This morning, thousands of hardened runners will be donning their trainers and heading out to complete all 26.2 miles of the 40th incarnation of the London marathon. And yet the only sign that a race is happening at all today in the capital is a barricade of screens snaking around St James's Park in a specially designed looped course for the world's elite long distance runners. Indeed the majority of 45,000 other people due to take part in the mass-participation event won't be in London at all. Instead they will taking part remotely, setting off from their homes, wherever they are in the world, and logging their progress via an app. For many there will be no cheering crowds to spur them on, no iconic London landmarks to distract them from the muscle fatigue and blisters, and no winner's medal or t-shirt to mark their achievement after months of dedicated training. The Weekly salutes anyone brave (or mad) enough to run a marathon, but this year, when raising money for Covid-hit charities is more important than ever, the determination of those prepared to go it alone is inspiring.
Amidst all the Covid-19 induced disruption, there has been plenty of debate about the accelerating structural changes in the way we work. Enforced lockdowns aside, most of us accept that there will now be an increase in the number of office workers who will work from home either permanently or more regularly. Right on topic then, this week St Bride's Managers was given a revealing insight into how this workplace-shift may evolve from the team at Working From Home Pro, a company which specialises in helping businesses to adapt and succeed with more remote, flexible and distributed working. It was clear from our discussions that whilst an element of remote working has some clear benefits for both the employer and the employee, there are definitely some challenges in terms of team performance, leadership and employee well-being that need to be considered very carefully. Businesses might be able to perform operationally away from the office environment (lockdown has already proved that the technology is there), but does the profile of the organisation, and individuals within it, best suit remote or office-based work? How do you lead and manage a team remotely, for example, or understand when an employee is under stress? Are employees' home-working conditions really conducive to productive work in the long term? Working ten hours a day from the laptop in your bedroom might be productive in the short term, but surely it's not sustainable. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the diagnostic results of St Bride's own Remote Working Indicator Preferences Survey, indicates that we won't be ditching our office anytime soon. However, we were all firmly agreed that flexible working, at least to some degree, is here to stay.
Travelling by car in London is fast becoming a nightmare. As we've emerged from lockdown, the pressure on the capital's roads has increased exponentially as Londoners understandably shy away from public transport. Yet, congestion problems have now been exacerbated by a combination of major bridge closures across the Thames, some rather inclement autumnal weather (just wait till we hit winter), and TFL's "temporary" road changes aimed at promoting cycling and walking which have, in turn, reduced the capacity on many key arterial roads. The promotion of safe cycling must be applauded, but as a rather soggy member of The Weekly's editorial team bemoaned on Friday, "there are some very good reasons why cycling isn't for everyone". A regular commuter by bike, he'd just changed his third flat tyre of the week in the pouring rain and was heading back to Evans to replace two (newly stolen) bike lights for the journey home. He'd have buried his head in his hands, if they weren't still covered in bike grease. So, if you are not a lycra-loving, bike mechanic with a penchant for danger, what are your options for travelling around London? Well, following the Parliamentary Transport Committee's recommendation to lift the current ban on e-scooters, many more of us may soon be scooting our way around the UK's cities (no tyre levers, helmet or driver's licence required). Readers may rightly caution that e-scooters are inherently dangerous (the Qiewa Q1 Hummer model, for example, can apparently reach 55 kph!), but when you balance the risks with the fact that it now takes 45 minutes to cross Chelsea bridge during the morning rush hour, The Weekly is anticipating an e-scooter revolution.