Hands on Bullying

21 / 06 / 2013

The photos of Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson have caused something of a stir, unsurprisingly. Seeing a person put his hands around another’s throat is frightening; who knows what will happen next? But one of the things that horrified me was that while someone was ready to take a picture, nobody went to her rescue. Mr Saatchi explained it as...

Write on! Lack of Common Sense is Cold Komfort

20 / 06 / 2013

Anybody who has ever worked in HR will know that when you’ve got an issue on your hands, it can be hard to stray from the comfort and security policies, procedures and guidelines just in case you might be breaching employment law legislation. But some circumstances however require you to use your noggin rather that an employment law manual (where...

What the Employee Can’t Do

19 / 06 / 2013

So far as the law relates to disability, the first question is whether an employee is disabled. The second is, if he is disabled, what reasonable adjustments can be made to accommodate him? When determining whether or not an employee is likely to be disabled, it’s easy to fall into the trap of looking at what the worker can do,...

Zero-Hour Contracts: Necessary or Desirable?

18 / 06 / 2013

Most companies have their peaks and troughs during the year. Some will be run off their feet at Christmas, whereas others will be very quiet then. It’s dependant on your business type, clients, the environment and often the weather. When I worked for Whitbread years ago, I can remember one of the managers saying that the sun was their best...

Sans sun

17 / 06 / 2013

On Friday I went to a meeting in Lancashire. It being only the middle of June, I wore a winter suit and lobbed a coat onto the back seat. My colleague Derek took similar precautions. The journey to Rossendale was OK; grey, but fairly dry. But coming home - oh my goodness! It rained so hard on the M6 near...