As a business owner, and additionally someone who is driven to helping startups in their search for office space, and having been in the commercial property sector for the past 15 years across multiple countries, I have been able to see a change in a companies real estate portfolio and the way we work.
Fundamentally, the pending strike actions scheduled by the RMT within Greater London on the tube and South West England on First Great Western are infuriating and frankly in my belief a waste of time. The actions in their individual capacities are about modernisation…. For TFL its against 24hr tube service – long overdue for London – and for Great Western its updated, faster trains (the current fast trains have been on the tracks since 70’s).
We can appreciate that there is likely some job loss and perhaps not the wage increases that the unions have come to expect, but things move on, we need to modernise in order to compete globally; and while both strikes affect me directly in order to conduct office searches for our clients, one does wonder as to how effective a strike of this sort is.
Frankly with flexible working coming into play last year, a miriad of serviced office/ coworking/ hot desking options around the country, IT infrastructure (think superconnected cities) that while the strike is meant to piss the commuter off, its not as if work stops or grinds to a halt. I’m certain some will complain to TFL or FGW, but perhaps not enough to warrant caving in to the RMT.
I say go ahead and strike, I’m not sure however if it’ll serve the purpose that in the past it would of accomplised, because honestly the strike action is a thing of the past, and we’ve all moved on. Stop holding this mighty country back and embrace the modernisation… More jobs will come off the back of it, just jobs that one might not be used to. Change is good.
REGV
