Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnor_ Twitter profile

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Sarah O'Connor

4 years

Leicester's sweatshops have been an open secret for years. Central government knew; local government knew; retailers knew. Now the bill for inaction has come due.

Leicester’s dark factories show up a diseased system | Free to read

The bill for government inaction on the costs of online fast fashion has come due

www.ft.com

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

What do Financial Times readers think of the mini-budget? This is the most-recommended comment on our news story:

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Really not a fan of all this morally loaded "workers must show pay restraint" rhetoric. It's entirely rational for people facing 10% inflation to try to get a pay rise. Tell them no if you want, but don't tell them they were wrong to even ask.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

9 years

A robot has killed a worker in a VW plant in Germany http://t.co/RRdCnNmbsj

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

I’m a rule-follower by nature. Last night I stayed at home and lit a candle. Today I’m so angry I want to burn something to the ground. I can’t be the only one.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

My husband and I cancelled our Christmas plans to be with family and stayed home alone with our baby. Didn’t use childcare exemption because we didn’t need childcare (we weren’t working). Now I just feel like we were suckers for following the rules.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Farewell to the servant economy. Unprofitable “on-demand” services like someone bringing a coke to your door gave people a sense of affluence in a decade of stagnant wage growth. But they were subsidised by investors, and now the money is drying up.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

Shouldn't AstraZeneca be getting more credit for this?

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

So the chief exec of P&O, has openly said he knowingly broke the law, and that he would do the same thing again if he could go back in time. Surely this is grounds to disqualify him as a company director under the "fit and proper person" test?

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

2017, C4: "Leicester sweatshops exposed" 2018, FT: "Exploitation in UK garment industry" 2019, BBC: "Leicester...fast fashion sweatshops" Jan 2020, Guardian: "Alarm over UK fast fashion factories" Jun 2020, Hancock: "Clearly some problems have been under the radar in Leicester"

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Liz Truss is willing to do unpopular things. What would your best unpopular policy be? Mine: build loads and loads of social housing and genuinely affordable housing on the green belt.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

This idea that people not going "above and beyond" at work are "quiet quitters" is wild. If your staff turn up every day and do exactly what you ask of them, they aren’t “quiet quitting”, they’re...working.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

“When does your mortgage fix end?” is the new “what boxset are you watching?” smalltalk for the late-30s/early-40s crowd

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

I see @MattHancock has noticed Brits are "peculiarly unusual" in going to work when sick. We're also "peculiarly unusual" in having the lowest sick pay in the OECD. Coincidence? It's hard to watch govt blaming people for working when sick, rather than fixing the reasons for it.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

10 months

If you leave a job without "good reason" in the UK, you are sanctioned 100% of unemployment benefits for 90 days. Here are some examples of things that do not constitute a "good reason" to leave a job (from the official handbook for DWP decision-makers):

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

9 years

@sarahoconnor_ Ok. I should have thought about my name & its associations before tweeting this!

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

The BBC's @ChrisMasonBBC has been brilliant hasn't he? Very professional and well-informed while also having the air of an incredulous everyman rather than an insider for whom it's all a game.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Who said "levelling up" as a concept was fuzzy and confused? Boris Johnson has just described it in one sentence...

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

1) Since Priti Patel has been given front page space for her evidence-free theory about how "fear of racism" is to blame for Leicester's sweatshops, I thought I'd do a factful thread about some other, more obvious, candidates. Beginning with central govt...

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Just found this column I wrote in July 2016. Think it stands up pretty well.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

I don't remember anyone telling my mobile provider to show "discipline and restraint" when it told me the price was going up by CPI plus 3.9%.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

5 years

I once asked the head of a law firm why his firm had zero female partners. He said "Unfortunately being partner just isn't compatible with having a family". He had a photo of his kids on his desk.

Can you be a mother and a senior law firm partner?

The number of women at the top of the legal profession remains low, but change is afoot

www.ft.com

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

I was in the first trimester of pregnancy during this select committee & throwing up violently just before, which is another reason I’m so cross that Hancock & Patel are now saying they’re shocked & surprised to hear there are sweatshops in Leicester!

