Work-related Blogs and News

The public sector union UNISON is trying out an innovative new approach to campaigns using cutting-edge tools like Google Earth, YouTube and Flickr.

As low-paid public sector workers gear up for a major strike this week, the union is encouraging people from around the world to send in messages of support (including photos and videos) using an online form, or by text or even voicemail.

For more details see Support the action on pay.

Please complete a questionnaire on the Internet and work here.

The CIPD has just published a discussion paper on the subject of Web 2.0 and human resource management.

The paper is entitled - Web 2.0 and HR (by Graeme Martin, Martin Reddington and Mary Beth Kneafsey).

The basis for the paper is that such technologies appear to have created 'more heat than light', mainly because Web 2.0 in organizations has until now been explored mainly through descriptive accounts, and that there has been little analysis of what is actually going on inside many organizations.

The conclusion from the initial report suggests what is required now is:

- An understanding of the extent that Web 2.0 represents a new idea. Is it different?

- The development of a clear vocabulary and terminology

- A serious consideration of the potential for and drawbacks of the use of Web 2.0 in today’s organisations.

A more detailed report is expected later in the year.

This is are I am also interested in - see my questionnaire on Web 2.0 and work.

A recent press release from the USW suggests their revamped web-site "catapults our union into the exciting world of Web 2.0".

What does this mean for the 'sisters and brothers'?

Live streaming video, daily news, photo slideshows, audio reports, updated blogging and a wealth of USW information right at your fingertips.

There’s a special section just for members where members can update their personal information, stay informed about union issues, get in touch with union leaders and participate in the movement like never before by sharing information, photos, videos and more through social networking sites such as facebook and flickr.

A new multimedia section gives our union a place to showcase videos, photos, POWERcasts and other productions that help tell the story of working families and the issues important to us.

There’s a revamped press center, action center, a brand new blog and so much more.

For more details see Welcome to USWeb 2.0!

If you use the Internet as an employee or worker please fill in my web-based questionnaire.

Today I am launching my Web and Work Survey 2008 - please fill in my on-line questionnaire if you use the Internet in relation to any part of your job or status as a worker/employee.

It is a small research project funded by the School of Management & Languages at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland.

I would really appreciate anyone reading this blog posting to email my questionnaire to friends and colleagues.

Quick questionnaire details:

There has been very little survey research been conducted in the area of how employees/workers use the Internet (especially in the light of Web 2.0) as a tool used at work, as a tool for job-seeking and career development, and as a tool for organizing around employment-related problems.

My questionnaire has been designed to help build a picture of how employees use the ‘new’ Internet for a multitude of job and employment-related interests.

If you would be so kind as to help out, please click on the following web-link to get started - http://www.webandworksurvey.co.uk/

According to an article from The Telegraph, "Checking your personal emails in the office and even researching your next holiday on company time can actually make employees happier and more productive at work".

The article itself - 'Cyberslacking' at work has benefits, claims study by Claudine Beaumont - is based on the findings (requires subscription) of two American academics.

Some more details:

Many people use the internet at work to help balance their personal and professional responsibilities, such as carrying out online banking tasks or researching large purchases.

With personal worries taken care of, the employee can concentrate on their job, without dreading the stack of tasks and issues they will have to deal with when they leave the office.

The ultimate conclusion is: "company policies restricting access to websites and email services could backfire, and actually undermine staff productivity by reducing job satisfaction."

The Department of Health has just published some research on what motivates and engages employees of the British National Health Service.

Ten major themes were identified in the research:

1. I’ve got the knowledge, skills and equipment to do a good job
2. I feel trusted, listened to and valued at work
3. My manager (or supervisor) supports me when I need it
4. I’ve got a worthwhile job that makes a difference to patients
5. I understand my role and where it fits in
6. I help provide high quality patient care
7. I have the opportunity to develop my potential
8. I am able to improve the way we work in my team
9. Senior managers are involved with our work
10. I feel fairly treated with pay, benefits and staff facilities

For more details (summary, full report, etc.) see What Matters to Staff in the NHS: Research Study Conducted for Department of Health - June 2008.

