news from workSMART

Being regularly stuck at your desk long after normal working hours can be a drag, no matter how much you love your job, and certainly doesn’t do much for your social or family life. But a new study shows that workers putting in too many extra hours in the office may be more likely to develop heart problems.
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posted 14/05/2010

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” If you ever answered ‘astronaut’, you probably didn’t get a very encouraging reply. But a career in space, or at least space technology, is perhaps not quite as far out of reach for today’s graduates.

As reported in the Guardian recently, the 2010/2011 Jobfile handbook, published by VT Lifeskills, lists ‘astronaut’ as a possible career option for the first time. There’s certainly plenty of competition: the European Space Agency recruited 6 astronauts last year, including British helicopter pilot Timothy Peake, from a field of 8,400. Read more…

posted 20/04/2010

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