January 28, 2021
Right to disconnect should be enshrined in law, says EU Parliament
The EU Parliament has announced that it would like to protect what it calls employees’ fundamental rights to disconnect from work which includes restricting the way employers might contact staff outside their contracted working hours. Although the right to disconnect is not defined by EU law, the Parliament has called upon the Commission to come up with a law allowing employees to disconnect from work during non-work hours without consequences and setting minimum standards for remote work. More →
Mass redundancies across the UK are having a huge impact on the discretionary effort employees are willing to undertake on behalf of their employer, according to research from career transition firm 
New research from Opinion Matters, commissioned by 
In April 2020, 47 percent of UK employees worked from home and for many, they still haven’t returned to the office. The events of 2020 have been unprecedented, as rules and advice from the government have changed at rapid rates in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic. But one thing that remained relatively consistent is the encouragement for those who can, to work from home. 
With six weeks still to go until the Chancellor’s Budget, the CIPD is urging the Government to act early to extend the furlough scheme to protect jobs, support incomes and enhance skills development. Its calls are outlined in a report called 
Research by 
Employee engagement levels may have actually improved during the COVID-19 pandemic, claims a recent survey undertaken by intermediary 
Employers are failing to identify and tackle potential age bias in their recruitment process, with most employers interviewed not seeing it as a ‘problem’ in their organisation, according to a new report by the 
As companies struggle to motivate teams working remotely, new research by the charity 
The idea of a Global Village comes loaded with a number of idyllic connotations. Most of them derive from the use of the word village itself, which triggers the idea of a community in our minds. Yet even the man who coined and popularised the term in the 1950s and 60s to describe a world contracted by new media understood that there are always complications whenever technology rubs up against human beings. 
January 7, 2021
You will hear a lot more about purpose, communication and rituals at work this year
by Imke Schuller • Comment, Working culture