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The Bottom Line
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Your essential guide to global business and technology
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Taking a break is essential | | |
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Most employees have a breaking point. Andrew Palmer—who is both The Economist’s Britain editor and author of the Bartleby column—seems to be an exception. Still, in a column he filed before heading off to Denmark on holiday, he makes a compelling case for time away from work.
Whether it is the weekend, the summer holidays that he and many other people in the northern hemisphere are now taking or the daily rest periods that companies give to their employees,
the right for people to take breaks is uncontested.
Since 1870 the average number of hours Americans and Britons spend working each year has fallen by more than a third.
Still, it is difficult in today’s world to truly unplug. Switching off your phone feels like the ultimate transgression. In a survey conducted by Slack, a software firm, only two in five of its employees felt comfortable taking breaks. The company conducted an experiment in which it prompted some workers to take time off during the day and found that this led to marked improvements in their productivity and job satisfaction.
One tip for better breaks is to get outside. A study of nurses by Makayla Cordoza, now of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and her co-authors found that breaks in the hospital garden mitigated the risk of burnout more than staying indoors. Likewise, dawdling around the office is rarely rejuvenating. For all our technological advances, we still need fresh air not just for our lungs but for our brains, too.
Common sense suggests this also extends to holidays, which is why I hope Andrew is touring the fjords on the Baltic coast. Wherever he is, he will not be filing a column next week.
Do you reply to work emails during your holidays? Send your thoughts to thebottomline@economist.com. If you are an aspiring business, finance or economics writer, and would like to work for The Economist, we are inviting applications for our 2024-25 Marjorie Deane internships. Find out more
here.
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Fast fact: Nearly one in three Americans works weekends, compared with one in four Britons and one in five Germans. | | |
Your preview of next week | | |
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Monday August 19th
Estée Lauder has had a rollercoaster ride on the stockmarket. The cosmetics company, which includes Clinique and Tom Ford among its brands, saw its share price plunge by 19% late last year amid weak revenue from China and airports, which account for a large chunk of its sales. Its shares then rose this year when it announced plans to cut 5% of its workforce. Sales have started to recover, but the company could still do with a makeover. Estée Lauder releases its earnings. Coty, the owner of Max Factor, Rimmel and various perfume brands, publishes on August 20th.
MTN also reports. The South African telecoms group operates throughout Africa. It expects a big hit to profit, in part because of the depreciating Nigerian naira and the conflict in Sudan.
Tuesday August 20th
Turkey’s central bank makes a decision on interest rates. It left its main rate on hold at 50% at its previous meeting. The country’s annual inflation rate fell to 61.8% in July, the lowest in ten months, but analysts don’t expect the bank to start easing monetary policy until later this year.
Wednesday August 21st
In July Macy’s rejected a takeover offer from two buy-out firms, blaming uncertainty over how the deal would be financed. Its stock plummeted and has yet to recover (the share price is down by 15% this year). The retailer is sticking to plans to shut 150 stores, but investors will need more convincing that Macy’s can ring in the changes needed when it releases its results. Target also reports.
The Financial Times described Lei Jun, the boss of Xiaomi, as “the Steve Jobs of China”, for taking on Apple in the country’s smartphone market, adding that he “upstaged” the Silicon Valley powerhouse by launching an electric car, a goal that Apple has now abandoned. Xiaomi will provide an update on sales of its SU7 model when it announces earnings. The vehicle is only available in China, but Mr Lei said recently that he wants Xiaomi to become one of the world’s top five carmakers.
Investors will want to see evidence that the new products Zoom has built into its communications platform are starting to pay off in its latest earnings. The company has added collaborative word-processing features to its suite of tools that can summarise meetings using artificial intelligence. Revenue in the previous quarter rose by a lacklustre 3% year on year, but at least sales are growing again following Zoom’s post-pandemic meltdown.
Thursday August 22nd
The world’s central bankers gather in Jackson Hole for the start of an annual symposium hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This year’s theme is “Reassessing the Effectiveness and Transmission of Monetary Policy”. Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, gives his big speech on August 23rd.
America is “seeing a slow shift from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market”, according to the National Association of Realtors, which updates its figures on sales of existing homes. Sales fell by 5% in June, compared with May, the fourth consecutive monthly decline; inventories rose. “Homes are sitting on the market a bit longer, and sellers are receiving fewer offers”, says the NAR.
Global insured losses from natural catastrophes came to $60bn in the first half of 2024, 62% above the ten-year average, according to Swiss Re. The cost from severe thunderstorms stood at $42bn, mostly in America, as expanding urban areas coupled with higher property values has made homes more vulnerable to hail damage. The reinsurer announces its results.
Friday August 23rd
Given the turmoil in Japanese markets, investors will keep a keen eye on Japan’s latest inflation data. The annual rate of core inflation rose in June for a second consecutive month, to 2.6%.
The enfeebled Chinese economy is taking its toll on the country’s financial sector. Ping An, a giant financial-services company, which issues its latest earnings, has told staff working at its retail business in Shanghai that they have to move to Shenzhen, its main base, to cut costs. The retail division accounted for 44% of Ping An’s profit in 2022. But as consumers pulled back on borrowing and credit-card spending that dropped to just 12% last year. | | |
It is lonely at the top. So lonely, in fact, that sometimes American presidents and titans of industry have only one individual of similar stature to turn to: each other. Over almost two centuries they have played golf together, enjoyed movie nights and told jokes to each other. Some have developed genuine friendships; others have openly hated one another. It is an uneven relationship, of course. Though chief executives tend to stick around longer than presidents, there is no doubt who is higher in the pecking order. But rarely have any mogul’s dealings with presidents past, present and possibly future been as hard to fathom as those of Elon Musk, who once enjoyed the largesse of Barack Obama and is now cheerleader-in-chief for Donald Trump. | |
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