news: work advice

As Get Safe Online Week draws to a close today, we’ve got a new interactive toolkit to help improve workers’ Internet security awareness and skills. According to Get Safe Online’s 2008 Report, a worrying 66% of Internet users have the same password for multiple websites, 23% have posted confidential or personal information online, and 17% have opened email attachments from an unknown source, potentially putting themselves at risk from viruses or other malicious software.

This could have a huge impact on the firms they work for, who may stand to lose valuable commercial or customer data, or lose money through damage or downtime due to attacks, not to mention getting people into trouble - whether or not they know what they’ve done wrong.

The benefits that the Internet brings to UK business are growing every day. Social media and networking are increasingly important to people’s professional and personal lives. But employers have to put time and money into making sure their staff are aware of the dangers associated with working online, or they could just be pouring all the money they spend on the rest of their computer security systems down the drain.

So, to do something about this, we’ve got together with GetSafeOnline.org and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) to produce Not Safe For Work? - a free online toolkit for people at work in the UK. It has video interviews from industry experts, quizzes and reading lists, and can make you a personalised advice prescription, tailored to your own Internet usage.

Have a go now, it could tell you something that will save you a lot of grief.

And hey, let’s be careful out there!

posted 21/11/2008

Your office dress code may be risking your health, according to a new TUC advice guide. Working feet and footwear shows how a number of big city institutions and upmarket shops insist that women in public-facing jobs wear slip-on shoes or high heels. Wearing uncomfortable shoes for such long periods of time can lead to long-term foot problems.

The TUC’s Brendan Barber said: “We were surprised how many times we found that employers’ dress codes did not permit the wearing of comfortable sensible footwear by women. These dress codes – apart from being blatantly sexist – can lead to long-term foot and back problems. Feet bear the brunt of the daily working life and instead of worrying about what their staff look like, employers should focus on the effect that the wrong shoes and prolonged standing can have. Employers should look at encouraging their staff to come to work in comfortable shoes and, where possible, provide the option of sitting.”

So if you’re a city Cinderella, or worried you need special shoes to stay safe in your own working environment, check out all your problems in the TUC guide.

…and don’t get us started on neckties.

posted 14/08/2008

Do you like to poke your colleagues? If so, you’re not alone. Millions of people in the UK are signed up to social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, and use them to conduct their personal lives online.

However, many employers have been a bit slower to embrace the Web 2.0 revolution, and there have been a spate of stories in the press recently about companies banning access to the poster-child of social networking, Facebook. Read more…

posted 30/08/2007

If you’re a blogger, you might be putting your job on the line every time you go online. Read more…

posted 03/01/2007