Environmental Audit Committee

@CommonsEAC

4 years

#Leicester garment factories are back in the news - in 2018 FT's @sarahoconnor_ gave evidence to #EACFixingFashion inquiry of Leicester 'fast fashion' garment workers receiving under minimum wage in poor conditions #leicesterlockdown 👉Read the summary:

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

Shame on me, given my job, but only since the pandemic have I really started to understand how threadbare the UK's safety net has become. Take statutory sick pay. The UK is now at the very bottom of all OECD countries. Even Trump's America is doing more.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

How is this not The Onion?!

No10 won't rule out Jamie Oliver being part of 'anti-growth coalition'

The PM vowed to not let 'the anti-growth coalition to hold us back' as she pushes ahead with her agenda to boost the UK's sluggish economy.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

1 year

Whenever I see Europeans fretting about falling behind the US in terms of GDP, I think about stories like this

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Are the British the worst idlers in the world? Let's fact-check these five assertions from Britannia Unchained (which was co-authored by our new PM and chancellor)...

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

9 years

@sarahoconnor_ Sigh. I've never even watched the films. Now my feed is full of people tweeting me about skynet.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

Are Brits "too lazy" to do the jobs migrant workers do, like fruit picking? Are farmers "too unpatriotic" to hire them? No and no. Let's start by looking at how the job has changed since Brits used to do it. 1/n

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

9 years

@sarahoconnor_ Guys. I don't know what skynet is. And I wouldn't follow me - I tweet really boring stuff about unit wage costs and the like.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

I've written about insecurity among the young & how it's changing the way they see the world. "We're drowning in insecurity," says a new grad. “I sometimes have this feeling that we are edging towards a precipice, or falling in it already,” says another.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

Ok last Pret tweet from me. I think Pret (or any entrepreneurial soul) should buy a fleet of vans, drive around residential areas playing a catchy tune like ice cream vans, so we can run out to buy nice coffees & almond croissants. Who's with me? And what should the tune be??

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

7 years

Bad stats lead to bad policy. Turns out we don't have 93,000 student "overstayers". We have 4,600. h/t @helenwarrell

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

The UK govt is paying many ppl more to stay home & do nothing (up to £2,500 a month) than an army of others (care workers, van drivers etc) are being paid to do essential work at personal risk. How about a "national gratitude bonus" for every key worker?

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Next time you hear someone insist "Brits just don't apply" for certain jobs, take a look at the current job adverts. Today I wrote about food factories...

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

The NHS falling apart isn't just a health problem, it's an economic problem. A fifth of the over-50s who have dropped out of the workforce are on an NHS waiting list, says ONS. Truss/Kwarteng: if you're looking for barriers to growth, here's a real one.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

7 years

It's the most-read story ever on .

Camilla Long

@camillalong

7 years

@trifleking I think it's mostly a few journos. No one else will give a shit - especially not FT readers

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

6 years

This "mad cat woman" trope that men use against women is deeply sexist and belittling. I'm surprised there's no apology.

BBC News Press Team

@BBCNewsPR

6 years

@carolecadwalla @BBC @Arron_banks Hello Carole. Andrew has deleted what he recognises was an inappropriate tweet.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

Stunning to me that Boris & Rishi are still ignoring one big reason people aren't "self-isolating more": the worst statutory sick pay in the whole OECD at £95 a week. They've had so many opportunities to fix this, but seem determined not to.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

The UK Supreme Court ruled (mostly male) Uber drivers are "workers" owed minimum wage even when they're waiting between passengers. But last week, it ruled (mostly female) care workers aren't owed min wage when obliged to sleep at work. This isn't fair.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Fair enough. Companies are going to try to protect profits. Workers are going to try to protect incomes. That's how a market economy works. Set policy accordingly, but don't be all blamey and judgmental (and especially not inconsistently).

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Median salary of a full-time childcare worker: £17,000 Median salary of a full-time retail worker: £18,000 Median salary of a full-time HGV driver: £30,000 Median salary of a teacher: 38,000 Median salary of an engineer: £42,000 Source: ONS

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

6 years

My entire inbox is beginning to feel like the ramblings of a desperate ex-boyfriend #GDPR

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

So what's the problem? One likely culprit (of several) is investment. Compared to other countries, UK companies don't invest as much in equipment, tech, etc, to help workers do their jobs more efficiently. Brits aren't lazy, it's worse than that. They're running to stand still.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

6 years

I've had an idea to improve the quality of online comments. What if we only allow people to comment on an article if their "dwell-time" & "scroll rate" (data we possess) suggests they have actually read the article first?

