Most of us know that if we go with the builder who puts in the cheapest quote, they’ll be juggling 10 jobs and will pitch up when they pitch up; then hit us with a bill for loads of ‘extras’. The government, to be fair, knows that too. They go for the cheapest quote but with a contract that says ‘no extras’ and has big penalties for not finishing on time. So, guess what, their builder’s gone bust. Maybe a spot of DIY might have been better after all.
Here’s the flip side. Should a business not have the right to choose whom it serves? If you as a client, or more likely potential client, rub us up the wrong way, are a declared anti-vaxxer or support the barges, can we not, as a business, say ‘Be Gone’?
Are workers working from home more or less productive than those catching the 7.02am to London Bridge every day? ‘Probably sitting at home in their bleedin’ jim-jams’, said someone recently of a less-than-helpful call centre employee, the assumption being that, were they surrounded by colleagues and with a manager cracking the whip, he or she would have sorted his energy bill more efficiently.
Here’s a future problem that will doubtless be kicked down the road until it becomes a crisis. There’s a whole generation who may never be able to afford to buy their own homes.