Search Results for: loneliness

Is hybrid working the final cure for workplace woes or the beginning of something better?

Is hybrid working the final cure for workplace woes or the beginning of something better?

hybrid workingThis year’s World Workplace Europe saw 2022 hailed as the year of the worker. A worthwhile focus considering negative emotions are on the rise, with more depression, anxiety and loneliness plaguing society despite the claimed benefits of hybrid working. The pandemic robbed us of many things. It restricted our freedom for two years and forced us to live, love and work in a way that felt a little less human. But at least there was a sense of unity, working together for the common good, a mask-muffled cry of “all for one and one for all” as people considered how their actions would and could impact others. More →

Hybrid working and how we escape the constraints of leadership

Hybrid working and how we escape the constraints of leadership

hybrid working danceJennifer was at the ballet the other day, watching Acosta Danza, and there was a dance with ropes.  In the movement of the relationship of the dancers, the mood, the emotion were all defined using the rope.  It was very beautiful.  Then towards the end the ropes were taken away and everything changed – the performers were liberated, unconstrained.  At first like a frenzy, but then the dancers started to gel together letting go of the need for the rope.  And this got her thinking about the role of constraint in leading change, especially in the new era of hybrid working. More →

Co-living ideas explored in Davidson Prize longlist

Co-living ideas explored in Davidson Prize longlist

co-living worksThe judges of the 2022 Davidson Prize have selected a longlist of 14 teams. Responding to this year’s theme of Co-Living – A New Future, the longlisted teams represent diverse and exciting collaborative approaches to transforming the architecture of the home. The Davidson Prize is a design ideas and communication prize established in 2021 in memory of architectural visualisation pioneer Alan Davidson. Following the success of the inaugural Prize last year, in 2022 teams made up of architects working collaboratively with other disciplines were asked to consider whether current notions of home in the UK are keeping step with the 21st century. More →

Wellbeing strategies often fail to align with business objectives

Wellbeing strategies often fail to align with business objectives

wellbeingEmployers feel far more responsibility for employee health and wellbeing than ever, yet formalised strategic action often remains unchanged, claims Aon’s UK Benefits and Trends Survey 2022. The report suggests there has been a significant increase over the last year in the number of employers that strongly agree they have a responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their employees, rising from 20 percent in 2021 to just over half of all respondents (51 percent) in 2022. Forty-four percent agree they have a responsibility, and just 5 percent disagree or have no view. More →

Flexible working models best for mental health of parents, research claims

Flexible working models best for mental health of parents, research claims

flexible working and mental healthEmployees who are able to split their working time between home and a formal workplace are 40 percent less likely to experience mental health difficulties, new research has shown. Wellbeing charity stem4 surveyed 1038 working parents and carers across the UK to mark Parent Mental Health Day (27th January). It suggests that four in ten overall (39 percent) were experiencing problems – most commonly stress (62 percent), depression (54 percent) and anxiety (50 percent). More →

Employees urge workplaces to focus on mental health as world reopens

Employees urge workplaces to focus on mental health as world reopens

mental healthAccess to workplace counsellors, mental health training and support groups are topping the charts on what workers want on their return to the office, according to new research by CERT Property. More →

Working from home during pandemic has taken toll on mental health

Working from home during pandemic has taken toll on mental health

working from home

New research by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) claims there are links between working from home during the pandemic and increased levels of loneliness and mental distress. NatCen analysed data from interviews carried out with 8,675 people before the pandemic and in May, July and November 2020 for the Understanding Society COVID-19 survey. More →

Many employees lack workplace friendships

Many employees lack workplace friendships

friendshipsA new study conducted by Wildgoose, into friendship in the workplace claims the impact of working from home on personal connections in the office. One in 20 employees starting a new job while working from home have found it hard to make colleague friendships. This is equivalent to over 300,000 employees struggling to integrate and make friends in a new role. More →

Workers report worse mental health following pandemic

Workers report worse mental health following pandemic

workersSt John Ambulance is to launch a new workplace mental health qualification as eight out of 10 (81 percent) workers say their mental health is worse or more variable as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. More →

What are the limits of an employer’s duty of care to employees?

What are the limits of an employer’s duty of care to employees?

Earlier this month the ONS (Office for National Statistics) released a rather dismal map of the UK charting our population’s soaring levels of loneliness. Perhaps surprisingly, it is young people and those living in urban areas reporting the highest levels of aloneness. It really does go to show that the ‘social’ in social media doesn’t mean very much, and that you can indeed be surrounded by others and still feel lonely. So what does this new study mean for employers, if anything? More →

Nearly a million workers struggling with mental wellbeing due to remote working

Nearly a million workers struggling with mental wellbeing due to remote working

mental As April is Stress Awareness Month, Instant Offices researched how the last year has affected employees mental health also what business and individual employees can do to improve and support mental wellbeing. More →

Lockdown mental fatigue is rapidly reversed by social contact, study claims

Lockdown mental fatigue is rapidly reversed by social contact, study claims

Many of us are looking forward to a summer of relative freedom, with road-mapped milestones that will grant us more opportunities to see our friends and family. But we’ll be carrying the effects of months of isolation into those meetings, including a sense that our social skills will need dusting off, and our wits will need sharpening. The mental effects of lockdown have been profound. Social isolation has been shown to cause people’s mental health to deteriorate even if they have no history of previous psychological problems. Alongside this drop in mood, loneliness has been linked with a host of cognitive problems, including fatigue, stress and problems with concentration. More →