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

This week I've taken a look into the world of academia, a perfect microcosm of an insider-outsider labour market, with secure insiders & precarious outsiders. A third of academic staff in UK are on fixed-term contracts.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Who buys hardbacks? They're so heavily and unpleasant to read. I wish books came straight out in paperback. Do others disagree, or did the publishing industry deliberately design something that we all hate, & make us wait for what we like?

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

I'm in favour of higher wages & better conditions in sectors where they've been rubbish for years, & I hope that's where we end up. But don't let the government convince you this chaos/"transition" was the only way to achieve it.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

There are more Prets on Borough High Street than there are in Wales

Goodbye to the ‘Pret economy’ and good luck to whatever replaces it

Cities will not die — their benefits could become more diffuse, with well-paid workers spread into the rest of the country

www.ft.com

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

With rising numbers in Britain too ill to work, it's time to ask the question: what if work itself is making us sick? It's not as physically hazardous as it used to be, but it seems to becoming more psychologically hazardous

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

The story of Britain’s empty shelves, like that of its unpicked strawberries and unprocessed chickens, is of how migration combined with a badly regulated labour market and v.powerful retailers have allowed some things to become unsustainably cheap.

UK truck driver shortage signals a broken labour market

Empty shelves in supermarkets are a message from a workforce that is usually invisible

www.ft.com

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

9 years

Feeling really uncomfortable about this inadvertent Twitter thing I seem to have kicked off. Somebody died. Let's not forget.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

The government's "have our cake and eat it" attitude led the UK to crisis & might leave us reliant on low-paid migrants after all - just different ones, who are even more vulnerable to exploitation. If there's any cake left, I don't know who's eating it.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Or you could, you know, stop making them work until 11:28pm each night?

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

The view from Ireland

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

8 years

Lots of FT readers noting the juxtaposition of these two stories today...

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Truss's slogan is "growth, growth, growth." One problem: most people don't know what GDP growth is. No-one is outside Downing Street chanting “What do we want? 2.5 per cent annual GDP growth. When do we want it? Over the medium term.”

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Employers don’t need to cater to employees’ every psychological need, and employees don’t need to be passionate about their employers. How about a simple contractual relationship of mutual respect and clearly defined obligations? I’m going to call it “work for grown-ups”.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

This is quite a chart (hat tip @adam_tooze )

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Getting money out of political donors must be tricky. You have to persuade them their money will influence policy, while persuading the public that it won't.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Notes from a submerging economy

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

Nothing to do with this, then?

Helen Miller

@MsHelicat

4 years

SUNDAY TIMES: ‘Racism fears’ let sweatshops go unchecked #tomorrowspaperstoday

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

P&O decided to break the law because they thought it was worth it. The key task for the government now is to make sure it WASN'T worth it.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Yep, no racism in the UK press, not at all.

Ed Malyon

@eaamalyon

3 years

Sunday Times just lobbing this on the front page as if it’s nothing

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

5 years

For all the talk of intergenerational conflict taking hold in our societies, I find it quite heartening that the two most passionate & powerful voices on climate change are a 16 year old (Greta Thunberg) and a 92 year old (David Attenborough)

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

It’s up to employers and employees who goes back into the office & when. It’s really none of the government’s business.

Neil Henderson

@hendopolis

4 years

TELEGRAPH: ‘Go back to work or risk losing your job’ #TomorrowsPapersToday

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

So, why is there a shortage of truck drivers? It's complicated, so this will be a little thread. Full column here First up, the hours are really long and unpredictable. Here's a current job ad:

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Read the room, guys

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

In other words, Britain’s benefit bill is the consequence of its deep rooted problems with low pay, high housing costs and ill health. They are hard problems but we are not powerless to tackle them.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Couldn't help LOLing at this, given FT journalists have had a union for many decades.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Do British teens shun the idea of doing useful jobs like doctors? No. Almost 30,000 people applied to study medicine last year (a number that's been rising). But the govt has capped the number of places in England at 7,500.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

If you want to get tough on welfare spending, get tough on the causes of welfare spending - my column this week is in today's FT Edit app

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

7 years

Something is going badly wrong on the fringes of rich economies like the UK. In Blackpool, life expectancy is actually starting to fall. @jburnmurdoch and I take a spreadsheet-and-shoeleather look at what's going on & what we can do about it.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

The best way to get tough on welfare spending is to get tough on the causes of welfare spending. Three quarters of the bill is spent on one of three things: income top-ups for low earners, housing benefit to help pay rent, and incapacity & disability payments for the unwell.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

The gig economy isn't the future of work after all. In fact, it might not have a future at all.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Let's stop expecting consumers to "vote with their wallets" to stop exploitative working conditions. It's passing the buck from governments & businesses, who have the power & the responsibility to do something about it.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

HMRC is responsible for enforcing the minimum wage. It doesn't do enough inspections of high-risk workplaces, penalties are paltry & prosecutions rare.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Social care jobs are jobs of the future. The sector employs about 2 per cent of the working-age population today and might well need to employ 4 per cent by 2033 to meet rising demand. The question is: do we want them to be bad jobs, or good ones?