That's pretty much the question asked by Abigail Schoneboom, a researcher from the USA.

As such, if you do any of the following on work time - avoid work or a duty when you shouldn't - then follow this link to reveal that little bit more about how you go about shirking official responsibility.

Also see image.

I've just heard of a new employment relations initiative over at Union Renewal blog.

Details are as such:

FNV Bondgenoten approaches employees of ANWB (Royal Dutch Touring Club), Rabobank, Holland Casino and the RaboBouwfonds on Hyves - the Dutch version of Facebook - to involve them in negotiations for a collective agreement.

Workers need not be union members in order to join the discussion on Hyves.

Out of 3,900 ANWB workers, 150 have joined the FNV-Hyves for their company.

See Consulting with workers through 'Dutch Facebook' for more details.

Yesterday The Guardian reported on how "Nurses are to be scored on how compassionate they are towards patients as part of a government plan to improve quality in the NHS".

The current health secretary, Alan Johnson, "believes putting a smile on the face of nurses and encouraging empathetic care is as important to recovery as the skill of doctors in the operating theatre."

The initiative will take the form of a "compassion index".

It will be compiled by health regulators using surveys of patients' views while in hospital, including feedback about the attitude of staff.

I'm not convinced the NHS is the right place for tactics typically cynically exploited by retail outlets, airlines, hotels and call centres ('smiling down the phone' and telly ads).

See Nurses to be rated on how compassionate and smiley they are by John Carvel for more details.

The TUC today reports on a new and novel form of industrial (and political) protest - making a giant photo mosaic, using pictures of hundreds of supporters from around the world.

In this instance, it's action taken in support of Zimbabwean trade unionists on trial for 'spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the state'.

See Take action now to support Zimbabwean trade unionists on trial - We need your photo now! for more details.

If you just want to take part follow these instructions NOW!

Take a photo of yourself with your digital camera and email it to zim@tuc.org.uk.

Take a photo of yourself with your cameraphone and send it by MMS to 07546 229055 (0044 7546 229055 from outside the UK).

According to the BBC News website the other day, "More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments".

The statement is based on the WIA Report 2008.

The graphic (click to enlarge) from the actual report says a lot, certainly in terms of blogging becoming a more and more dangerous activity.

Some further details courtesy of BBC News:

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran.

See Blogger arrests hit record high for more details.

A feature story from the BBC News website last week reports on the new Connecting for Care forum for paid and unpaid carers.

Connecting for Care is said to be about providing:

"...resources and support to assist with the daily situations experienced by all carers.

By providing a forum for various groups of carers to communicate, we hope you will be able to provide and receive tips as well as share advice with other carers."

Further details:

"It provides ways to not only improve the quality of healthcare and reduce the burden on carers, but also to connect people and build a sense of community.

Connecting for Care seeks to utilise the latest communication and Internet technologies to connect all types of carers with the support, tools and information they need, in recognition of their achievements and in the hope of bettering the coordination of care among all groups."

The trend of employers taking an interest in Web 2.0 appears to be continuing.

An article in the CIPD's People Management magazine discusses how employers are using such technologies for mock-ups, or electronic simulations used for workplace applications ranging from sophisticated business games to psychometric testing.

Further details:

Simulations have long been a favourite in the learning manager’s toolkit – whether it’s role-playing a call from an angry customer or carrying out flipchart-based team exercises to solve a problem.

But technological advances have made it possible to create electronic simulations (sims) that, according to their enthusiasts, are more realistic, compelling and versatile than their traditional predecessors – thereby producing better outcomes.

For more details see Keyboard directors by Hashi Syedain (may only be available for around two weeks with subscription).

I've not blogged for a while due to the usual high workload at the end of the academic year.

