You better work

As RuPaul would say. Supermodel I am not, just a mere editor. This entry is to memorialise the annus horribilis of the PRI. This year the good people of PWC designed a new model – not a super one – for how PRI works. I was once part of a coherent editorial team within a much larger communications team. Like many teams we have been atomised. I haven't had a manager since maybe June? A series of stand ins. One of the three editors has been hived off to do operational communications, leaving me and one other editor to continue doing what is broadly considered thought leadership.

We are within a Responsible Investment Solutions team that is not focused on thought leadership, rather on the long and complex survey we send our 5,500 signatories each year to assess their RI cred. The editors are an addendum to a team that seems like it is always in low-level crisis mode.

While I have found all of this quite alienating – enlarging the loneliness that comes with working from home – I nonetheless have had a standout year, based on volume alone. With my end-of-year review looming (with someone who is two levels up b/c I have no manager), I quantified my work this year. In 10 months (deducting the All Together Now! week and vacation, and noting I work a four-day week), I have edited 24 publications totalling roughly 270 pages. Given each paper gets three reviews, that's more than 800 pages.

Lest this seem like an easy lift, here are some excerpts that I translated into something intelligible:

"Economic activity, such as revenues, can be multiplied by a region or sector-specific environmentally extended input-output emission factors."

"Assessment of individual issuers and their alignment with decarbonisation pathways is applicable to active fundamental strategies, while rules-based quant factor models could include a carbon target as part of optimisation and passive strategies would be better addressed using climate benchmarks."

"We target a specific temperature alignment by directly formulating an investment objective rather than defining a constraint."

"We are convinced that a systematic investment approach is extremely well positioned to deliver a complete portfolio with ESG considerations."

"Key inputs are the factor attractiveness for each company as well as risk estimated for the optimizer to weigh additional factor exposure against risk."

The first two were written internally; the next three by our signatories. Imagine 30 or 40 pages of this with a week to sort it out. So I'm a bit burnt out as the year winds down. I will close with two lovely photos from friends. The first from Marek, who walks many kilometres each day and sees the city in many different lights.

The second is from Christine, taken near Dunfanaghy in Donegal. As the year closes I'm very aware that I didn't get the balance right in 2023, including not a single trip to Donegal. You Better Work isn't too far off. Work, golf and walking the dog were the main past times. Mom was with me the first two months, which meant no down time. August to October was the work on the addition, which triggered a lot of work for me before (getting rid of furniture) and after (landscaping a new patio, painting trim around 94 window panes). I am brimming with resolutions for 2024. One could be to work with a financial advisor to understand what my pensions (US and UK) will be worth post-tax. Then maybe You Better Not Work will be my motto. LOL

Early December