Horrible bosses: An iron rod will get you nowhere February 8, 2015 If you’re in charge, remember to muck in and listen to your staff. Few office workers are without a scare story about an awful boss, either past or present. These may include the absurd (employees being asked to iron their bosses’ newspapers), the bizarre (babysit a Tamagochi), or even the violent (throwing the wastepaper bin [...]
No pain, no strain: How to avoid RSI February 5, 2015 Get up from your desk, don’t ignore the niggles and make more tea for your colleagues. Blackberry Thumb, iPhone 5-itis and MacBook Back. At the moment, only one of these terms (BlackBerry Thumb) is an existing neologism, but they could all be used to describe an increasingly common issue among today’s office workers: Repetitive Strain [...]
How businesses can make their staff happier – saying “thank you” more often will help February 4, 2015 Did any of your staff take advantage of National Sickie Day this week and pretend to be unwell while secretly going to a job interview? The first monday of February saw an estimated 350,000 workers in the UK take the day off under the pretence of illness, with a quarter of the month’s job interviews [...]
The tricks you need to secure that promotion February 3, 2015 Be clear on your priorities and don’t push for too much at once. If you weren’t one of the 37 per cent of UK workers who were hoping to leave their job at the start of the year, you may well be looking for a promotion from your current role. The Institute of Leadership [...]
Four of the least useful inventions for workplaces February 2, 2015 From extreme open-plan to an office diving bell, they all have issues. In the week after a Swedish company made the controversial decision to microchip its staff in a bid to speed up menial tasks like photocopying, City A.M. looks at a selection of the inventions that have annoyed, terrified or just got in the [...]
Procrastination: Simple steps to banish it at work February 1, 2015 It’s easier to stop putting things off if you know your demons. Procrastination is biting businesses without them even realising. New research published today by leading peer-to-peer platform RateSetter finds that Brits spend on average 43 minutes procrastinating at work every day. RateSetter has done the maths and found that these daily workplace avoidance tactics [...]
Long commute? Plug in to one of these podcasts January 29, 2015 Adam Martin runs through four of the best you can listen to in the year ahead. Many have heralded 2015 as the year of the podcast. At the end of last year, murder mystery Serial held a good chunk of the world captivated, almost single-handedly proving that, not only is the podcast alive and kicking, [...]
How to recover when a sudden disaster strikes January 28, 2015 The unexpected will only derail your plans if you deal with it badly. Unexpected events are inevitable in business. The unexpected derailing your plans or your success, however, is not. Indeed, the extent to which an unforeseen setback actually causes you serious difficulties entirely depends on how you deal with it. And there are some [...]
How to disagree with your client in the right way January 27, 2015 Don’t arm yourself for battle. That’s not the way to change minds. In business, diplomatic skills are invaluable. Indeed, in some cases, being able to skilfully negotiate your way through a tricky situation can turn a disastrous failure into a notable success. And this is particularly true when you find yourself compelled to disagree [...]
Why traditional office desks are about to die out January 26, 2015 There’s no longer room for space-guzzling furniture in the workplace. For all the talk of ergonomic office furniture and standing desks, a more fundamental issue is often overlooked: do we need desks at all? It sounds far-fetched, but with increasing restraints on office space, and technology reducing clutter and making us increasingly mobile, the staple [...]