June 9, 2021
UK job quality continues to fall short
Job quality in the UK has been surprisingly unaffected by the Covid pandemic so far but continues to fall short on a number of key measures, according to the CIPD’s annual Good Work Index. (more…)

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June 9, 2021
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
Job quality in the UK has been surprisingly unaffected by the Covid pandemic so far but continues to fall short on a number of key measures, according to the CIPD’s annual Good Work Index. (more…)
June 8, 2021
by Efrat Fenigson • Company news, Flexible working
The future of work is neither here (at home) nor there (at the office). The hybrid post-pandemic model for the workplace is quickly coming into play, whereby employees work in the office for part of the week and log in from home for the rest, with staff rotating in and out, connecting virtually and in real life, all from various spots on the globe. Even as restrictions ease, it’s clear that work as we know it may never be the same. Full-time 9-5 commuting schedules are a thing of the past, but the practice of having the entire team conference together on Zoom from their couches is quickly ending as well. (more…)
June 8, 2021
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
According to research from Randstad UK, more than a third of workers told the recruiter that the pandemic had left them feeling ‘aimless’ while more than a quarter of employees said the pandemic had left them unable to concentrate properly. A third described how the pandemic had sapped their motivation. (more…)
June 7, 2021
by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Working culture

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.
June 3, 2021
by Robin Bayliss • Comment, Working lives, Workplace design
Every day, after a leisurely breakfast in bed and the opening of his post, Roald Dahl would wander down his garden to the grubby little hut crammed with personal paraphernalia he had created there. There he would sharpen the six yellow pencils that were always by his side while he worked, settle into an armchair, put his feet up on an old suitcase filled with logs, place an American yellow legal pad of paper onto a makeshift board on his lap and work for two hours. (more…)
June 3, 2021
by Neil Franklin • Corporate social responsibility, News
The majority of companies believe that their purpose is not solely to make money, according to a new survey by one of Britain’s best known business associations. The Institute of Directors claims that its recent poll shows companies are re-assessing their role in society. It says the findings come at a time when corporations are facing greater pressure to recognise the impact of their decisions on the environment and the communities in which they work. (more…)
June 1, 2021
by Neil Franklin • Flexible working, News
The 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…)
May 26, 2021
by Neil Franklin • Company news, Workplace design
When it comes to conversations about work and workplaces, the past year has offered a fully immersive experience. Everybody now has an opinion. Inevitably some of them are better informed and more rooted in experience than others. So, after a full year of talk and as we return to some form of routine working life, the time has come to take stock. Few organisations and people will remain untouched by the sudden shift in attitudes towards working life, so we asked four workplace experts for their views on the current state of play. (more…)
May 26, 2021
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working culture
New research conducted by McCarthy Stone, claims to expose the true scale of Ageist Britain, reporting that over a quarter (27 percent) of over 65s in the UK – equivalent to more than three million people – have been victims of ageism. 60 percent of UK adults believe it’s a problem that needs fixing. (more…)
May 25, 2021
by Jayne Smith • News, Working lives
A large majority of the public are concerned about rising unemployment (82 percent), day to day living costs (80 percent), and low economic growth (77 percent), according to a PwC survey of 2,000 people across the UK. Pandemics and other health crises (84 percent), cyber crime (82 percent), and climate change (81 percent) were other key concerns according to the research, which looks at the UK public’s attitude to risk.
(more…)
May 19, 2021
by Jayne Smith • News, Wellbeing, Working lives
A report published by single parent charity, Gingerbread, and the Institute for Employment Studies highlights how the world of work simply doesn’t work for single parents and warns things are set to get worse before they get better – putting even more single parent families at risk of poverty and creating a two-tier society, with single parents firmly at the bottom. (more…)
June 4, 2021
Expect to see a growing number of people with the job title Head of Remote
by Jo Deal • Comment, Flexible working