Fortunately, from time-to-time, good work-related stories get delivered to my email in-box and I don't have go looking for interesting and new stuff.

Today I got to hear via The Marlin Company of a new national survey based on USA workers.

The report is available here by clicking on the heading - New National Survey: US Workers Report They Are Bitter and Blame the Political System for the Death of The American Dream.

The main finding, as the headline suggests, concerns "nearly three-quarters of US workers (74.7 per cent) say the American dream is not as attainable today was it was eight years ago; 52.4 per cent say it is simply unattainable for the average American.

It seems that it's the government that is to blame with, for instance, "more than three-fourths (77.2 per cent) of US workers say they feel unrepresented by the political system on workplace issues."

I missed this story about a so-called 'rogue' work blogger that went out at the end of March 2008.

It involved an employee of Cisco Systems who used his blog to wage 'a long, public battle against so-called patent trolls'.

The blog was initially viewed as a 'forum for information, not invective', yet it eventually led to the blogger (or employee of Cisco Systems, as it turns out to be) outing the under-hand, possibly illegal, practices of his employer.

It seems that both are likely to face criminal investigation.

For more details see Busting a Rogue Blogger by Michael Orey of Business Week.

I came across a story via Wikileaks (and Times Online) that was a bit too close to home for me.

It involves university staff being caught telling students to be dishonest in order to boost their college’s rankings.

More details of the event includes:

Two lecturers were secretly recorded urging undergraduates to give Kingston University a glowing report in the National Student Survey (NSS), which measures how satisfied students are with their courses.

One lecturer told more than 100 students that their degrees would be “shit” unless Kingston, in south-west London, did well.

The other member of staff said the survey, run by the Government funding council, was no place for students to vent “garbage” about how they disliked their courses.

Learning when to keep your mouth shut is certainly a skill all employees should learn to develop - and that's for benefit of the employee and not the employer.

See Give us glowing report or get a shit degree lecturer tells students for more details.

The original MP3 file which the story is based is also available to hear first hand, here - YIKES!

According to Jon Kelly of BBC News (Magazine), "workers accused of theft or damage could soon find themselves blacklisted on a register to be shared among employers."

Later this month, the National Staff Dismissal Register (NSDR) is expected to go live.

The NSDR is said to be an "initiative to reduce losses attributed to staff dishonesty."

More details from the BBC:

Organisers say that major companies including Harrods, Selfridges and Reed Managed Services have already signed up to the scheme.

By the end of May they will be able to check whether candidates for jobs have faced allegations of stealing, forgery, fraud, damaging company property or causing a loss to their employers and suppliers.

Workers sacked for these offences will be included on the register, regardless of whether police had enough evidence to convict them.

Also on the list will be employees who resigned before they could face disciplinary proceedings at work.

There is the usual note of opposition from the TUC in the article.

However, unless the service is eventually forced to stop operating or is discredited in some way, the only option for organized labour to take is to create a similar database of errant employers.

Something similar to the recent initiative called Wikicrimes would highlight bad employers.

At least there will be some balance if it has suddenly become okay to keep records on people without their knowledge, consent, or ability to challenge the inclusion.

See Bust-up with the boss? for more details of NSDR.

Apparently, more than 11 percent of Fortune 500 companies now have corporate blogs.

According to Workforce Management, the period of "we’ve got to do this tool" has ended with corporate blogs going mainstream because companies are realizing this is a tool that has utility.

For a discussion of what 'utility' is in this sense and some of the downsides associated with managing corporate image through blogs, see Chief Blogging Officer Title Catching On With Corporations for more details.

This is not a work-related area, but it's possible scenario, if the work blogger is far from careful.

As reported by the BBC yesterday:

A blogger who "let off steam" about the way he was treated by police has been convicted of posting a grossly offensive and menacing message.

Gavin Brent, 24, from Holywell, Flintshire, was fined £150 with £364 costs by magistrates at Mold.

