Search Results for: colleagues

October 3, 2013

Where’s the desk? UK offices weighed down by paper clutter

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News

We’ve been hearing about the paperless office for more than two decades, BYOD (or CYOD) is supposed to replace ‘dead trees’; but we’re still drowning in paper. Today, the average UK desk is weighed down by almost a stone of clutter – with over a fifth of office workers losing important documents at least once a week, according to office equipment manufacturer Brother. Recent research by the EDM Group echoed these findings, estimating that employees wasted one and a half hours a week looking for misplaced documents and information. One of the causes is the sheer amount of information and data employees now receive, with over half (56%) in the EDM poll claiming that they receive more information at work than they did three years ago. More →

October 1, 2013

Over half of UK and US workers still go into work when they are sick

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Over half of UK and US workers still go into work when they’re sick, according to separate surveys from either side of the Atlantic. The US study by Kimberly-Clark Professional found that 59 per cent of people go to work even when they feel ill; with three in 10 saying it was because they were too important to the business operation. In the UK, new YouGov research on behalf of Westfield Health found that exactly the same percentage (59%) of workers turned up despite being unwell because of work commitments; 82 per cent of employees had worked over their contractual hours in the last 12 months and 64 per cent admitted to feeling stressed at work. More →

September 30, 2013

Don’t let the sofas fool you; work can still be red in tooth and claw

by Twyla Howse • Comment, Flexible working, Furniture

Herbert James Draper: Ulysses and the sirens

We keep filling our workplaces with sofas, coffee shops and other lifestyle touches while our homes are being slowly eroded by the trappings of work. First it was the fax machine. Then the mobile phone. Then working from home. The places available for us to work is seemingly more diverse than ever. But does this acknowledged trend towards domesticity make the workplace a kinder, gentler place? Maybe on the surface but beware to those who dare succumb to the siren song of these things. Using them could mean the end of your career.A recent conversation I had with an executive highlighted the problems inherent in the mixed messages this “softening” of the work environment brings.

September 26, 2013

Bosses most likely to lie at work, while still promoting an ethical culture

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Business has been fighting a PR battle in recent years to convince us that ethics and corporate social responsibility is of equal importance to the bottom line. However, when it comes to individual behaviour it seems that managers are far from practising what their employers’ preach. Bosses are much more likely than other staff to ditch ethics to get ahead in their career (29.4% compared to 13.3%), yet at the same time are more likely than other staff to think it is important to be seen as ethical at work (66.4% compared to 54.0%). According to the research from CMI (Chartered Management Institute) 35.4 per cent of managers bend the truth once a day or more, compared to 25.3 per cent of other workers. More →

September 23, 2013

Employee engagement among younger workers is on the increase

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

A staggering 92 per cent of Generation Y workers believe their role directly contributes to their organisation’s success. According to a poll of 1,120 UK office workers by recruitment solutions provider hyphen, younger workers in the UK feel more empowered and positive than ever about their workplace. Nearly two thirds (62.9%) of those aged 25-34 are proud to work for their current organisation and 81.8 per cent believe their colleagues and managers seek their opinion and listen to their views, up 16 per cent from March 2013. While the attitudes among younger workers are positive, the research suggests that older workers are feeling less optimistic – 15.9 per cent said they were not proud to work in their organisation – up nearly 8 per cent from March 2013. More →

September 19, 2013

National work-life week 2013 aims to promote better work-life balance

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Encouraging a healthy work-life balance is one of the keystones of employee wellness programmes. Yet, while most employers would claim they continually address issues such as stress and overwork, the fact that 40 per cent of workplace absences in this country are stress-related tells a different story. According to a new survey by Adecco, a third (34%) of employers are even prepared to cancel someone’s holiday if there is too much work to do in the office. Such practices are being challenged by a week of events dedicated to the promotion of work-life balance. National Work-Life Week 2013 is organised by the charity Working Families and will include a conference ‘Smart Work, Agile Work, Flexible Work’ on Tuesday 24 September. More →

