While you were asleep: Airbnb tells employees to work remotely forever

We begin this morning with something for your weekend table talk, the Covid-19 pandemic changed our everyday lives in a few ways, most of all it changed the way we had to work but what if your boss said you never have to come back to work?

Well, that’s exactly what Airbnb has told employees after chief executive Brian Chesky said in an email to staff that remote working would become permanent. Among the options Airbnb staff have is to work from home, the office or an Airbnb while they are travelling in different countries.

Chesky said the world is becoming more flexible about where people can work and added there would be no change to remuneration and the company would host regular in-person meetups and retreats for employees.

Back in January, Chesky said he would be living and working out of Airbnb’s for several months and cited evidence that many people had already been doing the same thing.

Between July and December, nearly half of the nights booked on Airbnb were for a month or longer and over the past year, 175,000 people used the platform to book stays that were three months or longer.

If only all employees were able to offer that sort of flexibility to our working environment, maybe it’s time to have a word with the boss?

In the currency markets, the rand has clawed back some of its losses from yesterday after it traded above the R16.10/$ level at one point. “This morning we see the rand quoted back below R16.00 with a relatively quiet Asian trading session in the currency space,” comments TreasuryONE.

The forex trading house says the risk-off tone improved as a positive trading session in US Futures spilt over in the Asian markets.

“Overnight we saw the tech-heavy Nasdaq finish over 3.0% higher while the S&P 500 closed 2.47% up. This led to positive traction in the equity space, and we currently have the Nikkei and Hang Seng both firmly up as well.”

The rand has lost over 9% from Easter Monday till yesterday’s close, and a close at some better levels will be welcomed. The local unit is currently trading at R15.91/$.

In the commodity space, disappointing US GDP numbers helped to stabilise the fall out seen in precious metals this week.

“Gold is trading back above $1,900 this morning and is currently up 0.5% for the day after trading at a 10-week low this week. Platinum and palladium are both also up just over 0.5% after the metal sector was hit hard earlier this week,” says TreasuryONE.

Palladium is seen quoted at $2,250 with platinum at $925. The price of copper is also stabilising above $9,800 per ton as supply and demand concerns weigh up against each other. Oil futures are also on the rise this morning, with Brent crude trading at $108.55.

Have a good long weekend, we’ll see you again on Tuesday.