A survey carried out by the management consultancy firm, The Hay Group, found that 20% of employees feel frustrated in their jobs.

Fifty percent of workers felt that they lacked authority to make decisions crucial to their jobs and 35% didn’t think their bosses made the best of their skills and abilities.

Lack of motivation and the mishandling of under performace were blamed for 56% of workers who believed their managers failed to cultivate a high performance climate. At the same time, the survey found that 41% of those questioned thought their bosses created a negative working environment.

For Ben Hubbard, Regional Director of the employee survey division of The Hays Group, frustrated employees pose both a, “major business risk and a significant missed opportunity.”

It’s clear from the survey that the biggest bugbear for those considering leaving their jobs is the working envionment. When an employee leaves an organisation they take with them intellectual capital, training investments and sometimes even other employees. Employee disloyalty is expensive in monetary terms but very cheap to prevent; you can’t really put a price on passion.

With so many companies out there struggling to find the right staff, surely organizations can’t afford to let the good ones slip through their fingers for something as simple as improper procedure?

A new deal between the Government and the Unions will see the amount of annual leave we can take in the office extended and almost 4.5 million people will be affected.

Under the new proposals, decided at Labour’s National Policy Forum, parents with children up to 16 years of age can take time off work to provide emotional support, during exam time for example, or for small family emergencies. Prior to the recent changes it was only parents with children up to 6 years of age who were entitled to unpaid leave of this kind.

Previously, under the the Working Times Regulation Act 1998 (WTR), employees had 4 weeks annual leave, when they took this time off was often beyond their control. Bank holidays could be included which reduced the actual holiday time available to working parents.

Legislation, currently, keeps the amount of leave at 4 weeks per year with parents having to give 21 days notice to their bosses when they request time off. On average 95% of requests for unpaid leave are granted. If a company does decide to refuse to give an employee leave they have to justify it. What these justifications actually are, is still unclear.

In the UK we work a lot. We work much more than our European, American or even our Australian counterparts. On average the Spanish are the only people in Europe who work later than us. They do, however, take very long lunches – certainly not a soggy Tesco sarnie hastily scoffed over the keyboard.

Chained to their desks, parents around the contry, are often unfairly accused of bringing up a nation of unruly children. Some would argue that the most interesting thing about these ammendments is whether our propensity to work to such extremes is resulting in a nation of badly behaved, emotionally unstable kids.

The answer to that is not up to me to decide but what is certain is that it’s no bad thing to have provisions for time-off in place that recognize exam leave and family emergencies.

According to new research by milkround.com, the site that’s first for graduate careers, London is the least preferred destination for graduates.

Apparently the number of graduates who expect to find employment in London is down 11% from last year, to 60% for 2008. The number of graduates who dismiss London entirely, as a place where they’d work after finnishing their degree, has risen from 28% in 2007 to 34% this year.

If you ask me London’s a bit like Las Vegas and it’s just as adept as stealing your money. London underground and the casinos of Nevada are shockingly similar. After both, you stumble out of the dim wondering where your money’s gone.

It’s big and it’s expensive and when Russian oligarchs are being driven out of the property market by soaring prices you know something’s up. Mile for mile the tube is one of the most expensive journeys you’ll ever make, ever.

For me there’s just too much choice in this city; most of the time I feel like a kid in a sweet shop. Mind you, I do come from a place (Glasgow) where the underground costs a pound and only goes round in a circle. I can’t remember who said it (and neither can Google) but if you’re bored of London you’re bored of life. Actually, it’s more a case of “how the hell am I going to do it all without collapsing from nervous exhaustion and still make it into work for 9?”

When I told friends back home about my move to the big smoke their responses, once they’d overcome the devastation of course, were all about the money.

I know I’ll go back to the homeland after a few years just because, well it’s where I’m from and I’m sure lots of other graduates think the same. Everyone’s got to do it at least once: pitting yourself against the madness of the big city.

Afterwards, anywhere else will feel like a lush, oasis of tranquility where people live like kings.

