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Welcome to University…

Events of Friday brought back some nostalgic memories. A peep through my window early in the morning reminded me this was the start of welcome week at University… the anxious look on the faces of some parents as they dropped off their wards; the wandering of first timers around and about campus; the plentiful ins and outs of taxis and daddy’s and mummy’s cars filled with all sort of bedding and luggage; and my personal favourite, the zealous Christian youth from nearby churches making attempts to win some souls for Christendom. I did have an exciting conversation with two such vibrant gentlemen; one of whom was Ghanaian as well. That in itself brought back some childhood memories from back in the day (let’s leave that for another time 😀).

All of these brought back events of the last two years and how we (or I? 😉) have missed some aspects of our lives owing to the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. I must admit, I loved some aspects of COVID life – the quietude of campus and the calmness of general living.

I expect to see welcome week activities pick-up going into the weekend and beyond and if it’s reminded me of anything- it is that the return to some form of ‘normality’ will hopefully bring back some good moments and memories to make up for some of what we’ve had to endure over recent years.

Back to my marking and grading-some others (finalists) are in a hurry to leave…we haven’t forgotten about you amidst all the zing of welcome week.

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The market for lemons – UK private rental market…

I have been on the rental market for the best part of nine months without much success. From the abject-looking properties being advertised for outrageous prices to the good ones where another renter just beat you to the property or your income just falls short, the process of renting a property with a landlord can be quite challenging in the UK private rental market. More so when you are a student with a meagre income. Think about the income requirements, referencing process, credit checks, and address history, among others and you are more likely to resort to specialised student accommodation (usually with squeezed spaces) to ease your worries.

There is one aspect of the process however that brings to mind the market for lemons problem espoused by economist George Akerlof. Essentially, sellers and buyers (in this case landlords and tenants) do not have equal information about the product. As a result, some buyers end up with “lemons” – defective products. Relating this to the referencing process, landlords would usually require as much information about a prospective tenant through their managing agents – income levels, job status, previous landlord references and many others. Whiles this may be prudent on their part to ensure prospective tenants have what it takes to meet their end of the bargain (essentially paying the rent and taking care of the property), a lingering question remains; what information is available to the tenant to convince him that the landlord would equally have what it takes to meet his end?

An interesting piece in the Financial Times by Joy Lo Dico (subscription required) provides some pertinent issues – quite a good read. Essentially she argues that landlords use such information to get the right tenants for their properties, and rightly so.

“How does the tenant do the same — figure out which landlords are lemons?”, she asks.

A ten-minute property viewing appointment may just not be enough to find out as much information about the property, neighbours or landlord. Given the housing crisis, however, landlords are probably more in an advantaged position. The results? Tenants, rather than landlords, are perhaps more likely to end up with the lemons.

Off to continue my search. Wish me luck!!!

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Shopping Distancing

Until recently I had not heard of the word Oniomania – apparently a Compulsive Buying Disorder, a behavioural disorder characterized by a spending obsession. “Shopaholic” I guess is the more popular term on the streets. It is widely accepted that man and woman, as insatiable beings, continue to crave material satisfaction by acquiring new things every now and then.

A lot has been said and written about the Covid-19 pandemic (including the conspiracies) and fair to say, the last couple of months have become associated with words such as lockdowns and social distancing, among many others. Lockdowns in particular, have been accompanied by enormous changes in our everyday lifestyle and has affected the nook and cranny of our society. One of those essential changes has been felt in the way that we acquire the things that we want and need.

Online shopping has become vital over the last couple of months and with it comes the temptation of developing a habit, and in extreme cases, the “unwanted” disorder of becoming oniomaniac. I have always preferred the traditional route to shopping – walking or picking the bus to high street retail centres to make purchases, alongside gazing in the aesthetics and beauty of goods and wardrobe – emphasis on gaze. Sometimes the thought of dressing up to go to the town centre and braving weather elements can be enough reason to avoid the journey. However, with covid-19 enforced lockdowns and constant online activity- accompanied by a barage of online retail advertisements, most of those physical barriers have been removed – and with it the ease to slip into a habit of uncontrolled spending. All it takes is a click, after all.

Amy Fontinelle describes one such habit as emotional spending – spending as a result of feeling stressed out, bored, under-appreciated, incompetent, unhappy or any number of other emotions. Covid-19 has certainly brought to us these and many other emotional states. She advises that ways in dealing with this could be holding out and waiting for at least 24hours or more before making that click as well as intentionally blocking online ads and unsubscribing from product magazines and catalogues. Worth the short read.

It is easy to fall into this trap of emotional spending especially during this pandemic period. Whichever method works for you, after a sustained period of emotional and financial stress due to various covid-19 enforced measures, what no one wants is to come out of this pandemic with even more damaging emotional and financial stress caused not by a virus, but by the inability to tame our emotional spending.

So while you social distance, learn to practice shopping distance as well!

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Little Foxes

At a friend’s wedding a couple of years ago I heard from the preacher a really inspiring sermon on the “little foxes” that ruined the vineyards (in apparent reference to the oftentimes ignored “little” issues that ruined marriages). Whilst this post is not about marriages or foxes for that matter, it draws on some lessons on the very important issue of detailing and focusing on the “smaller” issues of life. Below is correspondence from a recruiter following a job interview process:

Dear XYZ,

Thank you for sending the report through – it is a very good report and we can see that you put a lot of effort into research and writing. 

We received many CVs and of those, we interviewed just four candidates for the role.  Of those four, all were very high quality candidates.  We only invited you and one other candidate to prepare a report for the second stage.   Both reports were very good, but we felt that the other candidate’s report was more balanced and scored better on presentation and attention to detail.   We have since offered the other candidate the job and he has accepted.

In other words, despite the effort and good content, presentation and attention to detail was not as good. A great opportunity missed you might conclude…

“The beauty of life is in small details, not in big events” Jim Jarmusch

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