The Practitioner: Post-holiday blues as email inbox bulges
Auto enrolment, the taxman, a potential client going elsewhere, the email inbox...all fun things for The Practitioner to handle after a week on hols
EVERYONE DESERVES a couple of week’s holiday away from the office, even The Practitioner.
While it’s great to get away, it’s a nightmare to return. One week later and I am still on inbox cleaning mode, and the regular lists that organise me seem to have gone out of the window. Both the mind and body are slightly unwilling at this point. I’m sure it will get back to normal, I just need a few quiet days to get my inbox and my mind straight.
My general mind-set wasn’t helped by a phone call from a potential new client I’d been courting for a couple of months. They informed me they were going to stay with the current adviser for the foreseeable future – but they’ve got my number. Not a great call to get on the first day back in the office…
I’ve had several meetings with clients across the country, stayed in probably the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and returned to the office for a not so interesting debrief from the financial services team regarding auto enrolment.
I’m normally able to book hotels weeks in advance when visiting clients but I had to find a last minute booking for my visit this week. All the normal haunts were fully booked, so I was forced to use a 3-star hotel. Call me a hotel snob but I like what I like and for business trips I always try to get either a reliable Premier Inn or a 4 star brand. My fears were confirmed when my food arrived containing a piece of plastic in the sandwich!
Pensions palaver
At least I had auto enrolment to cheer me up when I returned to the office. The team have now agreed the pricing structure for auto-enrolment and advised us to NOT register our firms’ details as the main contact with the Pension Regulator.
I’m pretty sure we already contacted them a few times on behalf of clients with our details and I personally don’t see a big problem with it. My thinking was that by giving the Pension Regulator our name, and not our clients, we would be shielding the client from added paperwork and unnecessary red tape. After all is that not what we are paid to do?
Tomorrow should be fun-packed. I’m welcoming HMRC into the office to carry out a client’s tax enquiry.
Holiday? What holiday?
The Practitioner’s uncensored thoughts come from within their own practice – having left a regional firm in the heart of England