Search Results for: working lives

Most people with mental health issues would prefer a robot therapist to a human

Most people with mental health issues would prefer a robot therapist to a human

by • News, Technology, Wellbeing

mental health2020 has been the most stressful year in history for the global workforce and people want robots to help, according to a new study by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence, an HR research and advisory firm. The study of more than 12,000 employees, managers, HR leaders, and C-level executives across 11 countries claims that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased workplace stress, anxiety, burnout and other mental health issues for people all around the world, and would prefer a robot instead of other people to help. (more…)

New support for employees experiencing domestic abuse

New support for employees experiencing domestic abuse

by • News, Wellbeing

Following a surge in calls from individuals to domestic abuse helplines during lockdown, the CIPD and EHRC have published new guidance for employers, setting out how to recognise and support staff experiencing domestic abuse. A CIPD survey of UK employees claims that just under a quarter (24 percent) are aware of their employer having a policy or support in place on domestic abuse. (more…)

No need to sideline form in our quest for function

No need to sideline form in our quest for function

by • Architecture, Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

The enduring struggle to improve the working conditions and performance of people through the design and management of workplaces carries more than a whiff of the Enlightenment, a period in which pure reason was seen by its proponents as more than enough to convince the world of the ways in which we could improve the human condition. It’s a battle that was won in some ways but which endures. (more…)

Workers feel unsafe returning to the workplace after COVID-19

Workers feel unsafe returning to the workplace after COVID-19

by • News, Wellbeing

COVID-19Insurance provider Protectivity has asked office workers around the UK how they’re feeling about going back to work as COVID-19 lockdown restrictions ease, what changes they have made during the lockdown period, their thoughts about attending workplace events over the next few months and how they’re feeling about their pets post-lockdown. (more…)

US workers under lockdown three times more likely to report mental health issues

US workers under lockdown three times more likely to report mental health issues

by • News, Wellbeing

According to a recent survey of more than 1,500 US based respondents, workers are now three times more likely to report poor mental health than they were before the pandemic. The study also claims that seventy-five percent of people have experienced burnout at work, with 40 percent saying they’ve experienced burnout during the pandemic specifically. The report suggests that this is not surprising, given that 37 percent of employed respondents are currently working longer hours than usual since the pandemic started. (more…)

The death of the office? Wait a minute

The death of the office? Wait a minute

by • Comment, Property, Workplace design

death of the officeI have observed with some disbelief the numerous articles that have heralded the “death of the office” and other click-bait driven headlines. It makes for a fun read but fails to really understand exactly what the office is for and how the modern workspace is actually used.  The best way to take a view of this is to understand why we will be desperate to return to the office and why organisations should be doing everything they can to ensure it does. (more…)

Isaac Asimov’s remarkable 1964 predictions about life and work in the 21st Century

Isaac Asimov’s remarkable 1964 predictions about life and work in the 21st Century

by • Comment, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Making predictions about the future can leave people hostages to fortune. Just ask the Decca record executive Dick Rowe who in 1962 rejected a contract with The Beatles confidently asserting that “guitar groups are on their way out, Mr Epstein” or even multi-billionaire Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who declared in 2007 that “there’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” Some people buck the trend however. (more…)

The golden age of procrastination and the tyranny of time keeping

The golden age of procrastination and the tyranny of time keeping 0

by • Comment, Features, Wellbeing, Workplace

Many of us start each day with a long to-do list, a new set of goals and a commitment not to repeat the same mistakes we have in the past. It’s likely that we will have promised ourselves to stop putting things off. On our hit list of the foibles we most want to dispose of, procrastination will be somewhere near the top. The problem is that because procrastination is linked to psychological factors such as an innate preference to do something we deem pleasurable to something we don’t, modern life encourages us to do it. (more…)

Don’t be a commute Canute, Boris

Don’t be a commute Canute, Boris

by • Comment, Flexible working

So, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told the British people to get back to work by Christmas. This  means that millions would be renewing their season tickets, getting up in darkness to dress up for work, crowding onto those trains, buses and tubes while swaddled in facemasks and battling their way into the office (which for the time being will be a pretty dull experience with social distancing). (more…)

We need to include disabled people in our conversations about diversity

We need to include disabled people in our conversations about diversity

by • Comment, Working lives

two people talking to illustrate the growing number of disabled people in self-employmentThis sounds really obvious but when organisations talk about diversity and inclusion they often forget to include disability. They talk about the importance of women in leadership and the gender pay gap, the need to include people from an ethnic minority background especially following the Black Lives Matter movement. And June just gone was dedicated to LGBT+ Pride month. (more…)

Some brutal realities about the future of work

Some brutal realities about the future of work

by • Comment, Flexible working, Wellbeing

The future of workNo author uses the built environment like J G Ballard. In his 1975 novel High-Rise, the eponymous structure is both a way of isolating the group of people who live and compete inside it and a metaphor for their personal isolation and inner struggles. Over the course of three months, the building’s services begin to fail. The 2,000 people within, detached from external realities in the 40-storey building, confronted with their true selves and those of their neighbours, descend into selfishness and – ultimately – savagery. (more…)

For the love of procrastination

For the love of procrastination

by • Comment, Wellbeing

Many of us start each day with a long to-do list, a new set of goals and a commitment not to repeat the same mistakes we have in the past. It’s likely that we will have promised ourselves to stop putting things off. On our hit list of the foibles we most want to dispose of, procrastination will be somewhere near the top. The problem is that because procrastination is linked to psychological factors such as an innate preference to do something we deem pleasurable to something we don’t, modern life encourages us to do it. (more…)

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