My Financial Musings...Where Women, Goldman Sachs graduates and Uber collide?

Where extreme working conditions meet a call to action.  

The UK Supreme Court ruled in favour of 35 Uber drivers and now Uber is to reclassify 70,000 drivers as workers.  At the top end of town, 13 Goldman graduates wrote an open letter asking for a reduction in their average 95 hour working week.  Covid lock down, cooking 3 meals a day, housework and home schooling has created a sharp rise in household hours worked with rising discontent.

That got me musing. Women have borne the brunt of the increase in household pressure with a recent survey indicating 70% of women felt that extra household duties fell on them compared with 30% of men.  Like the GS grads many are at breaking point physically and mentally. 

Uber’s employees are now entitled to workplace pension schemes and other benefits such as holiday pay and sick leave.  Jane Fraser, new CEO at Citibank has called a halt to 24/7 zoom availability saying the blurring of lines between work and home is “simply not sustainable”, banned internal zoom meetings on Friday and ordered a company wide “reset” day.   

So how does this leave women?  Why not sit down with your partner and agree to a “home reset day” over Easter.  Maybe pour a glass of wine and discuss how your individual contribution is valued.  Maybe even give yourself a “bonus”. 

With no travel & entertainment possible since the last lockdown, household savings for those fortunate enough to be employed, have more than doubled and if you invest your money in medium risk balanced ISA fund, you could generate a 4%-5% return a year.  

Goldman Sachs graduates have now been granted a week-end break from 9pm Friday to Sunday morning. It’s unlikely that you will get the same concession at home so a bonus from Covid savings is well deserved and mitigate the risk of a much bigger collision….