-
Monday 7 June 2010
-
A reader wonders how he can persuade his boss not to bring her canine best friend into work Continue reading...
Its bark may be worse than its bite - but does it belong in an office? Photograph: Walter Hodges/Getty Images
-
Thursday 27 May 2010
-
Is Slough really the UK's least friendly place to work? Photograph: Dan Sparham/Rex Features
What is it about Slough that people find so disagreeable? So repelled was Sir John Betjeman by its 1930s factories that he recommended, in verse, that the place be carpet bombed. When Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant needed a location to complement the gut-wrenching agony of The Office they looked no further than Berkshire's second-largest town. Even the KGB, normally so meticulous in their plans for Cold War world domination, couldn't be bothered to make a map of it. Continue reading...
-
Monday 24 May 2010
-
How can I get my boss to stop swearing? Photograph: Tim Garcha/Corbis
A reader seeks a tactful way of discouraging their employer from turning the air blue
Continue reading... -
Monday 10 May 2010
-
A reader wonders how to persuade her colleague to tidy up after herself in the kitchen of their small office Continue reading...
That sinking feeling: how do you persuade a co-worker to wash up? Photograph: Alamy
-
Friday 7 May 2010
-
'The NHS is adequate, so should I cancel my health cover?' Photograph: Dave Penman/Rex Features
A reader wonders whether the tax cost outweighs the benefits of an employer's private healthcare plan
Continue reading... -
Monday 26 April 2010
-
A reader wonders if there is a tactful way to stop a colleague spraying her foul-smelling perfume near him Continue reading...
Scent off: A pungent aroma at work can lead to desperate measures. Photograph: Getty Images
-
Friday 23 April 2010
-
Eating during an office meeting. Penny for the thoughts of the pair on the right ... Photograph: Image Source/Getty Images
There was time when a meeting was a fairly simple business. A bunch of us went into a room, sat down, pretended to have opinions while the boss pretended to listen; around five minutes before the end, we were told what to do and sent back to our desks. It was great. Everyone knew where they sat, what was going on and it was pretty much the same system that had carried us through symposia, folkmoots, parliaments, Star Chambers, pow-wows, conferences and summits. Sit, exchange bullshit and leave.
Then something new entered the picture. Amidst the notepads, OHPs, talking sticks and maces somebody shoved a tray of food and suddenly meeting meant eating. Continue reading...
Posted by Word of Mouth
-
Sunday 18 April 2010
-
Photograph: Getty
Imagine a world where you can "call up documents from files on the screen, or by pressing a button", or get "mail or any messages" from a "TV-display terminal with keyboard".
These were the thoughts – in 1975 – of George E Pake, the head of Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center, when quizzed by BusinessWeek on what the office of the future would look like. Predicting "a revolution in the office over the next 20 years", he pretty much nailed it – except for one detail. "I don't know how much hard copy [printed paper] I'll want in this world." Continue reading...
-
Monday 12 April 2010
-
Easy does it: What can be done about a lazy colleague who gets unfair treatment? Photograph: David Sillitoe
A reader wonders what to do about a work colleague who gets unmerited preferential treatment
Continue reading... -
Wednesday 31 March 2010
-
Ozzy Osbourne: "Awroight! This is yow captain speaking!" Photograph: Paul Redmond/WireImage
We thought these were enlightened times. The kind of days when a local accent was no longer an obstacle to professional success – even if it happened to be a Birmingham one. Long gone, it seemed, were the bad old days of 2008 when academic research into regional accents ranked the Brummie one as being "worse than silence".
So what are we to make of research by holiday company sunshine.co.uk which says 76% of airline passengers would feel ill at ease if the pilot spoke with a Brummie twang? Continue reading...
-
Monday 29 March 2010
-
Should a secret work blogger be brought to book? Photograph: Tim O'Hara/Corbis
Work ethics is a fortnightly feature in Guardian Work where a reader submits a workplace dilemma and asks for your help. A selection of the best answers will appear in Saturday's paper. (And if you have a dilemma you'd like to share, anonymously, with our readers, please email us.) Continue reading...
-
Monday 15 March 2010
-
A reader wonders how to make amends after accidentally sending a highly critical email to the boss Continue reading...
What's the best way to apologise for insulting the boss? Photograph: Roger Tooth
-
Friday 12 March 2010
-
Spot the intruder: analysing your staff expenditure just got a bit more fun
I've been sitting at my desk for half an hour trying to guide a tiny spaceship between two lines of a graph in a computer game disguised to make it appear as though I'm hard at work. If anyone walks over I press the spacebar and it disappears. Despite the fact I've not had cause to create a graph since my schooldays, nobody seems in the least suspicious. This is too easy. Continue reading...
-
Wednesday 10 March 2010
-
What does the future of work look like? Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters
Technological advances may change the way we work, but will they affect our attitudes to working, asks Graham Snowdon
Continue reading... -
Tuesday 9 March 2010
-
Larry Lamb, Meg Matthews, Diarmuid Gavin and Emma Parker Bowles in Famous, Rich and Jobless. Photograph: BBC/Love Productions/Chris Ridley
Tonight the BBC decides to delve deeply into the reality of being made redundant – but that's not until 10.35pm, when Jobless, the Bafta-winning documentary-maker Brian Woods's insightful film about families affected by unemployment is aired. Luckily the corporation has a crack team of unemployment experts to fill the primetime slot beforehand, and bring some much-needed extra weight to the debate. Step forward Meg Mathews, Larry Lamb, Diarmuid Gavin and Emma Parker Bowles. Exactly the people you'd want to hear from if your P45 dropped through the door. Continue reading...
Latest from money
Last 24 hours
- 1. House prices 'heading for double dip' (111 comments)
- 2. Landlord regulation proposals scrapped (65)
- 3. NHS hospitals generating millions from parking charges, finds Which? (43)
- 4. Yorkshire building society launches 10-year fixed-rate mortgage (10)
- 5. Chewing gum tax targets miscreant masticators (10)
Our selection of best buys
-
Miners' Campaign Tapes / Portrait of a Miner on DVD
Independent record of the 1984 miners strike. Plus NCB Film Unit documentaries from 1947-84.
From: £6.99
Bestsellers from the Guardian shop
Money blog – most commented
Useful tools
-
Work out how much repayments will be
-
Find a financial adviser near you
-
In-depth personal finance guides
Free finance guides
Compare insurance
Annual multi-trip travel insurance from £29 and single trip holiday insurance from £7
Latest news on guardian.co.uk
Last updated three minutes ago