Today’s press is full of exhortations for people to ‘return to work’. This is seriously misleading, as it implies that anyone not commuting to an office in a city centre is not actually working. Hundreds of organisations and thousands of employees will dispute that conclusion. They have discovered, through the giant Working from Home (WfH)[…]
Writing is usually a pretty lonely undertaking. Writing a book is also usually a long term project. But my recent experience has been the complete opposite. A few of us, all people professionals from the Consultants group of the Thames Valley CIPD branch, collaborated to write and publish a book. The idea was to “publish[…]
So how was your Super Saturday? More shops open, bars and restaurants open, and (drumroll here ….) barbers and hairdressers! Did you go on a shopping spree, or was hair cutting and styling your priority? I’m not desperate for any of those experiences: shopping has never been a leisure activity for me and during lockdown[…]
After weeks of keeping our distance from strangers and friends alike, we can now form ‘support bubbles’ with another household. But, only one household, and only one person. If two parents live together, they can’t ‘bubble’ with their child, unless their child lives alone. One grandparent living alone can ‘bubble’ with their son or daughter’s[…]
Zoom …. zoom …. used to be the realm of superheros, but now apparently we’re all Zooming around with friends and family as well as colleagues! In my own family, my enterprising son-in-law started up a family Quiz on Sunday evenings. Three generations, spread across different parts of the country logged into Zoom to wave[…]
During three decades of providing advice and training on remote working, I have never suggested that perching at your kitchen table, having your toddler share your desk, or working haphazard hours, were a good way to ‘do’ home working. Oh, how things have changed in just a couple of months! I still don’t think any[…]
In the Queen’s speech in December 2019, the government announced they would be consulting on agreement to flexible working becoming the default option for all employees. It seems this is partly in response to the prevalence of ‘always on’ cultures in many organisations. According to recent research by Working Families and Bright Horizons, presenteeism undermines[…]
