For Employees
For many, one of the few sliver linings in the midst of coronavirus has been the chance to work from home.
With the need to commute to the office replaced with a quick trip to the kitchen table, home office or spare room, we were able to take more control of our time, juggle the work-life balance more efficiently and even be more productive.
But for some bosses, the loss of control was just too much to take.
How did they know we werent spending our working day watching endless re-runs of Cash in the Attic, or out in the garden topping up our tan, or just doing all those odd jobs around the house which we had been putting off.
Furlough fallout - Time to take responsibility?
The ending of the furlough scheme in a few weeks time is going to bring a period of major change for many people.
For some its likely to bring about redundancy and the search for new work in a hugely difficult market.
For others, the thought of returning to work will be laced with the anxiety of mixing with people again after a long period of relative isolation.
But for another group, the ending of furlough will also mark the end of an extended period where they have become used to literally being paid to do nothing. And there is no doubt that there is now a small group who will resist the return to work because they have simply become accustomed to and feel entitled to the perks of furlough.
Just about the most common question we are being asked at the moment relates to returning to work.
With the furlough scheme due to end at the end of October, its likely that many more employees will get a message from their workplace telling them to return to their office, factory or workstation.
But if you are genuinely concerned for your health and wellbeing, do you have to do what your boss is telling you.
Theres no straightforward answer but whatever your situation, the best starting point is to try to engage in an open dialogue with your boss.
The public conversation over Britains colonial past and our links to the slave trade has dominated headlines for much of the summer.
The removal or not of statues of people who had links to slavery, or profited from it, has been an ongoing theme in towns and cities across the country.
But the issue of slavery is not just a matter for historians or philosophical debate.
Modern day slavery is, unfortunately, all too common and continuing to exploit and destroy lives on a huge scale.
The start of this month sees the biggest relaxation of the coronavirus restrictions since the lockdown was imposed three months ago.
Shops, restaurants, museums, hairdressers and pubs are all being allowed to reopen in one form or another meaning tens of thousands of us are being asked to go back to our workplace for the first time in more than 100 days.
For many of us, this will be an anxious time.
We have got used to isolating and the thought of mingling with people again certainly whilst the virus is still at large in the population can be worrying.
But we all have rights which will help protect us in the workplace or even if we can continue to work from home and help keep us safe from the threat of Covid.
We like to think that we live in a hugely civilised, modern society.
But when something happens which upsets our way of life such as coronavirus - it doesnt take long for some old stereotypes to emerge.
With lots of us forced to work from home, the kids being unable to go to school, and a state of national emergency reducing us to lockdown, youd have thought that wed have all pulled together to share the burden of domestic chores and home educating.
But if you look at the latest figures, Im afraid they paint an entirely different story.
Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that in mixed-sex households where both partners work, its the women who have been picking up the extra burden of housework and looking after the kids during lockdown.
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