Blog

When New Zealand came out of Alert Level 2 earlier this year and we reached the landmark of 100 days without community transmission, you could be forgiven for thinking that we had done the hard yards and life had returned to a semblance of normality. However, Auckland’s move to Level 3 today has reminded us that we are not immune to this pandemic and we need to act swiftly and decisively.

​If an employee is not working out and is subject to a 90-day trial period, the natural desire is to remove them from the workplace as soon as possible. However, there has been some confusion as to whether a payment in lieu of notice is sufficient to end the employment relationship and take advantage of the trial period protection. This confusion has led to many employers being caught out. However, a recent case has clarified the position somewhat.

​Fake news, money laundering, identity theft, email scams and privacy breaches. This is the world in which we currently live and it has forced most to live their lives with an air of scepticism. Who or what can you now trust? In the ‘first world', we tend to trust our governments and some large corporations to be responsible. The same level of trust does not exist in other parts of the world. Trust, particularly in an online environment, is the biggest issue facing modern society but a relatively new technology hopes to change all that and could be the next biggest innovation since the internet. It's called blockchain.

In a recent survey of 79 New Zealand legal service users by Approachable Lawyer, by far the biggest frustration with lawyers was cost. This is why some clients view lawyers as a “last resort” or a “very expensive part of our team”. Criticisms ranged from “time wasting, pontification” to not knowing at the outset what a piece of advice will cost. And you can understand that frustration. If I jump into a taxi I have a pretty good idea how much it is going to cost to get to the airport. If I use Uber then I can be certain. I use the taxi analogy because taxis run on meters, much like lawyers.

Michael explains what to expect from a coaching session

The term ‘unprecedented’ has been used so many times in relation to Covid 19, but there is no better descriptor of the situation we now find ourselves. The problem with ‘unprecedented’ is that many decisions are being made hastily without a full understanding of how things will play out over the coming months or years. People are being asked to rely on those decisions and the decision maker is falling back on trust established during ‘normal’ times to persuade others of the correctness of their decision. This means that trust can no longer be relied on in a Covid 19 era when negotiating the best outcome for yourself.