Working life’s a beach back in the office

MORGAN Stanley boss James Gorman is the latest Wall Street overlord to crack the whip at employees still WFH. “If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office,” he told overworked and overpaid US minions. On The Beach, meanwhile, is employing an altogether sunnier tactic. The online travel agent has wisely binned any attempt at salvaging foreign holidays this summer to focus on 2022 bookings. But realising everyone needs at least the illusion of a getaway, its airy Manchester HQ is packed with jolly rows of traditional folding deckchairs. House broker Peel Hunt said they are “ideal seats in which to sit back on a comfortable cash cushion, and plan for the restoration of normality in the travel market next year.” Or maybe the year after.

THIS just in from the Wall Street Journal: “People are returning to restaurants, stores and hotels, but not yet the office.” It’s as if one of those places is much less fun than the others.

VENTURE capitalist Eileen Burbidge, below — whose Passion Capital tech fund backed the likes of Monzo, Go Cardless and social network Lulu — is among those struggling to get back into the swing of things. She said: “As a lifelong introvert who over many decades learned to force myself to socialise for work, 15 months of WFH/virtual meetings has been so indulgent... in my first face-to-face meetings since lockdown, I’m as anxious as a new uni grad trying to fit in.”