A little tweak here a little pull here. We’ve all fancied it at one time or another. If going under the knife is too drastic then perhaps a little botox? Everyone loves a bit of botulinum injected into their soft tissues, it does wonders for the complexion; smoothing things out and getting rid of those annoying little lines. It’s toxic atonement for ones transgressions.

These days more and more people are having “work done”. If figures published by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) are anything to go by, the UK is following in the footsteps of the US. Last year Americans spent more than $13 bn (£6.6 bn) on 11.7 million cosmetic and non-cosmetic procedures. In Britain, alone, the number of procedures increased by 12.2% in 2007.

That number doesn’t even include people who are choosing to have surgical procedures done abroad, in places like Eastern Europe, where prices are comparitively cheaper.

But as an employer how would you deal with it?

Statuary Sick Pay (SSP) still has to paid to a person if they are recovering from surgery. The nature of the surgery, it would seem, is irrelevant. It can come down to something as confusing as semantics. If you consider payments on a case-by-case basis a company can still decide that sick pay is not warranted.

Just to add more confusion into the mix. There’s a grey area when the surgery is elective and when employers treat each claim on a discretionary basis. Saying that, when an employee is disabled, as may be the case after major cosmetic surgery, an employer would have to pay out according to the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act.

To top it all, depending on the reasons for the surgery, an employer who doesn’t grant SSP or holiday pay could become subject to age or sexual discrimination claims from disgruntled employees.

It makes sense. Facial surgery boosts a person’s self esteem, which makes productiveity increase, profits go up and the boss is happy. Congrats all round.

Which is something to bear in mind, I suppose, if I ever fancy that dermabrasion in Hungary.

Even in the light of the new Equality Bill there are, approximately, still 250 age discrimination cases pending review in the UK.

Harriet Harman’s broad extention of existing anti-discrimination legislation, two weeks ago, was created to prevent discrimination in all it’s forms in the provision of goods and services.

Nevertheless, confusion still abounds. A landmark case is currently under review in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the ruling will decide whether the government has implemented it’s age discrimination legislation correctly.

If the ECJ find that the leglislation doesn’t do enough to prevent instances of age discrimination in the workplace then the government must ammend the Equalities Bill accordingly, as well as review those cases waiting enquiry.

Nony Ardill, the legal policy adviser at Age Concern, has said that she would encourage people to press cases if the ECJ findings proved successful and praised the review as a way of bringing clarity, “to the muddled issue of whether forced retirement breached the 2000 EU framework”.

The ECJ’s findings will be available in September this year.

Office speak, mangement talk, business gobbldegook – call it what you will.

Lucy Kellaway’s article for the bbc’s online magazine about this pseudo coroporae language generated a great wave of responses. Those clever folk at the BBC gathered together the most over used phrases out there and the entries speak for themself. How many are you guilty of?

One annonymous replier to the site told of an old employer who reprimanded his staff for using the word brainstorm because of it’s negative connotations associated with fits. Incidently, having an ideas shower is now used around the office.

Other gems included - Let’s touch base about this offline – otherwise known as let’s have a chat about this. Or one of my favourites “you can’t turn around a tanker with a speed boat change” – a classic example how management speak has morphed into double-talk. I have absolutely no idea what this means.

In small doses this sort of language has its uses. Less nauseating phrases like “going forward” or even when the word “challenge” is used where a problem existed before, promotes positive thinking, albeit in a ridiculously upbeat way.

It’s like a new fangeled snobbery as you slag off people that talk funny but conversations filled with sloppy cliches, impenetrable jargon and verbal litter cloud clear communication with superficial thinking.

The psuedo business talk is moving out of the office and into the mainstream. Whether we hate it or love it, it’s power is seemingly limitless. Even footballers are coming out with phrases like ‘moving forward’and ‘thinking outside the box’ these days.

That’s not to say it’s seemlessly integrated into everyday conversations. If you came out with “let’s have some 360 degree thinking on this one” or “my door is open on this issue” down the pub you’d never quite live it down.

Oh I you fancy a game of management speak bingo click here

According to the office search company officebroker.com laughter is the way to get the best productivity from your employees. Forgort the coffee or the Friday afternoon treats or even the casual Wednesday/Thursday.

