news from workSMART

An internship should be a chance to learn valuable work skills, not an unpaid opportunity to learn to commute and skivvy for paid staff. The TUC’s new campaign, Rights for Interns aims to tackle exploitation on internships.
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posted 29/03/2010

Over five million workers across the UK gave away £27.4 billion in unpaid overtime in 2009, according to a TUC study of official statistics. This means that if everyone who worked unpaid overtime did it from the start of the year, they would start getting paid on Friday 26 February. We’ve declared this day Work Your Proper Hours Day 2010, and will be calling on bosses to thank staff for the extra work they are putting in to help businesses through the recession. Read more…

posted 02/02/2010

With a heatwave warning in place this week for parts of the UK, and temperatures predicted to soar as high as 32^oC, the TUC is calling on employers to relax office dress codes and cool down their overheating offices and wilting employees.

By allowing staff to loosen their ties and leave their jackets at home, the TUC is hoping most employers will adopt a more relaxed approach to office attire, if only for the hottest days of the summer, and help make work a bit more bearable. Read more…

posted 30/06/2009

Associated Press in the US have been in the news this week after announcing a new social media policy to staff. The policy was designed to clarify what was expected of staff in their personal lives on social networks, such as Facebook, and wanted a number of fairly draconian restrictions on staff – measures such as prohibiting them from discussing anything about AP, or from holding a public political affiliation.

But the one which stuck most with staff was the requirement to monitor what their friends were writing on their profiles, and to delete anything that might ‘violate AP standards’ – in other words, you’re responsible for your friends as well as yourself. Kevin Keane, of the AP staff union, the News Media Guild, said “It is making some people cringe. It is not appropriate for a company that heralds free speech”. Read more…

posted 24/06/2009

Twitter.com is the latest social media craze to hit the UK. It’s a microblogging service – which basically means you can post short updates (tweets) about what you’re doing from your phone or computer, and keep up to date with the latest from people in your network.

Different people are using it in different ways, and many finding it opens up some great new ways to keep in touch or to make new contacts. Problem is, it’s just like any other social network in that it also opens up some very effective new ways to lose your job, if you’re not thinking about the implications of how you’re using it. Read more…

posted 25/03/2009