DEBATE: Will banning NDAs in harassment cases stop victims agreeing confidential deals with employers? October 16, 2018 Will banning NDAs in harassment cases stop victims agreeing confidential deals with employers? John Oxley, a barrister at Vardags, says YES. The prohibition of NDAs will stop companies from quietly hushing up the unpleasant and sometimes criminal behaviour of predatory employees. It may also, however, stop that behaviour from coming to light in the first [...]
Celebrities like Kanye West and Taylor Swift need to learn that we really don’t care what they think October 16, 2018 Taylor Swift, look what you made me do. Swifty has been a hallowed island of political neutrality in a sea of bad blood. But she’s now come out as a mid-term Democrat, and the love story is over. Maybe one day historians will look back and admire how Bob Geldof’s support for a People’s Vote [...]
Mind the ethnicity pay gap: Data is the key to a transparent and diverse society October 16, 2018 To be human is to have bias – both conscious and unconscious. If all our decisions were based on logic alone, carefully calculated and perfectly balanced, we would be robots. The benefits of being human are the passion, empathy, and creativity we can inject into our decision-making and working lives. But there are downsides. Read [...]
Is adrenaline the ultimate stress relief? October 15, 2018 Does a shot of adrenaline instead of your morning coffee set you up for a day of enhanced energy, focus, and productivity? You might think that’s an impossible question to answer – but it’s one that staff at the International Quarter London (IQL) in Stratford, in collaboration with the University of Essex School of Sport, [...]
Don’t let #MeToo kill the office romance or rob your job of human warmth October 12, 2018 If you believe the daily reports, you’d be forgiven for thinking that rape and harassment are widespread across our offices, shops, universities, and factories. Parliament’s Women & Equalities Committee (WEC) certainly thinks so. It wants the government to reach into workplaces, with an action plan to tackle sexual harassment. At first glance, the numbers don’t [...]
City Moves for 12 October – who’s switching jobs? October 12, 2018 Today’s City Moves cover the British Standards Institution, UK Finance and Trustpilot. BSI The British Standards Institution (BSI) today announced that John Hirst CBE will be appointed as a non-executive director of BSI with effect from 15 October 2018. From 1 January 2019, John will take over from BSI’s current Chairman, Sir David Brown, who [...]
Laundry is the biggest source of microplastic pollution – here’s how we tackle the issue October 11, 2018 Anyone who is yet to wake up to the issue of plastic polluting our rivers and seas must have their head in the sand. Programmes such as Blue Planet and Drowning in Plastic have done a brilliant job of showing us the terrible damage being wrought on the environment by discarded plastic. Heartrending images of [...]
Gender bias is unprofessional, but shutting down the debate will only fuel further backlash October 11, 2018 To Albert Einstein, Emmy Noether was the most important woman in the history of mathematics. Her 1918 theorem was fundamental in the development of modern physics, explaining the connection between symmetry and conservation laws. Yet for several years, she had to lecture at the University of Gottingen under the name of a male colleague. Even today, few [...]
Mental health issues can be difficult to discuss – here’s how staff and bosses can broach this thorny subject October 11, 2018 Of all the conversations you can have with your boss at work, having one about mental health is arguably the most difficult. However, with 48 per cent of people having experienced a mental health problem in their current role, it’s a conversation that we have to get more comfortable having. While yesterday’s World Mental Health [...]
Theresa May launches consultation into forcing firms to report ethnicity pay figures October 11, 2018 KPMG, WPP and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) are among a number of businesses to have signed up to a new charter by Theresa May that aims to improve the recruitment and progression of ethnic minority employees. Alongside the charter the Prime Minister has also launched a consultation into mandatory ethnicity pay reporting, following last [...]