Happiness at work: Lessons from home

Happiness at work: Lessons from home

Thanks to technology and mobility, our work has come home with us. So it’s only fair that home should come to work, right? It would seem logical that if people sit in front of a TV on the sofa at home while they work remotely, employees would be thrilled to have a similar set up within their office. However, in the workplaces where we’ve seen companies install couches and big screen TVs, those work spaces are almost never used by employees. Those companies missed the bigger picture. Home is as much an emotional experience as a physical one.

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British workplaces are amongst safest in world but work remains

British workplaces are amongst safest in world but work remains

Although Britain remains one of the safest countries to work in the world, too many workers are still being injured or made ill by their work a new report shows. Annual statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show 1.4 million workers were suffering from work-related ill health and around 555,000 from non-fatal injuries in 2017/18. The annual statistics, compiled by HSE from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and other sources, cover work-related ill health, workplace injuries, working days lost, costs to Britain and enforcement action taken.

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Conversations may be more productive when held in the great outdoors

Conversations may be more productive when held in the great outdoors

Conversations are more responsive in natural environments such as parks and gardens than indoors, finds new research by the University of Manchester and Cardiff University. The researchers recorded conversations between three- and four-year-old children and their parents while they explored a city park and the park’s indoor education centre and found that the conversations in the park were more responsive and connected compared to those recorded indoors. The study ‘Responding to nature: Natural environments improve parent-child communication’ is published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.

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Over half of office workers have nowhere but their desk to eat lunch

Over half of UK workers don’t have anywhere to eat lunch in the officeOne in three UK workers don’t have any form of breakout space to get away from their desk and over half (56 percent) of them don’t even have anywhere to eat lunch in their office, new research claims. The survey of  UK office workers carried out by Furniture123.co.uk suggests that as a result of this 34 percent of employees say they resort to eating lunch at their desk, which they feel is having a detrimental effect on morale and productivity. Nearly three quarters (69 percent) of those surveyed felt they worked less productively as a result of not taking a break away from their desk over lunch, and almost half (47 percent) believe they would work more efficiently in the afternoons if they took a full hour for lunch. More →

A doctor writes: keeping employees well and positive as the days get shorter

A doctor writes: keeping employees well and positive as the days get shorter

Winter is coming. The clocks in the UK have just changed, and the long, dark nights are starting. There are still only a few weekends to Christmas, and some employees may be thinking, “How am I supposed to get through the winter? How am I going to stay productive and positive?”. Is it possible that some of your staff may be experiencing seasonal affective disorder (SAD), more commonly known as the winter blues?

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Majority of maternity returners say they lack support when they go back to work

Majority of maternity returners say they lack support when they go back to work

Lack of support for maternity returners among UK businesses has been uncovered in a new survey of professional, mainly management-level women. More than four fifths of pregnant women begin their maternity leave unhappy and lacking in confidence about work – and over a third feel so isolated when they return that they want to hand their notice in. MMB, a working parents’ website, surveyed more than 1,000 mothers, 72 percent of whom were in jobs at management level or above.

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We need to move on from the stigma of mental health to finding solutions

We need to move on from the stigma of mental health to finding solutions

Just as in physical health, everybody has a level of mental health. And while companies have begun to offer corporate gym membership discounts, bowls of fruit around the office, monthly massage and investment in huge amounts of ergonomically supportive furniture to try to assist their colleagues in maintaining a good level of physical health, few seem to be getting to grips with their colleagues’ mental wellbeing, despite the reality that they are dealing with huge numbers of employees who struggle.

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 Stressed UK bosses admit they put wellbeing behind demands of the job

 Stressed UK bosses admit they put wellbeing behind demands of the job

 Stressed UK bosses admit they put wellbeing behind demands of the jobAlmost half of UK bosses admit they’ve felt forced to compromise their own health and wellbeing as a result of pressure at work, new research from Vistage has claimed. According to the study, 40 percent of business leaders say the demands of work have caused stress in their personal lives, while nearly a third say they frequently have to work through illness rather than taking the time they need to recover. While a quarter of business leaders say they’ve sought outside help to strike a better balance between their work and personal life, many more are choosing to suffer on in silence while their health and relationships suffer. More →

Female graduates have lower salary expectations than male counterparts

Female graduates have lower salary expectations than male counterparts

Female graduates have lower salary expectations than men

Impostor syndrome is holding female graduates back from earning as much as their male counterparts as new research from Milkround claims that women have lower salary expectations than men, with one third thinking they’ll earn under £20k. Despite a third of graduate’s belief that confidence is the top skill they need to excel in their career, a lack of confidence is holding back more women (41 percent) than men (28 percent). One in three (33 percent) women are worried about low pay and think they’ll earn under £20k in an entry level role, compared to less than a quarter (22 percent) of their male counterparts. More →

Lack of motivation at work impacts both performance and mental health

Lack of motivation at work impacts both performance and mental health

Lack of motivation at work impacts both performance and mental healthOver seven in ten UK employees want their employers to do more to motivate them claims a new study from Reward Gateway which suggests  that some of the alarming effects that being unmotivated has on employees included a worsening in mood (60 percent); reduction in productivity levels (48 percent); declining mental health (46 percent) and a reduction in quality of work (40 percent).  Over a quarter (26 percent) say their relationships with family and friends suffer and 2 in 10 admit to drinking more alcohol when lacking motivation.

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Menopause is one of the last great workplace taboos

Menopause is one of the last great workplace taboos

Today is World Menopause Day, yet the number of companies that incorporate the menopause into their wellbeing programme is disturbingly low. There are a multitude of reasons why this is the case, but put simply I believe there are three key reasons – it isn’t glamorous, they don’t have the knowledge and experience to deal with it, and because socially it has remained a taboo that we have been reluctant to talk about, even amongst women.

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Majority of UK workers sit at their desk between four and nine hours a day

Majority of UK workers sit at their desk between four and nine hours a day

UK office workers may sit at their desk for up to nine hours a day

The majority (81 percent) of UK office workers spend between four and nine hours each day sitting at their desk, equating to an average of 67 sedentary days per person each year, claims a new survey from Fellowes. Nearly half (45 percent) of office workers polled said they sat at their desk for between six and nine hours daily with 36 percent claiming they spent four to six hours seated. On top of this, a huge 64 percent claimed their office environment also had a negative impact on their health.

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