For Employees
Fighting back against the bullies
You cannot help but have noticed that the issue of workplace bullying has risen to the top of the agenda in recent weeks.
When Sir Philip Rutnam resigned his post as the top civil servant in the Home Office he spoke of a vicious and orchestrated campaign against him and also made a number of allegations about Home Secretary Priti Patels management style.
We cant know the specific facts of the case, but if nothing else it illustrates that bullying can have an impact on anyone at work, regardless of the seniority of their position.
So, what should you do if you think you have been the victim of bullying?
If you are a freelancer or contractor working almost exclusively for one company, theres a significant change on its way which could affect you.
New tax regulations called IR35 come into force on April 6 and could change the way you are regarded by the Inland Revenue.
Up until now, self-employed contractors have been responsible for sorting out their own tax and National Insurance payments.
That has brought some benefits as well as the annual headache of completing a tax return and making sure it gets to HMRC in time to avoid any penalties which is why the taxman now wants to ensure everybody is employed on the same basis.
There's been plenty of talk about how Brexit will affect workers rights since Boris Johnsons Conservatives won the December general election.
Some of the debate was intensified after a section on protecting those rights was removed from the governments EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill when it went before the Commons in the week before Christmas.
But at the same time, there was a raft of measures outlined in the Queens Speech which should give us a reasonable picture of where employment rights for workers are headed over the next few years.
Personal space the final frontier
You know the feeling.
Youre running late for work and your company has a hot desking policy.
Minute by minute, the mounting dread that youll have nowhere to sit when you get in starts to rise.
It might sound trivial to those of us not employed at a company which uses hot desks, but for those who are its a very real and stressful situation.
In fact, according to research by management consultancy Brickendon earlier this year, a staggering 92 per cent of us have experienced issues with hot desking.
Whatever the outcome of Brexit and sooner or later there will have to be an outcome of one sort or another one thing is certain.
If and when we leave the EU, workers rights will inevitably change.
There has been plenty of speculation in recent weeks about what this might mean particularly after a leaked memo suggested the terms of Boris Johnsons Withdrawal Agreement meant the UK could diverge from EU standards once Brexit was completed.
It can be the most frustrating thing in the world.
You work your socks off, produce great results but somehow never seem to get the recognition you think you deserve from the boss.
Part of the reason could be unconscious bias.
And it could be just as much on your side as on your bosss.
Unconscious bias can influence all sorts of decisions in the workplace involving recruitment, promotion and performance management. And it can be discriminatory when the unconscious bias relates to a protected characteristic.
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