The court heard Brent had been charged with theft offences - which have yet to be dealt with - and posted a message about a police officer's new-born baby.

Magistrates said any reasonable person would find the comments menacing.

See Blogger fined for 'menacing' rant for more details.

A new website and forum has been developed for Carers, whose domestic situation can often be isolating and those who work in the Care Sector for whom unsociable hours and stressful situations may well affect their social life.

By sharing experiences with others who understand, we hope to lighten the load and have some fun, an ingredient often missing when undertaking a caring role.

For more details visit CarersConnect.

A news release from the Royal Mail website claims that new digital communication technologies has made us a 'nation of cowards'.

For instance, sacking staff by text message, dumping your partner by email, delegating difficult tasks at work by email and text, using these forms of technology to contact new business prospects, informing the boss of being sick via email or text message, etc.

For more details of how email and text messaging is changing how things are communicated at work and at home see UK keeps a digital distance.

As noted in a press release from the TUC:

May Day (Thursday 1 May) sees the launch of Union Island, an innovative new trade union project to build a home for unions and activists in the virtual world Second Life™.

Union Island will host the first ever virtual May Day, a day of training, networking and celebration to bring activists from the global union movement together in a way never before possible.

See Unions to celebrate May Day in virtual world for more details of what this involves.

I've been meaning to post some really interesting stuff picked up on by the Union Renewal Blog.

One is about trade unions launching a social networking site "to bring young workers into contact with each other and to help them exchange information and experiences".

The ventures comes from the Netherlands - see here for more information.

The other involves a rather new and novel way of protesting against an employer.

The strategy involves 'flash mobbing' a department store that is at the centre of a industrial relations dispute.

The action involved people descending on the store in droves and spending lots of time at the checkout, causing long waiting lines, only to decide not to purchase their article after all.

The flash mob incident happened in Stuttgart and involved around 100 people.

It could catch on!

See here for more details.

For a fresh take on the normal job security issues and, perhaps, a prediction for 2009(?) - see the following short video clip.

It's also very funny.

A press release from Wikileaks:

US ARMY TO SPY ON SOLDIER AND FAMILY BLOGS

The US Army has formed an "Army Web Risk Assessment Cell" to spy on the personal blogs and forum posts of soldiers and their families, according to a confidential military document released today by the transparency group Wikileaks.

The cell is to "Conduct routine checks of web sites on the World Wide Web for disclosure of critical and/or sensitive information that is deemed a potential OPSEC compromise."

Web sites include, but are not limited to, "Family Readiness Group (FRG) pages, unofficial Army web sites, Soldier's web logs (blogs), and personal published or unpublished works related to the Army."

The passage comes from a March update to the US Army's 2007 "Operations Security" regulation 530-1, which is the Army's high-level document on how the service should keep secrets.

In an unusual circularity, the disclosure of the document on the internet today is something the document was designed to prevent.

You can access the full classified document by following the web-link above.

The Office of Communications (Ofcom) has just published (video summary) some interesting research on social networking.

The report is entitled Social Networking: A quantitative and qualitative research report into attitudes, behaviours and use.

It's a full of very interesting statistics and qualitative data, but at 72 pages it's a hefty document!

The objectives of this report are as follows:

- to set social networking sites in the wider media literacy, online and communications context;
- to profile the use of sites;
- to understand people’s use of sites; and
- to investigate concerns about privacy and safety

The executive summary suggests:

- Social networking sites are most popular with teenagers and young adults
- Some under-13s are by-passing the age restrictions on social networking sites
- The average adult social networker has profiles on 1.6 sites, and most users
check their profile at least every other day

If you are interested in researching social networking you may want also see a report on the methodological approach.

The BBC's Click programme recently ran a feature on personal Web use at work.

In the current People Magazine (20 March 2008) Lucy Phillips has a go at bloggers, pressure groups and trade unions.