Laughter is a bit like a fungal nail infection They’re both contagious but one’s a lot better for you. The health benefits of laughing are well known. Like sex or exercise it releases endorfines into the blood stream, lightens your mood, improves the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to tissues around the body. It’s been known to lower blood pressure too.

Laughing at work can also contribute to a persons health and emotional well being. Employees who are healthy and feel they’re making a contribution, generally, miss less time from work because of illness.

Instead they’re to busy having fun, giggling, guffawing, chortling and chuckling to get sick. What could be simpler!

Pic: courtesy of cindy 47452 flickr photostream  (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindy47452)

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
And nobody’s gonna go to school today
She’s gonna make them stay at home…

Guess the song…

Those Boom Town Rats guys got it wrong. Monday’s not the most hated day of the week. The much maligned Monday can step down.

A study carried out by the University of Sydney found that the most hated day of the week was Wednesday.

I don’t know how much I agree with this but here goes.

Over five hundred people were questioned in the study and apparently Wednesday is when our mood gets lowest throughout the week. It’s at that particular point in the week where it seems like a long time since the weekend and an age until the next one rolls around. Plus it’s also the day when we have the highest workload.

Who would’ve thought it..those Wednesday blues.

Just as I was typing this post it occurred to me that it tied in nicely with a litte blog we did a while back on how Wednesday was the best day to bag yourself a new job, coincidence?!

A survey recently carried out by Workingmums.co.uk, a jobs board for working mothers found that mothers are frustrated by the lack of flexible employment options.

Seventy three percent of mums questioned felt the biggest barrier to returning to work was the lack of flexible working hours and eighty six percent of those surveyed would like some sort of flexibility. Sixteen percent said they were denied flexible working hours after they had children.

Strange, considering that women who’ve had children are excellent at managing their time, good at prioritizing and have great negotiation techniques. There’s nothing like a two year old having a tantrum to really fine tune those skills.

Things are not entirely bleak, however. Thirty one percent were granted the flexibility they requested. Just over a quarter, twenty six percent, of mums settled for a compromise.

Under the new Equality Bill, unveiled by minister for Women and Equality Harriet Harman, public bodies have a legal duty to eliminate discrimination and promote equality in all its forms in the provision of food, goods and services - an ambitious scheme.

An amalgamation of the Equal Pay Act, The Equality Bill makes it clear that it’s no longer acceptable for businesses to treat people differently on the basis of age, race or gender. That’s not to say the bill has had an easy time of it. The Daily Express has gone as far as to call Harman’s latest move the, “White man jobs ban”.

What really grates about this one is the sheer irony of it. Surely, a bill that’s against discrimination of any kind should be just that.

As a woman myself I really wanted to like this bill but the more I’ve thought about it, it seemed like some sort of mutant feminsim. Harman has said herself that it’s her way of “tackling sexism in the city”.

The Office of National Statistics currently estimates that the gender pay gap is at the lowest it’s ever been. Median hourly pay for women is still 20 percent lower than that of comparable jobs for men but the figures don’t reflect the different working structures between the sexes where women, on average, do more part-time work for shorter periods of time.

If course it’s not only gender discrimination that’s being curtailed. Discrimination on the basis of age is now a legal offence too. Which is all well and good but what the bill could have really done with is a scrapping of the “one size fits all” retirement age. That’s what would have really put a stop to age discrimination.

If nothing else the bill will lead to box ticking, quota filling and over-promotion. In a situation where an organisation is faced with two equally qualified candidates the state would, it seems, prefer businesses to choose the minority candidate. The woman rather than the man, the minority over the white alternative.

The bill, then, will surely do the opposite of what it set out to do. There will be more instances of tokenism. Tokensim will lead to resentment and then we’ll be worse off than before the act became law.

It’s only through mertiocracy that mutal respect and equal treatment for all can be maintained. In an ideal world you should be recognised for the job you do and have a wage that merits your worth. It should be equality of opportunity not equality of achievement enforced for totemic reasons.