September 17, 2013

Sound design: a debate on openness and privacy at work, 100% Design, 18 September

by Mark Eltringham • Events, Facilities management, Furniture, News

Insight publisher Mark Eltringham will be chairing a debate at 100% Design on Wednesday the 18 September on the ever topical and ever changing issue of designing for sound. The discussion will consider whether we have the balance right when it comes to providing people with a mixture of spaces to work quietly and privately and others in which they can work with colleagues and even- dare we admit it – enjoy the racket they create? The panel includes noted workplace experts Tim Oldman of Leesman, Monica Parker of Morgan Lovell and Colin Rawlings of Icon who will discuss the conflicting forces involved and challenge with examples and data the lazy assumptions and received wisdom that can distort decision making on this most sensitive of topics.

September 16, 2013

World Green Building week launches with a breath of fresh air

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

Making sustainability sexy is a tall order. Look up the topic “green building” and you’ll invariably come across in depth descriptions of energy saving schemes and achieving a BREEAM rating. All these considerations are of course very important, but they make it difficult to engage building occupants. With the theme “Greener buildings, better places, healthier people”, World Green Building Week, which begins today (16-20 September), should do just that, by concentrating on the tangible benefits to building occupants of a green office. Paul King, Chief Executive of UK-GBC, said: “We often hear about the environmental and financial benefits of green buildings, but less attention is paid to the impact on those who live and work in them.” More →

September 10, 2013

UK employees not getting enough sleep due to workplace stress

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

The death last month of an intern at a major City bank drew attention to the ridiculously long hours worked by those attempting to carve out a career within the banking sector. Now a new report has confirmed that workers within the banking profession have the least amount of sleep across the UK, coping on average with just five hours and 50 minutes every night. But the annual sleep and professions report conducted by Travelodge reveals that British workers are surviving on just six hours and 27 minutes sleep every night – one hour and thirty three minutes below the recommend sleep quota of eight hours of sleep per night. Three out of ten workers have reported that they get less sleep now in comparison to a year ago, whilst a fifth of employees regard sleep a luxury. More →

September 4, 2013

EU Governments urged to maximise the potential of older workers

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

The rise in the number of older workers in the UK has been well documented, and the reason is clear, they are a much needed resource. Over the next ten years there are 13.5 million job vacancies which need to be filled, but only seven million young people predicted to join the job market in that time. And the UK is not alone; the EU faces significant skills gaps due to demographic change. But according to a new International Longevity Centre –UK (ILC-UK) report, Working Longer: An EU perspective, supported by Prudential, EU countries urgently need to skill up the older workforce, support more older women in work and address the particular health issues associated with employing older workers. More →

August 29, 2013

Smells like team spirit. Strong influence of scent in the workplace

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Workplace

When Ireland became the first country in the world to impose an outright smoking ban in public places, it wasn’t long before a hitherto uncharted problem emerged – the smell of body odour in crowded pubs, which it was rumoured at the time – was solved by piping in the smell of smoke to recreate that ‘pub atmosphere,’ but without the carcinogenic effects. Aside from washrooms, how an office smells isn’t a factor which merits as much attention as how it looks or the level of noise, yet olfactory perception can have a powerful effect on our mood, how we regard our surroundings and of course our response to those with which we have to share our space. More →

August 20, 2013

Leave it out. UK workers are skipping their break from the office

by Sara Bean • Legal news, News, Workplace

The problem with the UK holiday season is that you never know where you are with your contacts. While one chunk of the population is away on leave, the other half is beavering away, and carry on sending out tons of emails, which the other half are forced to plough through when they return to the office. Maybe we need to follow the example of the Italian office furniture manufacturer which emails out an annual reminder during the last week of July that its offices will be shut for the whole of August, when traditionally, most of Italy takes a break. Not so the Brits, where, according to new research, even workers entitled to a break, are reluctant to take time off. More →