#CargoOfBricks 5: After Covid can Northern Ireland's politicians continue to lead in other areas of policy?

Slugger O'Toole

In episode five of Cargo of Bricks podcast, I spoke to Tina McKenzie who is the current chair of the FSB in Northern Ireland as well as CEO of Grafton Recruiting and honorary consul to Finland about how business had coped with the lockdown.

Subjects included:

• The fact that there was no time to plan for the massive disruption that lockdown would bring, that businesses had some big decisions to make without a lot of guidance from government in London or Belfast. It was a leap into the unknown.
• But working from home has forced a radical rethink of how her business operates. Outputs became the key focus, and as outputs held up people relaxed. And new rules were brought into to protect the tricky work/life for people working at home.
• In terms of politics, COVID has made people more flexible in their thinking. They are willing to trust politicians to show similar leadership on Brexit, and to take tough decisions in health and schools to free up cash for investment elsewhere.