Honestly, screw commuting and screw Pret. I love working from home
But why not have a coffee truck that drives around the suburbs like an ice cream van? I’m sure we could come up with a “flat white” jingle for it to play.
The context is that we’re all being told to get back to the office, and that it’s selfish to do otherwise because coffee shops, etc, in cities are suffering. See, in Grazia: When Did ‘Save The NHS’, Get Overtaken By ‘Save Pret’?
But going back to exactly what we were doing before seems like a pretty unimaginative way to save the economy. It turns out that many people love working remotely, and we’re learning how to be good at it.
Perhaps, rather than struggling to preserve old businesses, we can let them evolve and build new ones too?
By which I mean:
We’re used to office perks and the benefits of working in a business neighbourhood: free snacks (if you’re lucky), a comfy chair, good lunch spots nearby… what future working-from-home perks can we invent, if we’re in this for the long term?
Like, is there remote work facilities management that can come set up my desk and give me a sound baffle/backdrop for my video calls? (Has Ikea launched a Zoom kit yet?) If I were a manager, could I expense desk beers on Fridays for my team, and is there a company that can sort that out? Is there a startup which will organise virtual movie nights, or a surprise snack box in the post, or streaming event once every couple of weeks? Could my local train station get itself a suburban WeWork for the times I actually need a meeting room?
It would be unrealistic for even a sizeable firm to run all these perks itself. But if they were all services that were contracted out? That’s our new economy right there.
Then there’s good coffee and the social life. It can feel pretty distant sometimes at home. But while it’s nice to have face-to-face banter, does that really need to be with co-workers? I’d just as soon have my water-cooler moments with the people who live on my street.
All of that was going round in my head.
I also have a refreshed love of my neighbourhood.
We couldn’t get online grocery delivery slots at the beginning of lockdown, and our local shops really stepped up. I’ll never forget that. One nearby cafe flipped its model into selling flour and dried goods, the interior becoming an ad hoc storeroom.
That experience sparked me to write about local e-commerce back in May. In short: what if I could order and get same-day deliveries from the local businesses that I want to support, as an antidote to the usual faceless e-commerce giants?
So an ice cream van that pulls up, jingling out the MIDI version of Josh Wink’s Higher State of Consciousness at 11am, everyone on the street downing tools and heading out for a caffeine hit and to catch up with friends?
I’m maaaybe 50% kidding.
But the underlying provocation stands: what if we aimed to make remote working as great an experience as a fancy office, and what if we did it in a way that boosted both human contact and our local neighbourhoods, and what new businesses can we imagine that would enable this?
‘Yes, we’ll see them together some Saturday afternoon then,’ she said. ‘I won’t have any hand in your not going to Cathedral on Sunday morning. I suppose we must be getting back. What time was it when you looked at your watch just now?’ "In China and some other countries it is not considered necessary to give the girls any education; but in Japan it is not so. The girls are educated here, though not so much as the boys; and of late years they have established schools where they receive what we call the higher branches of instruction. Every year new schools for girls are opened; and a great many of the Japanese who formerly would not be seen in public with their wives have adopted the Western idea, and bring their wives into society. The marriage laws have been arranged so as to allow the different classes to marry among[Pg 258] each other, and the government is doing all it can to improve the condition of the women. They were better off before than the women of any other Eastern country; and if things go on as they are now going, they will be still better in a few years. The world moves. "Frank and Fred." She whispered something to herself in horrified dismay; but then she looked at me with her eyes very blue and said "You'll see him about it, won't you? You must help unravel this tangle, Richard; and if you do I'll--I'll dance at your wedding; yours and--somebody's we know!" Her eyes began forewith. Lawrence laughed silently. He seemed to be intensely amused about something. He took a flat brown paper parcel from his pocket. making a notable addition to American literature. I did truly. "Surely," said the minister, "surely." There might have been men who would have remembered that Mrs. Lawton was a tough woman, even for a mining town, and who would in the names of their own wives have refused to let her cross the threshold of their homes. But