Blogging, tweeting, or keeping your friends up to date on facebook all blur the boundaries between our work and personal lives, but employers and workers alike are still struggling to adjust.
Arbitration service ACAS has issued new guidance to employers on how to manage the challenges and risks of social networking, from workplace bullying, recruitment, performance management to defamation and disciplinaries. It’s clear many employers need the prompt – research last year showed only 16% of UK employees were aware of any company guidelines in this area. Read more…
posted 29/09/2011
Work more than 40 hours a week? You’re 6 times more likely to ‘burn out’ than those who work fewer than 35.
New research from the Aragon Institute of Health Sciences in Spain shows that long hours increases the risk of “burnout syndrome”: long-term exhaustion, a loss of interest in your work, and high levels of irritability. Read more…
posted 30/06/2011
Almost one in 5 UK business admits using internships as a source of cheap labour.
17% of employers said they had taken on interns in order to get work done more cheaply in a survey carried out by YouGov on behalf of Internocracy, a social enterprise working for better internships. And 95% of the 218 businesses questioned said that interns were very useful to their organisations.
These statistics show clearly how businesses are benefiting from the work done by interns eager to gain that vital work experience. But anyone doing real work deserves to be paid in real money, not just in ‘learning opportunities’. Read more…
posted 06/05/2011
Most of us will be getting an extra Bank Holiday this year, but double check your contract before booking a trip away. Read more…
posted 04/04/2011
If you’re self-employed, you’re one of millions in the UK. But how many of those millions are really benefiting from the chance to be their own boss?
It’s supposed to be straightforward – if you run your own business, price your own jobs and provide your own equipment and materials, then you’re self-employed. If someone else decides what you do, and how much you will be paid, then you’re a worker.
As well as having no job security, if you’re self-employed then you’re not entitled to the Minimum Wage, and you don’t qualify for rights such as holiday pay, sick pay, redundancy rights or employee pension benefits.
Many people are happy to be self-employed. The ‘payoff’ is meant to be the chance to take control of your work – choosing what you do and what you will be paid for it. And there’s a general assumption that freelancers or subcontractors will get paid more, to make up for the lack of benefits.
But by defining workers as self-employed, bosses can duck out of a whole range of responsibilities, including paying their fair share of taxes. Read more…
posted 07/02/2011
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