Rory Sutherland

You know, it helps to have people in the same place at the same time for all kinds of reasons. However, what's weird is that the level of absenteeism, if you want, I don't want to call it that, but you know what I mean, okay, is much, much higher in the US and Canada than it is in the UK. Was sick leave?

You know, it helps to have people in the same place at the same time for all kinds of reasons. However, what's weird is that the level of absenteeism, if you want, I don't want to call it that, but you know what I mean, okay, is much, much higher in the US and Canada than it is in the UK. Was sick leave?

Well, some of it's probably geographical in the simple sense that there are people who've moved. In other words, it's difficult in the UK to move so far away from the office that you can't come in for one or two days of the week. You have to choose an island somewhere or go to Scotland, I guess.

Well, some of it's probably geographical in the simple sense that there are people who've moved. In other words, it's difficult in the UK to move so far away from the office that you can't come in for one or two days of the week. You have to choose an island somewhere or go to Scotland, I guess.

Well, some of it's probably geographical in the simple sense that there are people who've moved. In other words, it's difficult in the UK to move so far away from the office that you can't come in for one or two days of the week. You have to choose an island somewhere or go to Scotland, I guess.

Um, in the US, there does seem to have been a sort of widespread dispersion of people to a distance away from their place of work, where it's a flight away, not a train ride away. But it's not, it's absolutely not what I would have predicted. Because if anything...

Um, in the US, there does seem to have been a sort of widespread dispersion of people to a distance away from their place of work, where it's a flight away, not a train ride away. But it's not, it's absolutely not what I would have predicted. Because if anything...

Um, in the US, there does seem to have been a sort of widespread dispersion of people to a distance away from their place of work, where it's a flight away, not a train ride away. But it's not, it's absolutely not what I would have predicted. Because if anything...

The US had a very strong culture of presenteeism, of people effectively getting in early, staying late, being absolutely desperate to show their face. And the office occupancy rates are much, much lower in the US and Canada than they are in Europe or the UK. Yeah.

The US had a very strong culture of presenteeism, of people effectively getting in early, staying late, being absolutely desperate to show their face. And the office occupancy rates are much, much lower in the US and Canada than they are in Europe or the UK. Yeah.

The US had a very strong culture of presenteeism, of people effectively getting in early, staying late, being absolutely desperate to show their face. And the office occupancy rates are much, much lower in the US and Canada than they are in Europe or the UK. Yeah.

That reminds me of an agency back in the 1990s who sent their staff on assertiveness training, and they all came back and half of them resigned.

That reminds me of an agency back in the 1990s who sent their staff on assertiveness training, and they all came back and half of them resigned.

That reminds me of an agency back in the 1990s who sent their staff on assertiveness training, and they all came back and half of them resigned.

It is interesting, by the way, because one thing that's disappointed me is I expected to see much, much greater levels of investment in really interesting remote working hardware. And by which I mean really, really good tech at home. There is a project apparently in the works called Google Starline, which is a kind of 3D video conferencing, which there's a team at Google probably still working on.

It is interesting, by the way, because one thing that's disappointed me is I expected to see much, much greater levels of investment in really interesting remote working hardware. And by which I mean really, really good tech at home. There is a project apparently in the works called Google Starline, which is a kind of 3D video conferencing, which there's a team at Google probably still working on.

It is interesting, by the way, because one thing that's disappointed me is I expected to see much, much greater levels of investment in really interesting remote working hardware. And by which I mean really, really good tech at home. There is a project apparently in the works called Google Starline, which is a kind of 3D video conferencing, which there's a team at Google probably still working on.

I hope so. But, I mean, don't forget you have a problem now in that offices have mostly shrunk their footprint. They still aren't kitted out for the frequency of video calls. In other words, the number of private pods in an office is too few. The number of meeting rooms is probably too many.

I hope so. But, I mean, don't forget you have a problem now in that offices have mostly shrunk their footprint. They still aren't kitted out for the frequency of video calls. In other words, the number of private pods in an office is too few. The number of meeting rooms is probably too many.

I hope so. But, I mean, don't forget you have a problem now in that offices have mostly shrunk their footprint. They still aren't kitted out for the frequency of video calls. In other words, the number of private pods in an office is too few. The number of meeting rooms is probably too many.