What happened next? Dealing with drugs. By Sarah Fletcher
How do you handle an employee whose drug-fuelled weekends are spilling over into working hours? Find out What Happened Next when member Claire Fitzgerald asked Any Answers how to make her workplace a pill free zone. By Sarah Fletcher How do we stop the downward spiral?“A valued member of our team has a really bad […]
What happened next? Stubbing out smoking. By Sarah Fletcher
Repeated cigarette breaks, staff that stink like an ashtray, and a collective smokers’ cough that makes the ground shake…what can be done to encourage employees to kick the habit? We look at What Happened Next when a member asked the Any Answers forum for tips on lifting the cloud of smoke from her workplace. By […]
Gaynor’s Thoughts: Career breaks, sabbaticals and personal transformation
“Companies find that if they don't give people the opportunity to take time off, they'll burn out and leave – or worse still, they'll burn out and stay!" When I was 22 years old I had a dead-end job in a factory, a wife and two babies, played football at the weekend and performed in […]
Legal focus: RSI a pain in the neck?
Member, Jo Oxley recently requested some advice on the considerations of taking on a typist who suffers with neck and shoulder problems in response to this we asked Scottish law firm Dundas and Wilson to offer their expert guidance; read on to see their hot tips and pointers. The question: We are recruiting a typist […]
Feature: Employment and occupational health
Guy Hollebon, Partner and Head of the Employment Team, discusses employment and occupational health in the latest article of a series produced by Bevans, solicitors. An Occupational Health (OH) adviser is a vital tool to employers when managing any form of sickness absence. The majority of SME’s do not have their own in-house OH adviser […]
The Couch?! asks “Are you a workaholic?”
Inspired by The Trades Union Congress (TUC) ‘Work Your Proper Hours" day, The Couch?! would like to know how many hours you spend in the office? Are you a work bore? Do you work in the evenings and weekends? Have your family/friends forgotten what you look like? Are your colleagues your closest friends? Do you […]
Opinion: Smile sheets can’t bring you true happiness
"We ask people scurrying for the door to take time to check boxes … then… flip through them hoping desperately for a few feel-good moments of positive feedback, and finding good rationalizations for any negative scores." – Godfrey Parkin asks what are you really measuring with that happy sheet? If the training organisation is […]
Britain – a nation of workaholics part 2
The CIPD questioned 1666 workers and found that the proportion of those who work more than forty eight hours a week has increased from one in 10 to one in four during the past five years. More than a quarter of long hours workers say that long hours have affected their sex lives and the […]
Feature: Work-life balance – equality for all?
Flexible working should be offered to all staff – not just those with children, says Karen Charlesworth, Head of Research at the Chartered Management Institute. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – a phrase we are all familiar with – but what about John and Mary and Sue? Do they […]
Effects of medication in the workplace – report
New research published by the Health and Safety Executive looks at the effects of medication prescribed for anxiety and depression on working life. It was commissioned by HSE in response to an increase in the numbers of people suffering with anxiety and depression in recent years, leading to widespread use of medication to treat these […]
Workaholism: are you a victim? – feature
Professor Marc Buelens of the People and Organisation Competence Centre, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, looks at how attachment to work can become unhealthy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with loving your job or going that extra step to complete a project, but when going that extra step gets out of control, to the exclusion […]
It’s Work – Life Balance Week!
This week has been designated Work-Life Balance Week. You can find out more from the Work-Life Balance Trust. There will be events across the UK, starting in London in Bristol on Tuesday, Manchester on Wednesday and Edinburgh on Thursday. The DTI also has a Work-Life Balance area on its website.
Book review: Weaving complexity and business: engaging the soul at work
Title: Weaving complexity and business: engaging the soul at workAuthors: Roger Lewin and Birute ReginePublisher: Texere, New YorkISBN: 1-58799-043-1Price: £12.99 Buy this book from the TrainingZONE – Blackwells bookshop. This book helps to explain how complexity theory (sometimes called chaos theory) can be used in a business setting. The authors argue that this involves engaging […]
6.5 million sick days through stress
News agency Ananova reports today that around half a million people are believed to be suffering from stress or a stress related illness and that some 150,000 people have had at least a month off work from stress. Workers between the ages of 35 and 44 showed the highest levels of stress with the problems […]
Extreme monitoring and lack of breaks top TUC call centre complaints
Extreme monitoring by supervisors and not being allowed to take adequate rest breaks, were the top two concerns of call centre workers calling the It’s your call hotline, according to a TUC report. The report, Calls for change, is released as Channel 4 News screens an investigation into some of the call centres reported to […]
Younger workers are at greater risk from RSI
Young workers are more at risk from repetitive strain injury (RSI) than their older workmates, says the TUC today as it releases new figures and warns businesses that failure to act against the looming RSI epidemic could devastate the British economy and leave millions of youngsters in permanent pain. In an article in the Spring […]
No more ‘sickies’ – it’s ‘duvet days’ to the rescue!
After the struggle to get back to work we reported on yesterday, several newspapers are today highlighting the American practice of allocating 'duvet days', which could soon see off the British tradition of 'throwing a sickie'. In the latest idea in employee benefits from the US, employees are given up to four days off a […]
The wrong work-life balance? 10 signs that your marriage is in trouble
Website CompanyLeader.com has published one of those 'aside' articles worth a mention here. The article presents the 10 signs that your marriage is in trouble and is aimed at business people – probably those to whom an impending separation will be totally unexpected.
New measures to help the disabled back into work
Minister for Disabled People, Margaret Hodge, and Social Security Minister, Hugh Bayley, announced on Monday that a national network of Job Brokers is being set up to offer people on Incapacity Benefits the support, guidance, and preparation they need to find paid work and move off benefit dependence. This New Deal will be delivered largely […]
Supervisory support is critical for supporting stress and post-trauma incidents
Research published today reports that a large proportion of police officers describe 'good, supportive supervision' as the best way of being assisted following a traumatic incident. The research, led by Dr Margaret Mitchell of the Police Research Unit, Glasgow Caledonian University, found that the most common form of post-incident support provided by UK police services […]
