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By Michael Scutt, 02/09/2010 9:41 am

I blogged last week on my forthcoming run for Cancer Research on 9^th October at Hatfield House.  Time for an update.

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By Michael Scutt, 24/08/2010 10:41 pm

August marks the anniversary of when I started blogging. Two years have zipped  by since I put fingers to keyboard and, if I may, whilst on holiday and trying not to think about work, I’d like to take a look back and get all personal.

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By Michael Scutt, 24/08/2010 10:00 am

Jobsworth in Training

Or, to be more accurate, please support Cancer Research, for whom I am running on the 9th October at Hatfield House in their 10k race.  It’s a worthy cause and I’m hoping that I can achieve the modest target of £250 to support their research into this dreadful disease.

I ran the City 5k race back in July and thought I should build on that.  I am hoping that the stimulus of raising money and publicising it via this blog and my Facebook page will keep me motivated during training: please help!

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By Michael Scutt, 07/08/2010 8:00 am

A survey by a firm of recruitment consultants has shown that more than 50% of employees admit to using social media during working hours. More than 33% claim to spend more than 30 minutes per day on “the likes of” Facebook, MySpace and Twitter during working hours, costing the UK up to £14 billion in “lost productivity”.  Click here for the report in Personnel Today.

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By Michael Scutt, 06/08/2010 6:42 pm

Dumbledore - final salary pension scheme?

The Government announced last week that the Default Retirement Age is to finally be abolished from next year. This means that by October 2011 it will no longer be lawful for employers to demand that their employees retire at 65. The previous government announced it was going to review the issue last year  veryshortly before the final hearing in the Heyday saga (and did so probably to avoid losing the case and face).

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By Michael Scutt, 30/07/2010 3:28 pm

The Metro newspaper reported on Wednesday how a student won £10,000 in damages from a former friend.  Raymond Bryce, a law student, failed to see the funny side of chef Jeremiah Barber’s post of a paedophiliac picture on his Facebook page with the words “ Ray, you like kids and you are gay so  bet you love this picture, Ha Ha”.  Bryce sued Barber in the High Court for libel and won damages.  Barber ended up with a large money Judgment against him, a conviction for circulating indecent images of children and 150 hours’ community service. This is yet another illustration of how some people seem to take leave of their senses when using social media.   What a thing to “joke” about!

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By Michael Scutt, 26/07/2010 10:00 am

Are you sitting comfortably? It could be the death of you… especially if you are an office-based woman

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

I was very interested to learn at the weekend, from no less an authority than the Daily Mail, of a potential new type of claim that could be made against employers.

In the article published on Saturday, the Daily Mail reported that a research piece published in the American Journal of Epidemiology revealed that sitting down was bad for you – particularly if you’re a woman.

According to the report;

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By Michael Scutt, 22/07/2010 12:00 pm

Now we’re getting into the silly season (following Midsummer Madness) and before the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness descend, my thoughts have been turning to those irritating features of work life that really annoy everyone.  The most obvious is that workplace institution that makes so many people cringe: the annual (or semi-annual) appraisal.  Has there ever been anything so universally privately detested that has so little positive value and yet it continues to exist in the majority of workplaces?  Lucy Kellaway, writing in The Financial Times last week argued that they serve no useful purpose and should be scrapped.

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By Michael Scutt, 21/07/2010 10:00 am

Madness by Rogier Van Der Weyden

When I initially thought of the theme for this round up the country was in the grip of travel chaos caused by an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano and BA cabin staff threatening to go on strike.  That’s all quiet now (for the time being) but midsummer madness abounds elsewhere, not least with the ritual post-mortem into England’s latest failure at the World Cup. Andy Murray gave Wimbledon his best shot but was found wanting. The druids, hippies and other odd-bods who really ought to have jobs to go to gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice and, perhaps, to mourn the likely continuing lack of a decent visitor centre serving a palatable vegetarian option.  Judging from the submissions received at blog carnival for this edition, some people misunderstood the nature of the RoundUp.  I could have included items such as “top 12 Fireman pin ups of 2010” or “10 great web resources for photographers” had they not been obviously spam.  More evidence(not that it is needed) of the madness of spam.  Why do it?

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By Michael Scutt, 22/06/2010 10:30 am

For an employee who has decided to move on to pastures new and has handed in his/her notice, or has been told they are to be made redundant, there are certain pitfalls to be avoided. They may seem obvious (like serving notice), but people still fall foul of them. Walking out there and then is a big step for an employee – we’re in constructive dismissal territory here and legal advice should be taken  before you do it. In other cases some employees only have regard to the restrictive covenants in their contracts of employment (which are the clauses that say the departing employee won’t try to solicit work or custom from the clients he’s been dealing with, or prevent him from joining a competing business once he’s left).  Whether those restrictions are always legally enforceable is another matter and constitute another material for another blog post or three, but in this post I want to highlight for employees that trying to get ahead by taking confidential information, or by acting inappropriately whilst stil an employee (even if on garden leave) could end in tears.