he saw that she was ill, and he did not so much as hesitate. "I feel awful sorry for you sir," said the Lieutenant, much moved. "And if I had it in my power you should go. But I have got my orders, and I must obey them. I musn't allow anybody not actually be longing to the army to pass on across the river on the train." "Throw a piece o' that fat pine on the fire. Shorty," said the Deacon, "and let's see what I've got." "Further admonitions," continued the Lieutenant, "had the same result, and I was about to call a guard to put him under arrest, when I happened to notice a pair of field-glasses that the prisoner had picked up, and was evidently intending to appropriate to his own use, and not account for them. This was confirmed by his approaching me in a menacing manner, insolently demanding their return, and threatening me in a loud voice if I did not give them up, which I properly refused to do, and ordered a Sergeant who had come up to seize and buck-and-gag him. The Sergeant, against whom I shall appear later, did not obey my orders, but seemed to abet his companion's gross insubordination. The scene finally culminated, in the presence of a number of enlisted men, in the prisoner's wrenching the field-glasses away from me by main force, and would have struck me had not the Sergeant prevented this. It was such an act as in any other army in the world would have subjected the offender to instant execution. It was only possible in—" "Don't soft-soap me," the old woman snapped. "I'm too old for it and I'm too tough for it. I want to look at some facts, and I want you to look at them, too." She paused, and nobody said a word. "I want to start with a simple statement. We're in trouble." RE: Fruyling's World "MACDONALD'S GATE" "Read me some of it." "Well, I want something better than that." HoME大香蕉第一时间
ENTER NUMBET 0016www.jlfyuq.com.cn www.ebriir.com.cn gangnam.net.cn qianhebao.com.cn www.qynytech.com.cn rfjrfw.com.cn nvjiao.com.cn wschain.com.cn www.whzddl.com.cn vqmw.com.cn
Ok, so I wasn’t expecting this tweet to get (checks numbers) 865 likes and 93 retweets:
The context is that we’re all being told to get back to the office, and that it’s selfish to do otherwise because coffee shops, etc, in cities are suffering. See, in Grazia: When Did ‘Save The NHS’, Get Overtaken By ‘Save Pret’?
But going back to exactly what we were doing before seems like a pretty unimaginative way to save the economy. It turns out that many people love working remotely, and we’re learning how to be good at it.
Perhaps, rather than struggling to preserve old businesses, we can let them evolve and build new ones too?
By which I mean:
We’re used to office perks and the benefits of working in a business neighbourhood: free snacks (if you’re lucky), a comfy chair, good lunch spots nearby… what future working-from-home perks can we invent, if we’re in this for the long term?
Like, is there remote work facilities management that can come set up my desk and give me a sound baffle/backdrop for my video calls? (Has Ikea launched a Zoom kit yet?) If I were a manager, could I expense desk beers on Fridays for my team, and is there a company that can sort that out? Is there a startup which will organise virtual movie nights, or a surprise snack box in the post, or streaming event once every couple of weeks? Could my local train station get itself a suburban WeWork for the times I actually need a meeting room?
It would be unrealistic for even a sizeable firm to run all these perks itself. But if they were all services that were contracted out? That’s our new economy right there.
Then there’s good coffee and the social life. It can feel pretty distant sometimes at home. But while it’s nice to have face-to-face banter, does that really need to be with co-workers? I’d just as soon have my water-cooler moments with the people who live on my street.
All of that was going round in my head.
I also have a refreshed love of my neighbourhood.
We couldn’t get online grocery delivery slots at the beginning of lockdown, and our local shops really stepped up. I’ll never forget that. One nearby cafe flipped its model into selling flour and dried goods, the interior becoming an ad hoc storeroom.
That experience sparked me to write about local e-commerce back in May. In short: what if I could order and get same-day deliveries from the local businesses that I want to support, as an antidote to the usual faceless e-commerce giants?
So an ice cream van that pulls up, jingling out the MIDI version of Josh Wink’s Higher State of Consciousness at 11am, everyone on the street downing tools and heading out for a caffeine hit and to catch up with friends?
I’m maaaybe 50% kidding.
But the underlying provocation stands: what if we aimed to make remote working as great an experience as a fancy office, and what if we did it in a way that boosted both human contact and our local neighbourhoods, and what new businesses can we imagine that would enable this?