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  • leaky process

    Communication is a ‘leaky process’

    • 7 Feb 2023
    • Isabel Berwick, Sophia Smith

    You have probably heard of radical candour, or radical honesty, as a way to change the way things are done at work. But are you aware of “radical rest”? As we head towards the end of another exhausting year, rest is likely to become a hot commodity in workplaces.

  • big brother

    ‘Big Brother’ managers should turn the lens on themselves

    • 31 Jan 2023
    • Rana Foroohar

    Blue-collar workers are used to being monitored 24/7. Lean manufacturing facilities often have productivity screens right by work stations to see progress in real time — and gauge whether staff should get a bit extra at the end of the day or be docked for not working hard enough.

  • authenticity at work

    Authenticity at work doesn’t look the same for everyone

    • 24 Jan 2023
    • Isabel Berwick, Sophia Smith

    I lost my voice last week, which threw the Working It podcast schedule into disarray and confined me to bed.

  • bullying at work

    Bullying at work — why it happens, what can be done

    • 17 Jan 2023
    • Alicia Clegg

    Shouting. Yelling. Personal attacks, while freeriding on his research. Those are some of the behaviours that Morteza Mahmoudi, a medical nano-scientist at Michigan State University, says he had to put up with from a senior colleague at a former employer, just as his career was taking off.

  • boundary setting

    ‘Boundary-setting’ is a fancy way to just say no — but it works

    • 10 Jan 2023
    • Isabel Berwick

    A boundary used to mean the fence around your garden. A personal boundary, meanwhile, was the sizeable gap you deliberately left between your chair and that of the office creep at the drunken team meal.

  • business card

    The business card is back, sort of

    • 3 Jan 2023
    • Pilita Clark

    From time to time, people say unexpected things in the comments section below this column, but the other day one remark stood out. It came from a reader demanding something to be done about the parlous state of the business card.

  • talent wars

    Talent wars: why businesses have to battle to hire the best

    • 27 Dec 2022
    • Anjli Raval

    Fraser Gough could not believe his luck. Earlier this year the 23-year-old, who works in digital marketing in London, was contacted by a recruiter on the professional networking website LinkedIn to see if he would be interested in a job at Clearpay, a payments company.

  • legal heads

    Legal heads face tough balancing act as they take the lead

    • 20 Dec 2022
    • Brooke Masters

    In today’s complicated policy environment, few business figures are more in the line of fire than the top company lawyer — thanks to rising pressure on companies from input prices, interest rates, and geopolitics.

  • quiet quitting

    The term ‘quiet quitting’ is worse than nonsense

    • 13 Dec 2022
    • Sarah O'Connor

    Employers have been trying to get inside their employees’ heads for more than a century.

  • age of uncertainty

    The age of uncertainty for CEOs

    • 6 Dec 2022
    • Anjli Raval

    The chief executives of some of Europe’s top companies are on the way out. In recent weeks there has been a flurry of departures from the C-suite.

  • Enver Solomon

    Refugee Council’s Enver Solomon: ‘Leadership is something you’re constantly trying to improve’

    • 29 Nov 2022
    • Michael Skapinker

    Since Enver Solomon became chief executive of the Refugee Council in December 2020, Kabul has fallen to the Taliban and Russia has invaded Ukraine, both provoking a flood of refugees.

  • middle managers

    Middle managers — on the new front line of office life

    • 22 Nov 2022
    • Emma Jacobs

    In her middle manager role, Catherine says she has experienced “more pressure” since the start of the pandemic than ever before.

  • greater employee ownership

    Greater employee ownership can make work fairer

    • 15 Nov 2022
    • Pete Stavros

    My story used to be a familiar one. I’m a first-generation college graduate from a hardworking, blue-collar family.

  • Working from home debates must include what ‘home’ actually is

    • 8 Nov 2022
    • Emma Jacobs

    Coming down with Covid was an unlikely source of relief last week. I did not have to weigh up whether to venture out to the 40C streets of London with my laptop on my back to get to the prize: an air-conditioned office.

  • side gig

    Does your boss need to know about your side hustle?

    • 1 Nov 2022
    • Isabel Berwick, Sophia Smith

    Having a side job outside of your nine-to-five is not simply a matter of extra time and energy. You’ll also have to determine when to disclose your new endeavour to your boss — if your company allows you to pursue it at all.

  • executive coach

    Why an executive coach is now a must-have for CEOs

    • 25 Oct 2022
    • Emma Jacobs

    Leading a company “can be a lonely place”, observes the chief executive of a British retail chain, who wants to remain anonymous. “But this was magnified further during the pandemic.”

  • office return stalls

    Office return stalls as UK staff cling to flexible working

    • 18 Oct 2022
    • Daniel Thomas, Ella Hollowood, Kate Beioley, Stephen Morris

    The return of workers to offices in the UK has stalled for the first time since the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, sparking frustration among some bosses even as their staff welcome new policies of hybrid working.

  • age taboo

    The age taboo in workplaces means we miss out on talent

    • 11 Oct 2022
    • Camilla Cavendish

    Would you apply for a job which requires you to be “dynamic” or a “digital native”? If you’re over 40, it might not be worth bothering.

  • future of hiring

    The future of hiring is all about skills

    • 4 Oct 2022
    • Isabel Berwick, Sophia Smith

    I’ve been thinking a lot about age, and ageing, at work.

  • civil servants

    Civil servants under pressure to get back to desks

    • 27 Sep 2022
    • George Parker

    Ministers have been told to increase pressure on UK civil servants to return to their desks, as the revolution in Whitehall’s post-Covid working patterns in the era of flexible working has become clear.