During my recent holiday I spent a few days in the South of France. I was able to keep up with what was happening in the office by e-mail and phone when necessary and ensure that where my input was needed on certain important projects, nothing was delayed by my absence. So I can quite happily accept the idea that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor don’t need to be in London to keep their finger on the pulse during the holiday season. After all, their communications systems are likely to be a bit more sophisticated than mine. They also have the Civil Service to keep things going.
But is being able to do what is necessary the only factor? When so much of what happens in our economy seems to turn on perception and confidence as much as on hard fact, was it a good idea to allow the impression to be given that no-one was minding the shop?
Of course that question of perception probably also made it impossible for the Prime Minister or the Chancellor to rush back from the beach at the first sign of a problem – it would simply have added to the air of crisis. Surely, however, someone must have foreseen that having not only the PM and the Chancellor, but also their respective deputies – Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Chief Secretary Danny Alexander – all on holiday at the same time would not look good? At Gardner Leader, we don’t have the country’s economy in our hands but we do try to ensure that each team always has appropriate levels of cover during the holiday season and that we are not all away at the same time.
A few years ago, it became clear that a holiday I had booked in Italy would clash with a vital phase in a company sale worth tens of millions to our clients. Again, I could probably have done much of what I needed to do via e-mail and Internet from abroad, and colleagues back in the office could have handled anything else. But would the client have felt that their once in a lifetime transaction was getting the attention it deserved? I suspect that they would not have thought so and that a potentially stressful time would have been made worse by the fear that their interests were not being fully looked after. So I cancelled my holiday, completed the transaction and went away later.
Sometimes it is not enough for the work just to be done – it has to be seen to be done.
UPDATE: Apparently the Prime Minister is now coming back as a result of the riots in London.
