I think Y2K is an example of where the science wasn’t followed.
The media and some politicians were full of scare stories of what could go wrong which had little foundation or risk of actually happening.
There was a risk that needed to be addressed but the vast majority of computer scientists knew the risk was limited as most systems were not time dependent and were never going to go wrong.
Most experts predicted that but politicians and media egged it up to something a lot more than it was.
Not saying there wasn’t work that needed to be done but the amount of testing and checking outweighed the risk for most systems.
I agree re covid though they do seem to be listening to the consensus of expert opinion (if nothing always acting on it fast enough). Always got to be aware however that the experts opinions are filtered through politicians before decisions are made and it’s always possible to find an expert to back up a policy if needed.
They are going to need a customs border on the Irish Sea.
This has been obvious and - I’m fairly sure - known to them since 2015 as the only viable solution. But, as it makes them look like bad right wing conservatives (‘breaking up Britain’ etc) they’ve managed to spin the line of ‘don’t worry about this’ until they’ve gotten to the point where they can say ‘well we don’t want to do this but we are trapped in a corner now so here you are’.
It was obviously heading this way when they were talking about some kind of borderless technology that clearly didn’t exist and you could tell even the people talking about it didn’t really believe it might happen.
They agreed to a customs border in the irish sea - that’s signed and done. But they’ve got to sell that to the DUP, who will kick off at the mere suggestion.
It also plays well to the media for our politicians to pretend they didn’t read the agreement before signing it (which I can believe of some, like raab… can he even read?.. but Boris is the one with his signature on it).
I see it’s down to 21 year olds this morning. My eldest will be pleased. About to have a first job interview post end of term and able to book to vaccinate. Two things she’s been after for a while.
We could sell back our holidays too - there was no limits though but it was made clear that this would be a one-off and we would lose any unused ones next year.
The taxman and my student loan repayment had a field day with my “bonus money” and pretty much wiped it all out though
Damn, being able to sell 'leave; days is a pretty good deal! Wish I could’ve done that, but we were made to take our leave before the end of the financial year regardless (use it or lose it), so I just ended up with periods where instead of WFH I was BFH (if I say I used the time to catch up with TV programmes, the B should be easy to figure out).
Wish we could do that! Same as Nick, I ended up wasting mine last winter to just sit about.
I’ve got loads booked for this summer though, week off, week in, week off! Got to use it up before they get funny about rolling it over again and I end up with more time off sat around doing nothing when it’s cold and wet.
At my workplace we can sell (or buy) up to 5 days leave. I never do though because I always like having a buffer of ‘just in case’ days.
I find I can use my leave fairly easily though as I tend to take similar weeks off each year and always have a fortnight in the summer. I believe everyone really benefits from a proper break once a year.
I don’t always go away during my weeks off, I just like lots of days out or just relaxing. A lot of my colleagues won’t take any leave unless they’ve got something planned with it and then end up with loads to get rid of.
I used to quite like a week at home if I didn’t have anything fun planned. But that seems an even bigger waste when I’m at home all the time now anyway!
Current COVID restrictions mean my local vet makes the pet owners wait outside with their pets for them then to be taken in. So each morning on my run I get the benefit of seeing 2/3 puppies/kittens.
If this is not a part of my employer’s plans for a full return then I’m not interested. It’s bad enough with no kittens on my one day a week in the office
Totally had this. I was getting totally slammed by work (from home) last summer and there was nowhere to go anyway so I held back the leave hoping we might get very luck that the pandemic would end by October and then I just ended up taking two weeks before Christmas to sit around the house totally burnt out while it rained outside. A little in danger of partially repeating that