It seems that employers are getting a bit fed up because they spend so much time and money building a corporate image, and then troublemakers go spoiling their private party. Doh!

Examples given include bloggers who spill the beans, Unite running a campaign against Marks and Spencer (based on poor treatment of workers), which in themselves are pretty poor examples in the first place.

Since when has it been wrong to criticise the civil service, and since when is it okay for employers to don ear muffs at the first accusation of a wrongdoing?

I'm quite glad to hear later on in the article that employers have no special forms of protection in this domain.

Perhaps employers should consult their employees about brand image and be less selective as to what constitutes their brand.

If so, they wouldn't have much to worry about.

See Control, alt or delete... for more details.

According to the IBM SL Protest Organization Blog, there will be another protest against IBM in Second Life.

If you read this today you can go along to a practice run.

For more information go here.

There are some serious ethical issues involved in searching for extra information on current and prospective employees.

However, before the arrival of Web 2.0, such activities were probably rare and aimed at elite employees.

In today's Times there is a story about some children's charities who are urging ministers to make it illegal for employers to 'trawl' though social networking sites, such as Facebook.

More details:

They say that employers and educational establishments are known to be browsing the internet looking for “digital dirt” on young people who have applied for positions.

The eight charities acted partly in response to a report in The Times that revealed one in five employers used the internet to check on candidates, and two thirds of those who did said that their decisions were influenced by what they found.

At the very least we may get some changes made to data protection law, as a way of making employers seek permission to access online data in the same way that they get permission to approach referees.

It's unlikely to work very well, yet we may end up with a better situation than one we have now.

See Plea to ban employers trawling Facebook by Rosemary Bennett.

According to the BBC News Web-site, the Israeli secret service has launched a new venture: it has started to carry an Internet diary, or blog, written by four of its agents.

More details:

The agents discuss how they were recruited, and what sort of work they perform; they also answer questions sent in by members of the public.

The main aim, it seems, is recruitment:

The blogs are intended to draw members of the public into other areas of the Shin Bet website - in particular the recruitment section.

For more details see Israel's Shin Bet launches blog by Tim Franks.

Two in one week - see earlier post this week!

Apparently, Axel Bringéus, 24, was fired from his job at Procter & Gamble last week after a newspaper published excerpts from his personal blog.

I've tried to Google around for the original newspaper article, but even then it will probably be in Swedish.

More details - the thoughts of the blogger himself, no less - can be found via the following newspaper article.

Chatting on the internet: Grounds for dismissal? (The Local).

Thanks to Dirk Kloosterboer at Union Renewal for the tip off.

Blogs seemed to have fallen off the list of popular news items in recent months, so it was a bit of a surprise to see The Observer run a top 50 of what it believes to be the world's 50 most powerful blogs.

Despite most media outlets raving about social networking sites from just about every conceivable angle, the article suggests - "blogging has never been bigger. It can help elect presidents and take down attorney generals while simultaneously celebrating the minutiae of our everyday obsessions."

To see what the fuss is about see The world's 50 most powerful blogs by Jessica Aldred, Amanda Astell, Rafael Behr, Lauren Cochrane, John Hind, Anna Pickard, Laura Potter, Alice Wignall and Eva Wiseman.

It's been a good few months since work blogs represented a major press feature.

In yesterday's Sunday Times was a story about a blogger reporting on the inner-workings of the current labour government.

The Civil Serf - as she calls herself - claims to be a 33-year-old fast-stream civil servant ready to expose the daily chaos of the Labour government machine while lampooning ministers and highlighting the idiocy of mandarin colleagues.

Thanks to the wonder of news alerts I have fairly easy access to stories on blogs from around the world.

This morning I got a story delivered to my inbox, from The New York Times, about Walmart letting some employees blog on work time.

The NYT describes this new development as:

The result is an intensely personal window into the lives, preferences and quirks of the powerful tastemakers at Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, who have spent years shielded from public view.

