Switzerland today
Today is the first day of return to the office for many Swiss after the government recently lifted its compulsory work from home requirement. Many of us have grown comfortable with the hybrid domestic-professional mode and are reluctant to separate the two again. How will employers here respond to this dilemma?
In the News Switzerland is shopping for a new fleet of fighter jets and bankers may work more from home post-Covid.
- When you have CHF6 billion to spend it is no surprise when defence firms try to sweeten the deal to get a leg up over the competition. A news leak that US’ Lockheed Martin’s F-35 planes were Top Gun in the technical evaluation prompted rival Airbus to step up its marketing game. The company highlighted that it was the only bidder offering to assemble the planes in Switzerland if selected. Will the promise of more Swiss jobs swing the deal for the Eurofighter and will other contenders – Rafale from Dassault and Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet – also offer extras? Watch this airspace.
- Swiss bankers’ perks are enviously followed by the rest of the workforce. Fat bonuses, expensive lunches, fine suits and Porsches are standard but a new privilege could be more attainable for the masses. The country’s largest bank might allow two-thirds of its employees to adopt a hybrid model of working from home and the office, a leaked UBS internal document suggests.
It appears that recruitment competition from big US banks has prompted the move by UBS and where the market leader goes the rest are likely to follow. The big question is if this move will filter down to other sectors where the competition for talent is not as fierce as in banking.
Weigh in Has home office worked out for you?
What’s the situation where you’re based? Can you still work from home and do you want to?Join the debate and let us know what you think.
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Deep dive Strap on your scuba tank and join on a deep dive. We’re on the hunt for the lost city of Atlantis.
Ok, not Atlantis but the remains of ancient settlements submerged under Swiss lakes like Lake Biel and Lake Lucerne. Known as pile dwellings, they are villages of stilt houses whose inhabitants fished and farmed between 5000 BC to 500 BC.
These pile dwellers were more advanced than previously given credit for. Some of the objects found by divers include one of the oldest wheels in the world, earthenware pots, dugouts, clothes, and even ancient chewing gum and bread. But researchers have little info on the daily lives of these people.
“We find the materials they used, the tools and bowls, but we have very little information about their lives, how they were organised, what beliefs they had,” says Lukas Schärer, an archaeological diving specialist.
From our Swiss Abroad beat Home and relationships have acquired a new importance due to the Covid pandemic.
Covid-19 has led a lot of us to question not just how we are living but also where. We follow two Swiss expats who moved abroad in their youth in search of a more exciting life. Now, in their golden years, they’ve made the decision to return “home” to Switzerland. Is it how they imagined or a culture shock? Read to find out.
Coming tomorrow… Switzerland play France in the Euro 2020 tournament tonight. We’ll bring you the reactions tomorrow.
It’s the most important game for the multicultural Swiss national team in decades. They will make history if they win against world champion France. If they lose, the manner in which they played will be dissected by the fans afterwards. Stay tuned!
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