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.
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?
I’m fond of cartoons, with Alex from the Daily Telegraph being my favourite. Banx in the FT is usually very droll as well. Steve Bell in The Guardian always used to be good but I don’t read The Grauniad anymore.
Financial Times 8th June 2010
I saw this in the FT yesterday. Could be very topical after the Budget.
Financial Times 9th June 2010
And from today’s paper – very true indeed.
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I saw in this the Financial Times on Saturday; marvellous.
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