This, apparently, isn't the first time that Walmart has 'plunged' into the blogosphere in this fashion (details in the article).

Instead, it seems, Walmart are only allowing limited and a particular type of employee to blog - merchandise managers.

Still, it's an interesting development, and if Walmart see success in this, you can bet your last dollar that many other will follow soon.

Go see Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog by Michael Barbaro for more details.

First in was bloggers getting into trouble with what they put on-line, now it's social networking sites that are posing problems for employers.

A story on this very issue appeared last night on the BBC News web-site.

In short it involves: A police inspector who put graphic personal details on the social networking site Facebook has a job offer withdrawn.

See 'Facebook' lost policeman top job for more details.

This short news clip from BBC News channel expands far more on how social networking sites often comes into conflict with the objectives of employers and employees.

A rhetorical question posed in The Guardian (G2) today: Should we be worried that aggressive 'union-avoidance' consultancies are increasingly at work in the UK?

The article that surrounds the question comments on nothing new, except there is a sense if read it through until the end that 'union-avoidance' in the UK is more of an issue than previously considered.

Here are some of the tactics that union-avoidance consultants are said to deploy (note: some may sound ridiculous, but they are nearly 100 per cent effective):

- Taking a £80 donation to a Cuba Solidarity Campaign, a reputable organisation, equates to "Your subscription bankrolls one-party communist states."
- Employees repeatedly told that the arrival of a union will inevitably result in conflict, confrontation and strike action, with a consequent loss of earnings, and that collective bargaining can in any case often lead to lower pay.
- Plying workers with bumper stickers with a huge red tick to the no box, lollipops on a stick printed with the refrain "Unions suck", bags of "Union free" popcorn, and sponges that say "Don't get soaked for union dues - vote no!"
- Videos depicting a long and lurid history of evil union ways, and cartoon postcards showing a drawing of a big fat cat, a lighted cigar in its mouth and its paw pointing directly out at you. "This is your union," reads the caption.

There is far more to the article and well worth a view if this subject is of interest to you - Divide and rule by Jon Henley and Ed Pilkington.

I've recently revised a paper I wrote last year on workers and Web 2.0 communication technologies.

Instead of outlining and describing new trends I have linked such activities to self-organization, or what workers may do when denied access to trade unions or when worker grievances fall outside employer-trade union bargaining arrangements.

A title and abstract:

‘Doing good and useful things’: Web 2.0, self-organized workers and Cyberspace.

The paper assesses how new Internet communication technologies (associated with the term ‘Web 2.0’), and the (Cyber) spaces associated with Web 2.0, can augment the powers of self-organized labour.

In the first instance, evidence of workers’ organizing activities in Cyberspace are explored and compared to the activities associated with a conventional framework for self-organization (Ackroyd and Thompson, 1999).

In a wider sense, the paper engages with debates that surround the tightening of management control over the labour process, and the long-term decline of professionally organized labour, by discussing the possibilities for action, and identity formation, to occur in Cyberspace.

The findings indicate self-organized workers are currently exploring a wide range of employment interests, through an array of joined-up activities, in Cyberspace.

The findings also suggest employers are increasingly concerned with the threat such activities pose for an industrial relations climate broadly based on sophisticated organizational control initiatives designed to reduce physical spaces for counter or apposite identities to take root.

However, only a partial assessment was possible with the methods applied, and it is not appropriate at this moment to judge whether or not such activities are becoming more common or effective.

The paper ends with a call for all existing debates that surround the labour process and organized labour to be revised to include opportunities for labour in Cyberspace.

A range of suggestions on this matter is included in the conclusion.

Comments are encouraged and welcome!

The virtual protest conducted towards IBM Italy, by the RSU, won an award from Forum Netxplorateur awards last week.

Details include:

"IBM employee members of the trade union RSU, supported by the federation UNI, called a one-day strike by their avatars in the virtual world Second Life.

