If you’re a new parent, or you’ve ever had to juggle a job with a baby or a toddler, you’ll know just how much of a hassle it can be.
If you’ve ever worked freelance, had last-minute jobs land on your lap and chase clients for payments, you’ll know how much hassle that can be too.
If you’ve ever done both, it may have surprised you to learn that both can work perfectly together.
The summer heatwave looks like it’s here to stay, and one would assume this has to be good for productivity – the longer, brighter, warmer days should make even the most chronic couch potato want to get up and out into the world.
But, in the world of work, this can bring its own problems – yes, everyone wants to get out of the house when the weather is good, but they don’t necessarily want to go and then spend a day locked away in the office instead. And so the summer sick note becomes a thing, when the number of staff turning in for work seems drop in direct correlation with the rise in temperature.
If this sounds like your workplace, your business is far from alone, as research commissioned by PMI Health Group, has found a third of businesses recorded an increase in the number of staff calling in sick as the summer heatwave gripped the UK.
And of those companies questioned as part of the study, over half (54%) reported that they do not operate flexible working hours that staff can take advantage of at short notice.
So, could these companies benefit from introducing more accessible working from home policies or would that mean they’re being dictated to by employees who are all to quick to call in sick.
Remember the old days of office work?
A 9 am-sharp start, trapped in a sectioned off workstation for the best part of day – save for the odd five minute conversation with colleagues here and there – before finally clocking off at 5pm.
Eight hours of mindless grind.
It’s not like that these days though, not only are people working from home on a more regular basis, they’re also sharing their work space with entirely different businesses.
So could co-working be an option for you and your business?
It’s a drab, grey, wet Monday morning in January, and if you’re just starting your working week, it’s difficult to believe that it can get any worse than this. The Monday blues are in full effect once again.
But the team here at ConferenceCall.co.uk weren’t too sure whether it was just us who thought Mondays were the worst, so we asked let our Twitter community vote on what day they considered to be the worst – while not unanimous, there was a clear winner when it comes to the worst day of the working week…
Assuming Friday is basically the weekend (and because Twitter only allows us four options), what’s the worst day of the week?
— ConferenceCall.co.uk (@ConfCallUK) January 23, 2018
But here’s the twist, we could be getting it completely wrong, as there’s academic evidence to suggest Tuesday is actually the worst day of the week. If you think today is bad, wait until tomorrow!
Are you fed-up of your winter morning commute? Tired of having to get up ten minutes early to de-ice the car? And sick of sitting in stationary stationary traffic or on crammed public transport with all manner of airborne viruses ready knock the stuffing out of you?
If so, it’s high time you looked at ways to avoid the morning commute.
When you’re having a bad week, the daily commute only serves to the prolong the agony – the last thing you want at the end of each torturous day is a tortuous journey – but have you ever wondered just how long we all spend stuck behind the wheel, or sat on a packed train?
It’s hard to believe it been over three years since the UK’s new flexible working regulations came into force and now all employers will have to seriously consider their flexible working practices – it has to be right for both the employer and the employee.
With so many variables involved though, things can quickly get complicated.
So if you’re an employer or an employee considering the options, it’s a good idea to break flexible working down into two components – ‘flexi-time’ and ‘telecommute’.
If you’ve ever been stuck in rush hour traffic, or been packed-in on public transport, you’ll know all too well how frustrating the daily commute can be.
If you travel long distance for your job, maybe for better pay or a better housing, the amount of time the commute adds on to your day can leave you wondering whether it’s worth the hassle.
And the bad news is, it looks like commuting times are on the rise.
The government has announced it is to release £400 million worth of investment to boost high-speed broadband in the UK – and that’s expected to unlock a further £1 billion of private sector investment, making life infinitely easier for telecommuters and kick-starting a work from home revolution.
Remote working is on the rise – the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 13.7% of the UK workforce now undertake some working from home – but why is this?