December 11, 2020
Firms should be aware of the legal implications of employee monitoring
Employee monitoring is an emotive topic. Businesses may wish to monitor their staff for a variety of reasons. For instance, they may wish to prevent the unauthorised disclosure of confidential or sensitive information, or detect attempts to steal valuable intellectual property. In the current conditions, dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses have opted to use automated means to monitor staff productivity. However, from an employee’s perspective, the use of monitoring software may be intrusive if not distressing. Further, if it has been implemented without regard to data protection law, it is potentially illegal. (more…)










The 
At a time when we aren’t generally supposed to get within two metres of each other, depending on what the rules happen to be today (or part day), there’s a lot of embracing going on. Almost in some quarters as though it’s a resigned acceptance. You know the curve, with the part at the end where having denied it, got angry then depressed and reluctantly bargained with it, we finally get on with it. Which of course isn’t how anything 
Workplace design and fit out company Area has become a founding member of 
A survey issued by architecture, design, and planning firm 
Climate change has accelerated the urgency to address the way people live and work. With the UK’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2050, 
As many of us cope with yet another lockdown, optimism is easy to misplace but, for disabled workers, this could result in monumental change for future employment. On the month commencing the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act and the run-up to International Day of Disabled Persons, could this be the final push for change? As we swing in and out of remote-working, whether you love it or loathe it, one thing is abundantly clear – it can be done. Something that the 
With a new national lockdown, the situation in the UK remains unpredictable and complicated, and renewed pressure to work from home has forced many organisations to reverse their back-to-work plans, according to a new study from 
GlobalWebIndex (GWI), together with LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, has launched “

December 12, 2020
Listening in on an enormous conversation about the workplace
by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace design
One of the best tricks Clive James ever pulled was finding acceptance as a public intellectual in the UK. It’s not easy in a country in which it is possible to be too clever by half or even too clever for your own good. Stephen Fry continues to pull it off as does Mary Beard, but it’s a hell of a thing to achieve. In the UK it seems to rely on straddling at least two worlds. (more…)