PANIC BY PROXY
This week, with the fuel tanker drivers' strike looming, I was really pleased to hear someone admit to panic buying their petrol. There are queues at the pumps so I guess lots of people are panic buying but for most of us, it's a guilty secret, not helped by a lot of conflicting advice from those in authority.
What I don't understand is why we feel so guilty. If there's going to be a shortage of something then surely it's sensible to stock up? We’re told we should save money and not get into debt, get a nest egg together for our retirement, and make sure we have winter weather clothes in our car. But when it comes to fuel apparently we have to resist all those impulses. We are told that the fuel must be saved for the emergency services but we all know that in reality, if we don't buy the petrol, Mr Smith down at number 57 will fill up so he can get to his local golf club.
I blame my family for my own disaster planning approach. In hindsight there was unlikely to be an armed siege in Leeds when I was a child in the 1960's but our food cupboards were stocked to the rafters against just such an eventuality. And if anything looked like running short then panic buying was the order of the day; probably itself a left-over from the war years where if you saw a queue, you joined it.
Technology should mean, of course, that none of us need to travel and that I could put my feet up at home, save fuel and work from there. But of course I don't want to do that. Despite employing some of the brightest and most capable people around, I still feel the need to be here and stamp my own opinions on whatever's going on.
And there’s so much going on at the moment that even a day out of the office means I’ve missed some really important developments. At thebigword we’ve just announced that we’re poised to double our public sector interpreting and translation revenue this year on the back of business wins in the UK and U.S. That success has been achieved because we save Governments money whilst still providing a top class service in all the areas where they need to communicate with populations: border protection, National Health Service, police, social services and many more.
So I can console myself that I am, in some tenuous way, supporting the emergency services just by turning up to work. In the meantime I asked someone to take my car out and get some petrol. Panic buying by proxy.
What I don't understand is why we feel so guilty. If there's going to be a shortage of something then surely it's sensible to stock up? We’re told we should save money and not get into debt, get a nest egg together for our retirement, and make sure we have winter weather clothes in our car. But when it comes to fuel apparently we have to resist all those impulses. We are told that the fuel must be saved for the emergency services but we all know that in reality, if we don't buy the petrol, Mr Smith down at number 57 will fill up so he can get to his local golf club.
I blame my family for my own disaster planning approach. In hindsight there was unlikely to be an armed siege in Leeds when I was a child in the 1960's but our food cupboards were stocked to the rafters against just such an eventuality. And if anything looked like running short then panic buying was the order of the day; probably itself a left-over from the war years where if you saw a queue, you joined it.
Technology should mean, of course, that none of us need to travel and that I could put my feet up at home, save fuel and work from there. But of course I don't want to do that. Despite employing some of the brightest and most capable people around, I still feel the need to be here and stamp my own opinions on whatever's going on.
And there’s so much going on at the moment that even a day out of the office means I’ve missed some really important developments. At thebigword we’ve just announced that we’re poised to double our public sector interpreting and translation revenue this year on the back of business wins in the UK and U.S. That success has been achieved because we save Governments money whilst still providing a top class service in all the areas where they need to communicate with populations: border protection, National Health Service, police, social services and many more.
So I can console myself that I am, in some tenuous way, supporting the emergency services just by turning up to work. In the meantime I asked someone to take my car out and get some petrol. Panic buying by proxy.