The aim was to protest against IBM's intention to drop performance bonuses. The resulting talks led to the bonuses being reinstated.

Takes labour-management relations into the digital age."

For more details see a blog post at the UNI Communicators' Forum.

If you haven't heard of the RSU virtual protest then see these previous posts from my blog:

A new dimension to industrial action?
Virtual demonstrations
Evaluating the virtual picket line

I saw an article in The Guardian today (G2, Ravi Somaiya) that reports on a new line of business - an outsourced PA, but for all but the most privileged workers, help with almost everything that you take to the workplace that should be done at home.

The following extract lets you see what this means in more detail:

Today might be the last day you'll ever have to make that dentist's appointment sneakily at your desk, or pay the phone bill in your lunch hour.

You can now, for £8 an hour, hire an assistant in an Indian call centre to do it all for you.

Your outsourced PA will help with almost anything - from appointments and phone calls to research or reminding you to go to the gym.

One of the angles taken in the article is that busy work routines creates a demand for workers to outsource stuff they can't squeeze in at work.

A statements that is fair enough, yet I would disagree with the view that the masses will now drop their personal chores, pay someone £8 per hour, and get on with their work.

Realistically, many workers are probably quite happy to be doing these things on work time and feel that they're getting one over on the employer, etc.

What's more, some jobs are so mindnumbingly boring that paying the gas bill at work may be the highlight of the day.

I expect there will not be a rush for these services unless you are a) rich, b) stupid, c) both a and b, d) a reporter.

See Rich? Lazy? Try personal assistance at a distance for more details.

A story covered by the BBC News web-site today looks at how the business agenda has all but smothered formal education.

For example, instead of education establishments being assessed on the basis of teaching as an art or discipline, education establishments are increasingly judged on 'delivery', 'performance indicators', quantitative 'audits', 'effeciency gains', 'funding systems that respond to customer demand', etc., etc...

At the heart of the article is a Professor Pring, the lead author of a report, published this week by the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training, which looks at how the aims and values of education have come to be "dominated by the language of management".

Education is by no means a unique situation, and Orwellian-like speak is evident in nearly every domain of modern life.

So how should we respond to these threats (if you see it as threat)?

Well, for one, find the time to challenge anyone and everyone who uses the 'market forces' argument for the most basic dilemma!

For more details see Lesson one: no Orwellian language by Mike Baker.

For hundreds of thousands of working people a well-honed smile is a critical part of their job description.

Almost every service business insists that its staff learn to smile broadly at all times.

For youngsters whose first jobs are typically with service sector employers, the first day of training is often spent developing the perfect, customer-luring smile.

The question is: has anyone ever considered that making smiling a part of the contract of employment could be damaging in someway?

Well, an article The Times this weekend considers just that.

It is put forward that complusory smiling at work can lead to:

- an inability for workers to turn false smiles off
- employees losing the ability to regulate their own emotions, leading to depression, mental illness and other disorders
- 'smile-mask syndrome': characterised by employee complaining of painful muscle and head-aches akin to repetitive strain injury.

See Smiling can seriously damage your health, by Leo Lewis, for an overview of this subject.

I've recently revised a paper I wrote last year on organizational misbehaviour.

It is now set out to map misbehaviour and outline how it may be researched in the future.

A title and abstract:

The many approaches to organisational misbehaviour: A review, map and research agenda

The purpose of the paper is to review extant literature on misbehaviour, re-map its many forms, and provide an up-date research agenda.

What is unique about the paper is that it approaches the main subject from four different perspectives and attempts are made to reconcile incongruous paradigms.

The mapping exercise identifies three core features of misbehaviour: micro-resistance and sabotage; fiddles, pilferage and crime, and, gender and sexuality.

Further emergent features of misbehaviour are identified: humour, management misbehaviour, identity misbehaviour, Internet misbehaviour, and informal survival strategies.

Further recommendations are made in relation to conceptualising and researching misbehaviour.