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

6 years

I am so honoured that our article about Blackpool has won an Orwell prize. It was a real "pinch yourself" moment for me. Only possible because people in Blackpool like Gary, Chris, Jill and Kim were so generous to share their time and experiences...

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

Why do Americans say “I could care less” when they mean “I couldn’t care less”?

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

I’ve been to the City for first time in over a year and brought back a special souvenir for my husband. This must be how Francis Drake felt hurrying home with a potato.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

7 years

Bank of England to Britain: It's not our fault you guys decided to make yourselves poorer

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Return to office perks

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

8 years

British workers already HAVE British jobs. The employment rate for UK nationals is the highest since at least '97 (as far back as data goes)

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

10 months

A benefit system which makes it hard to walk away; fear of the unknown; fatalism: these are all reasons more people don't leave bad jobs. And that makes the UK labour market less flexible than it appears - which is bad for workers & decent employers alike.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

If you are asking yourself why people are trying to come in small boats from Calais to the UK - read this piece

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

My column today is about why the workforce has shrunk. The underlying problem, it seems to me, is that we're worn out. Public infrastructure is worn out; social infrastructure is worn out; people are worn out.

Kwarteng’s policies won’t get inactive Britain working again

The labour force needs investment in health, social care and childcare

www.ft.com

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Why are we working so hard? It's not making us richer, just sicker

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Me: I'm feeling depressed about covid I should try to switch off Also me: Let's see what horrifying charts @jburnmurdoch has posted today

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Central bankers continue to fret about wage inflation getting out of hand. But this doesn’t look like a wage-price spiral to me. It looks like a living standards bloodbath.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

The Leicester sweatshops under-report hours, so their books look as if they employ someone for 15 hours at correct wage, when they actually employ them for 40 hours at peanuts. This is genuinely hard for HMRC to identify (but doesn't mean they shouldn't try harder)

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

7 years

Any job is better than no job, right? Nop. IMO helps explain the UK's woeful productivity. A joyless "jobs miracle"

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

HMRC is incentivised by govt to identify large numbers of min wage arrears (looks good in press releases). That encourages it to go after big employers for small technical breaches, rather than tiny employers like in Leicester for total disregard of the law.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Employers want govt to allow them to recruit migrants to fill the truck driver shortage. Trouble is, plenty of them don't fancy it either. FT spoke to dozens of Eastern European drivers. They say: shortage is everywhere; UK pay and conditions are poor.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

3 years

Have you ever heard someone ask this Q about why Brits won't pick fruit and veg? @JudithREvans & I have a story which sheds some light. It's about the experience of some Russians & Belarusians coming to pick UK fruit on a new visa pilot (Thread)

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

I'm not sure this defence is effective. Being kind to people who matter, and unkind to people who (you think) don't matter, is surely even worse than being unkind to everyone.

Andrea Leadsom

@andrealeadsom

4 years

I have known @pritipatel for many years as a friend and colleague. Yes, she’s strong and forthright in her views which is one of her great assets. I have never seen her bully anyone. She is also empathetic and incredibly kind.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

6 years

A lot of employers talking about their staff wellbeing programmes today for World Mental Health Day. I'm sure it's well-meaning, but here's the thing: if you overwork your people, you will make them stressed, no matter how much free fruit you offer them.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

6 years

“If you were to invent a system to create homelessness, this is the way you would do it.”

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

2 years

Here's the problem for Truss and Kwarteng. Their mini-budget worsened the parts of the economy that people understand and care about, in pursuit of a target people don’t understand and don’t care about.

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Sarah O'Connor

@sarahoconnor_

4 years

Sunak says people in the private sector are suffering wage compression, so he's going to do the same to public sector workers to be fair. Surely this is the definition of "levelling down".

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