Search Results for: finance

The bullshit jobs theory may turn out to be, well…

The bullshit jobs theory may turn out to be, well…

a charging bull depicting bullshit jobs

The so-called ‘bullshit jobs theory’ – which argues that a large and rapidly increasing number of workers are undertaking jobs that they themselves recognise as being useless and of no social value – contains several major flaws, argue researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham. Even so, writing in Work, Employment and Society, the academics applaud its proponent, American anthropologist David Graeber, who died in September 2020, for highlighting the link between a sense of purpose in one’s job and psychological wellbeing.

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Ending the commercial rents stalemate can help economy rebound, claims CBI

Ending the commercial rents stalemate can help economy rebound, claims CBI

Occupiers and landlords of commercial property should partner on a path towards full economic reopening by taking decisive action to address commercial rent challenges, says the CBI. The CBI believes commercial property tenants should resume paying rents as normal when emergency coronavirus legislation protecting businesses from evictions and statutory demands ends on June 30, except in cases of extreme financial difficulty caused by this year’s lockdown measures. (more…)

Flexible working practices vary widely across organisations

Flexible working practices vary widely across organisations

Picture of clock to depict flexible workingThe British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has released new figures suggesting that over two thirds (66 percent) of businesses surveyed now offer flexible working to employees. The data, from a survey of over 900 businesses conducted in April 2021, also shows nearly three quarters of businesses expect to have at least one employee working remotely over the coming year, with the average expectation among those firms being just over half of their employees working remotely. (more…)

A warning to employers that hybrid working will disproportionately impact their younger workforce

A warning to employers that hybrid working will disproportionately impact their younger workforce

hybrid workingAs the UK lockdown eases and the nation slowly returns to the office, energyhelpline.com has conducted research into the cost of hybrid working. With the nation settling into a mix between office and home-based working, workers are expecting to pay out £890 a month on various work-related expenditure, with outgoings such as travel, after work socialising and rising energy bills set to ramp up monthly expenses. (more…)

The UKs great digital divide narrowed by pandemic

The UKs great digital divide narrowed by pandemic

digital divideNew research by Rouge Media, highlights where in the UK has the most lapsed or internet non-users, following Ofcom’s announcement that the digital divide has been narrowed by pandemic, but around 1.5m homes remain without internet access. (more…)

The workplace industry needs to think outside its ever-shrinking boxes

The workplace industry needs to think outside its ever-shrinking boxes

People are outgrowing the boxes the workplace industry offersIs the workplace industry stuck in the past, in a 20th century model of how and where work is done? The separation of work and the rest of life during the Industrial Age has shaped the structures of modern life: the houses we live in, the offices, factories and shops we work in, and the transport networks that shuffle us from one location to another for different activities. It has also shaped the planning system, the institutional and financial structures of how places are designed and built, and perhaps most of all the mindsets of just about everyone involved in creating places to work and live. (more…)

New guidance to increase natural settings into urban spaces

New guidance to increase natural settings into urban spaces

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has published its ‘Principles for delivering urban Nature-based Solutions’ (NBS), to help developers and owners increase the incorporation of NBS within the construction and operation of built assets. The report claims that the development and function of the built environment has significant impacts upon both climate and biodiversity, locally and globally, and the pressure for our industry to be part of the solution is accelerating. The recommendations of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) have led to a growing requirement to measure and mitigate the physical risks to built assets from climate change, such as flooding and overheating. (more…)

Problems at home impact employee creativity more than problems at work

Problems at home impact employee creativity more than problems at work

employee creativityFeeling ostracised by family members has a negative effect on employee creativity, more so than feeling ostracised at work, claims new research from Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Business. (more…)

The digital world is not necessarily greener than the physical world

The digital world is not necessarily greener than the physical world

No sooner had the world learned about the existence of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) than we also learned how much of a problem they could be for the environment. An NFT is digital token in a similar way to Bitcoin, except there’s only one of each NFT. It is associated with a piece of content, guaranteed unique and so is worth whatever somebody will pay for it. In the case of a digital artist called Beeplewho had only ever previously sold a piece for $100, this was $69 million for an NFT for a digital collage of images called Everydays: The First 5000 Days sold at Christie’s in MarchBought by a collector in Singapore, this made him one of the world’s “top three most valuable living artists,” according to the auction house.  (more…)

Employee experience is top priority for CIO’s but UK held back by lack of tools

Employee experience is top priority for CIO’s but UK held back by lack of tools

Employee experienceElastic (NYSE: ESTC), the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack, have announced a new study, claiming that employee experience has become a new priority for IT leaders as they reinvent their infrastructures to support remote workforces. The Changing Role of the IT Leader was conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Elastic in February 2021, one year into the global pandemic, and published in April.
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Working from home surveillance drives rise of digital presenteeism

Working from home surveillance drives rise of digital presenteeism

Lockdown has meant the majority of UK office-based employees have taken up working from home arrangements over the last year, and it seems that many employers lack trust in their employees when they can’t physically see them. Last year saw a rise in the implementation of surveillance software, to ensure that workers are acting in best corporate interests. However, this is having a negative impact on some employees – who are feeling forced to work longer hours due to a new perceived need to remain visible to their manager or team leader, revealed in a survey by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. With remote working set to stay post-COVID, these findings indicate a worrying growing trend around broken working from home employee trust. (more…)

‘Healthy buildings’ enjoy a surge in demand worldwide

‘Healthy buildings’ enjoy a surge in demand worldwide

healthy buildings SiemensA new survey of many of the world’s leading real estate investors finds that 92 percent of respondents expect demand for healthy buildings to grow in the next three years. The report claims that this is a compelling signal of the direction the real estate sector is heading. This finding, among others, is captured in a report titled A New Investor Consensus: The Rising Demand for Healthy Buildings (registration) which claims to be a comprehensive health and wellness study of global real estate investment managers and stakeholders representing aggregate AUM of $5.75 trillion and portfolio investments in real estate totalling approximately US$1.03 trillion. (more…)