January 15, 2021
January 14, 2021
Workers believe employers are failing to take their personal safety seriously enough
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing
New research by Sanitiser Sentinel, highlights the importance of hygiene and safety in the workplace since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Almost 2,500 British workers – all of whom are currently still visiting their offices – took part in the survey which was carried out. More →
January 12, 2021
Workers feel overworked as a result of the pandemic
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
Hardworking professionals are feeling the effects of longer working days and unpaid overtime, according to new research by law firm, Wright Hassall. The study claims that on average workers are performing nine or more hours of overtime in a given week, which totals more than one working day, compared to just three or more hours before the start of the pandemic. The research also claims that more than half (52 percent) are actually doing so without being paid for this. More →
January 11, 2021
Your organisation really needs to stop talking about a second pandemic
by Stephanie Fitzgerald • Comment, SF, Wellbeing
It was in the summer of 2020 that conversations about a second pandemic of mental health issues first started. As we began to see and feel our mental health suffering due to the ongoing impact of COVID19, this idea gained momentum and interest within business sectors. This concept has also been leapt upon by health and wellbeing consultants everywhere as they whip up a storm discussing the inevitable wave of mental health issues threatening to engulf our employees in the future. More →
January 8, 2021
Volunteering boosts employees during lockdown, research claims
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Workplace
As companies struggle to motivate teams working remotely, new research by the charity Education and Employers and the CIPD, claims that employers who support their staff with volunteering in schools and colleges has found employees to be more motivated, more productive and have a better sense of well-being. More →
January 7, 2021
Money troubles are more damaging to wellbeing of the self-employed
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
Financial distress is more damaging to the wellbeing of the self-employed than those in employment, claims new research from Trinity Business School. According to the research, authored by Dr Martha O’Hagan-Luff at Trinity Business School, alongside fellow Trinity academics, financial problems are more strongly associated with lower levels of wellbeing for those that are self-employed. More →
December 18, 2020
The shape of things to come for the world and the workplace
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design
Originally published in March, right at the start of all this. Makes me wonder how far we’ve come in nine months. In Dorian Lynskey’s The Ministry of Truth, a “biography” of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the author describes how Orwell’s book was the end point of an obsession with utopian (and ultimately dystopian) fiction that characterised the first half of the Twentieth Century, and reflected the competing political, social and economic ideologies of the era. More →
December 18, 2020
Events of 2020 have proved the value of personal resilience
by Silja Litvin • Comment, Wellbeing
No-one could have predicted what 2020 would deliver. A pandemic, lockdown, moving the workplace into the home. We are in uncharted waters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines resilience as being able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions. Resilience is an almost stoic quality, and a pandemic a time of crisis. It almost feels like they are a match made in heaven. But how does this affect organisations? What can be done? Is it really that important to build employees’ resilience? More →
December 18, 2020
Mental wellbeing needs of employees should be a greater priority for businesses
by Freddie Steele • News, Wellbeing
Data from thousands of employees across the country has been aggregated in a new report, detailing the mental wellbeing of the workforce over the course of the year. The research from 87 percent, a digital platform that provides mental health assessment and support to businesses and their employees, shows how the workforce has struggled with the mental pressures of Covid-19. Since March, circumstances at work and pressures in our personal lives have badly affected our mental wellbeing. More →
December 18, 2020
Working from home stresses have had the greatest impact on women
by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing
A review of research in organisational and workplace psychology conducted by an international team of academics claims that working from home has been more disruptive for women than men. The review paper, entitled COVID-19 and the Workplace: Implications, Issues, and Insights for Future Research and Action and originally published in American Psychologist, features urgent insight from UCL School of Management Professor, Sunny Lee into the sex- and gender-related implications of changes in work practices that have taken place over the course of 2020. More →
January 12, 2021
Burnt out workers need to regain some balance
by Dan Zakai • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design
The pandemic and months of Zoom calls and remote work have begun to wear on us, so much so that in a recent survey from Blind – the anonymous workplace community app – 68 percent of respondents said that they are experiencing more feelings of being burnt out now, than they were before the pandemic began. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 29 percent of the respondents said their relationship with their direct boss was now worse than it had been before they began working remotely. And it’s not just top-down relationships at work that have deteriorated. More →