Columnists
July 1, 2020
The loneliness of the long term flexible worker
by Dr Rachel Lewis • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
Flexible working arrangements are those which ‘allow employees to vary the amount, timing or location of their work’ and may include part-time working, mobile/home working, compressed hours or job-sharing – among others. Before the lockdown, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD), more than half of all employees in the UK used at […]
June 30, 2020
Cracking the issue of work after lockdown
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design
June 26, 2020
Talkin` about the quarantine generation
by Anthony Brown • Comment, Wellbeing
The year is 2045. It’s well over twenty years since the Covid 19 pandemic created chaos and fear throughout the world. But just like the ‘baby boomer’ generation who were born, celebrated and cherished in the wake of World War II, so the ‘quarantinis’ are starting to make their way in the world of work. […]
June 26, 2020
Work from home advocates beckon us to a living hell
by James Woudhuysen • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
Look, I work from home. The liberal in me says: if you want to and can work from home, then why not? Yes, few of Britain’s cramped homes – especially those occupied by young people – are well equipped for home working, which can be stressful. But, as I say, I see no problem in working from home if you […]
June 18, 2020
Charles Handy was a true visionary about the modern workplace
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology, Workplace
It’s incredibly hard not to be impressed by Charles Handy and even harder not to find him likeable. The scope of his intellect and humanity is evident on the page, in his interviews and in his broadcasts. He reeks of credibility and warmth. Do a Google image search of him and the pictures you find epitomise […]
June 15, 2020
Wellbeing for remote workers should not be lost in translation
by Brendan Street • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt the world of work – seeing many businesses remote working – employers are learning more about the importance of effective communication. Diminished in-person contact can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness among employees. And managers are also facing new challenges in providing the level of social interaction […]
June 12, 2020
Building a culture of trust has never been more important
by Jonathan Richards • Comment, Workplace
Trust is a concept we often find hard to describe. It’s sticky, intangible and difficult to pinpoint but we know when trust is absent. When it’s missing from a workforce, a culture can unravel. According to the Culture Economy Report 2020, 43 percent of employees in UK SME’s don’t trust their employer to do the […]
June 9, 2020
A thank you for the bitter knowledge offered by the lockdown
by Adam Burtt-Jones • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace design
With all challenges come opportunities. Covid-19 will most likely be the single largest challenge and disrupter of a generation. It has the potential to create the greatest significant shift in working behaviours and standards of the past hundred years. Workspace consultants, enlightened clients, designers, researchers and commentators have been hammering the agile / home/ remote […]
June 8, 2020
The paradox of how routines can help us be more productive and creative
by Nick Chater • Comment, Flexible working
Former US president Barack Obama famously had a wardrobe full of identical suits. As a world leader, life presents more than enough big decisions – Obama’s reasoning was that it made sense to minimise the complexity of the small decisions. Artists are often thought of as rather different. Francis Bacon, for example, had a tempestuous personal […]
June 4, 2020
Right, said Fred. Here I am again
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Technology, Wellbeing
If there has been an underlying driver of workplace thinking over the past several decades, it has been a rejection of the principles of scientific management. These begat the idea of the office as a factory, subject to the same rigid times and places of work and the same culture of process, efficiency and productivity. […]
July 2, 2020
Leaders need to develop a high care quotient for the new challenges they face
by Chris Parke • Comment, Wellbeing, Working lives
Everything has taken a hit in 2020. Nothing has gone unscathed or unchanged – and the same goes for leadership. From boardrooms to living rooms, meeting rooms to spare rooms, leadership has moved away from face-to-face interactions to digital communications. Meanwhile, forward-thinking initiatives, spurred on by continuing diversity imbalances and widening gender pay gaps, have […]