Dangers of working from home

Many people have welcomed the concept of a “new normal”, particularly the idea of working from home. But there are significant risks with not having a “work presence”.

This mode of work is already increasing in the US and EU as more new companies are springing up to service clients from afar; from the “cloud”.

What is to stop some companies from decentralising and wholly shifting to the “cloud”? Thereby locating themselves outside current legal restrictions, e.g. national wage rules or taxation? Or claim whatever legal domain best suits their purposes?

Not even CEOs will be safe as “blockchain” methods of management and “collective management” arise. An example of a successful “self-managing” organisation is Morning Star in California — no bosses, no titles, and no hierarchal structure. It has 600 fulltime workers and 4000 seasonal workers. Revenue is $1b annually, mostly through processing tomatoes. So, it is not only small organisations that could benefit from a change of work perspectives.

You may cheer the freedom of working from home, but that very freedom may put your very “out-sourceable” job up for grabs. Maybe it is better to be seen and so have a voice in your future.

Mike Schmidt, Sunny Hills.

Beach fund

Referring to the “dirty beaches” sad saga for frustrated Auckland ratepayers: I do thank the NZ Herald for publishing opinions of disappointment flying in the face of our town’s promotion. The mayor already only got about 14 per cent of votes at the last election. For me, a clear “You are fired” moment, as Gary Hollis requests.

The dilemma ratepayers face is the fact that Auckland is too big to fail and Mr Goff is too close to the Labour government. No political solution is in sight.

I advocate 5 per cent of the rates being administered by a trust account until a democratic majority-backed council is established. A thousand or more citizens supporting that “money talks” solution would alert the borrowing institutions and would be the only way in converging to a democratic town representation.

So far we are just cannon fodder.

Juergen Petersen, Pt Chevalier.

Scant scanning

The science of risk tells us that the Government must act now to make QR code scanning mandatory if the serious risk of a difficult-to-control Covid outbreak, arising from the new fastspreading Covid variant, is to be avoided.

Should such an outbreak occur, current scanning levels (less than one in six of the 2.5 million registered Covid Tracer app users are using it daily) are inadequate to support contact tracing of the fastspreading Covid variant. Significant national economic and health damage would occur.

Professor Gerald Wilde (late) was the father of modern-day risk homeostasis theory. Simply put, in high-risk situations where people feel comfortable (i.e. the NZ public with Covid today) you cannot rely on optional behaviours to reduce risk. Government “requests” for the public to scan in with the app will not work. Not because people are bad or lazy, but because they feel safe.

This is why we have laws against drinkdriving and speeding. Scanning must be mandated if growing NZ community Covid risks with serious consequences are to be avoided.

Grant Avery, Upper Hutt.

As charged

In response to Neal Barclay’s piece ( NZ Herald, January 5), I can understand how one could explain the waste spilling of 28GWh of electricity as a safety precaution.

Meridian is a limited liability company, majority-owned by the NZ government and, as such, is charged with doing the best it can for its shareholders. It is in the business of selling electricity, as much as it can and for the highest price it can achieve.

There is little incentive to start doing things such as redesigning the distribution “system” to facilitate the use of distributed solar alternatives, subsidising heat pump hot water systems, embracing ripple control as a core distribution service.

When energy companies have a primary goal of reducing reliance on fossil fuels and encouraging energy-thrifty technologies, then I will give some credence to such statements.

Maurice Robertson, Torbay.

Rate intervention

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, unemployment is high and residents are struggling with the high rent and the cost of living. Even the Ministers and Members of Parliament are not getting any increase in their remuneration. How on earth does the Hamilton City Council seek residents’ approval for an 8.9 per cent rate increase?

In the previous 10-year plan, rates were supposed to increase by only 3.8 per cent. The proposed 8.9 per cent is made up of 4.4 per cent general rate plus 4.5 per cent to shoulder the cost of the Government’s “three waters” reforms as well as some district plan costs.

If the Government understands the situation and stops remuneration increases to parliamentarians, why does it want to put the burden on residents?

How can the residents, tenants, pensioners, and the unemployed afford to pay a rate increase of 8.9 per cent?

Mano Manoharan, Hamilton.

Hanging on a wire

Around 1972, the Auckland Electric Power Board decided to require the undergrounding of overhead power lines in new subdivisions and to trial removing unsightly existing lines. Parnell Rd was the first (it is now not easy to remember the major transformation which resulted). It was so successful that in 1974, an ambitious plan to underground the whole of Auckland in 40 years was adopted. Main thoroughfares and the streets around the harbour were the first and they still benefit — in safety, beauty and the increase in value of properties there.

A Herald editorial (on November 9, 1998) spoke of “the aesthetic awareness that accompanies affluence” and that “the board deserves the city’s backing and its thanks”.

That ended in 1990 when the AEPB was transferred to Mercury Energy and since the blackout which followed in 1998, the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust (now

Entrust) has done some undergrounding as a token only but never with any intention or prospect of finishing the job.

Today, look at most streets (but particularly in the older suburbs of Auckland) and despair at the eyesore of the hideous posts and wirescapes. It is time for reconsideration.

John Collinge, St Marys Bay.

City of fails

So the mayor’s “most liveable city” joke continues as Aucklanders are warned not to swim at the majority of beaches due to high levels of faecal contamination, drinking water is still in short supply, and the population can’t drive and park anywhere in the “vibrant ” metropolis of Auckland.

Pedestrians daily run the gauntlet of being run into by cyclists and scooter riders who seem to think they have rights of way in the strangely described “shared spaces”.

Road cones block access to popular areas everywhere in the city.

I guess we can admire the empty bikeways that have absorbed so much of the city’s financial resources and stymied previously successful businesses, forcing closures.

Well done Auckland Council.

The joke is really on us.

Max Wagstaff, Auckland Central.

Nuke clear

I wonder if anyone else is as amazed at the latest Steinlager ads on TV as I am?

Has the effort and sacrifice of those involved in gaining a nuclear-free Pacific been reduced to a token advertisement for a green bottle of lager?

While the ad is a timely reminder of our history, it nonetheless trivialises something that made New Zealand what it is today: a beacon of free speech, democracy, and action.

Lindsay Neill, Beach Haven.

Sky high

What a shame that the maths of many New Zealanders is of such a poor standard. People complaining about the “exorbitant” cost of Spark Sport’s cricket coverage are examples of this sad demise.

While they have nostalgic memories of Sky providing the cricket on their channels, they fail to recall that when Sky was showing New Zealand cricket it was a requirement to have a subscription to Sky Basic as well as Sky Sport, at a minimum cost in excess of $50 per month. Spark Sport is $25 per month.

Quite frankly, the Spark app streamed to me has much superior easily managed capabilities than the outdated satellite box that Sky provided.

Neil Anderson, Algies Bay.