Listening in on an enormous conversation about the workplace

Listening in on an enormous conversation about the workplace

One of the best tricks Clive James ever pulled was finding acceptance as a public intellectual in the UK. It’s not easy in a country in which it is possible to be too clever by half or even too clever for your own good. Stephen Fry continues to pull it off as does Mary Beard, but it’s a hell of a thing to achieve. In the UK it seems to rely on straddling at least two worlds. (more…)

Firms should be aware of the legal implications of employee monitoring

Firms should be aware of the legal implications of employee monitoring

employee monitoringEmployee monitoring is an emotive topic. Businesses may wish to monitor their staff for a variety of reasons. For instance, they may wish to prevent the unauthorised disclosure of confidential or sensitive information, or detect attempts to steal valuable intellectual property. In the current conditions, dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses have opted to use automated means to monitor staff productivity. However, from an employee’s perspective, the use of monitoring software may be intrusive if not distressing. Further, if it has been implemented without regard to data protection law, it is potentially illegal. (more…)

Corporate inclusivity efforts must include disability

Corporate inclusivity efforts must include disability

inclusivityWhen we think about inclusivity and diversity in the corporate world, we often think of racial and cultural diversity, gender, or LGBTQ+ inclusion—but one aspect that has been too long forgotten or ignored is the topic of disability inclusion. Caroline Casey, disability activist, CEO and founder of the Valuable 500 initiative, notes that though 90 percent of companies say they prioritize inclusivity in the workplace, just 4 percent of them include disability inclusion as a consideration. (more…)

Employers should explain their monitoring policies to workers

Employers should explain their monitoring policies to workers

The number of companies monitoring their employees is growing. According to a Gartner survey, more than 22 percent of employees use employee movement data, while 17 percent of them are monitoring computer usage. With companies choosing to monitor employees, privacy laws are also catching up, and thus there is a need for explaining employee monitoring to prospective hires. Employee monitoring is defined as the use of monitoring devices and methods by companies to learn about their employees’ workplace behaviours and performance. (more…)

The lost art of office furniture peacocking and the growing mental health crisis at work

The lost art of office furniture peacocking and the growing mental health crisis at work

When Donald Trump was pictured recently sitting uncomfortably at a table that looked like it had been retrieved from a skip, it provoked the sort of sneering commentary about furniture choices last seen when Dominic Cummings popped in to the Downing Street garden to deliver some self-serving blather from behind a rickety trestle table. (more…)

Is there a future for the office?

Is there a future for the office?

Yes.

Hybrid working presents us with a once in a generation opportunity

Hybrid working presents us with a once in a generation opportunity

hybrid workingIn the face of the revolutionary and long-lasting changes to workplaces across the world resulting from the pandemic, some commentators have suggested that the wide-spread necessity of adopting remote working practices may have made the office obsolete. However, such a dramatic upheaval to the very foundation of the workplace and working dynamic won’t come without a cost, and new data suggests that perhaps the office isn’t the dinosaur many assumed, but still a central pillar to effective businesses as part of a hybrid working strategy. (more…)

Creative firms have most to lose from a loss of serendipity

Creative firms have most to lose from a loss of serendipity

creative office designMost of the analysis about the effects of the 2020 pandemic on people’s working lives has tended to involve grand statements about new normals and the death of this or that, as if everybody wants the same things, has the same personal circumstances, works in the same ways, the same places and same sectors. (more…)

The great lesson of 2020 for small businesses is to be ready for anything

The great lesson of 2020 for small businesses is to be ready for anything

small businessesThe repercussions of Covid-19 for the small business community have been particularly ruinous. Recent figures paint a worrying picture, revealing that approximately 76,300 SMEs in London alone ceased operations completely as a direct result of the pandemic, with lockdowns costing from £30,000 to £75,000 for one in ten small businesses. As the most vulnerable business segment in the current crisis, SMEs needed the biggest support and, by the end of April, had already received over £4 billion via the government’s CBIL scheme. (more…)

We need to understand and channel workplace conflict in the right way

We need to understand and channel workplace conflict in the right way

workplace conflictEarlier this month, in a sudden and unexpected turn of events, the prime minister’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, walked out of 10 Downing Street for the last time, having resigned/been asked to leave, depending on whose account of the episode you believe. However, the affair unfolded in reality, it seems clear that the departure of Cummings and Director of Communications, Lee Cain, was precipitated by workplace conflict and a series of internal disagreements, which had pushed their relationships with certain colleagues to breaking point. (more…)

Change like everyone is watching 

Change like everyone is watching 

At a time when we aren’t generally supposed to get within two metres of each other, depending on what the rules happen to be today (or part day), there’s a lot of embracing going on. Almost in some quarters as though it’s a resigned acceptance. You know the curve, with the part at the end where having denied it, got angry then depressed and reluctantly bargained with it, we finally get on with it. Which of course isn’t how anything happens at all. But that’s what us dedicate followers of Covid-era fashion are supposedly doing: embracing change.  (more…)

The crisis is making us more authentically human at work

The crisis is making us more authentically human at work

A more human place of workLet the dogs bark, let the kid dance, admit that you are in the basement because your spouse is occupying the kitchen. It takes bravery to let the new reality shine. In previous circumstances, your dog starting to bark like crazy while you are on a work video call with the CEO of a company may have been mortifying. But now, instead, the shared reality of both participants working from home gives employees and employers the chance to gain a little more insight into each other’s lives. (more…)