Hello and welcome to working on it.
In the UK, we've had endless rain followed by slush, slush, slush all winter long – a difficult situation that also accurately sums up how many people currently feel about work. Now that the nights are longer and the flowers are in bloom, will we be active?
I find a lot of surveys on worker sentiment confusing and confusing, but a concrete statistic from the big jobs report from KPMG/The Recruitment and Employment Confederation shows that February saw the fastest rate of contraction in demand for new employees in the UK since early 2021. This is “driven by “Primarily due to a decrease in the number of vacancies for permanent staff.”
People have long predicted that declining jobs would dampen workers' demands and squeeze post-pandemic hybrid freedoms — the very things that actually make many people uncomfortable. . . Happy at work. Or is that the genie out of the bottle 🧞♂️? I'm keen to hear your perspective —isabel.berwick@ft.com.
Read on to get a heads up on new employment rights everyone should be aware of, and at Office Therapy we provide counseling for someone whose co-worker is struggling with a personal hygiene issue 👀.
New workers' rights arrive next month
It can be difficult to keep up with all the changes in employment rights, but April 6 marks the introduction of a few changes that are important to note. I asked Gerard O'Hare, Legal Director of WorkNest Scotland, a HR services provider with several SME clients, to give an overview of what's to come.
The most important change is the most complex: a new system for calculating leave entitlement for workers with irregular hours or who work part of the year🛬. Gerald said:
“They will receive holiday entitlement at the end of each pay period at the rate of 12.07 per cent of hours worked – and can be paid as combined holiday pay if the employer so chooses. While the law changed on 1 January 2024, the rules apply to holiday years beginning on 1 April 2024 and so Employers running a calendar holiday year through January 2025 will not be affected.
This is a change that will disproportionately affect small businesses, many of which employ workers with irregular hours. Gerald suggests organizations review their current approach to holidays to ensure they take into account the new regime.
Workers can now ask for flexible working from their first day of employment (previously six months), although Gerald points out that actually granting this right is still the employer's decision. There's also a brand new right to carers' leave: one week of unpaid care to care for a dependent.
It's also good to see additional protections afforded to employees returning from maternity, adoption, or shared parental leave 👶🏽. From April, they will receive priority for redeployment in the event of layoffs. Gerald highlights “changes to paternity leave, allowing fathers and partners to take leave and pay in two non-consecutive one-week blocks, rather than just one block of one or two weeks, and allowing that leave to be taken during the first period.” One year after birth (or adoption placement), not within the first eight weeks.
Looking to the future, I asked Gerald what other new rights are likely to be introduced this year. He summarized the most important of these as follows: “A new law on the fair distribution of tips looks likely in July, the right to request a more predictable working pattern is expected around September, and a positive duty on employers to take Reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. In the workplace in October.
Did we miss anything important? Email: isabel.berwick@ft.com
*A reminder that the minimum wage also rose in April by 9.8 per cent to £11.44, with bigger increases for younger workers and apprentices.
Office therapy
Problem: We can no longer ignore a colleague who smells bad. His body odor was an issue before the pandemic, and then he worked from home for years so we all forgot about it. Now we have to be in the office on certain days.
Our manager is aware of this but has his own office so they don't get the full “impact”. Is this a management or HR issue, a teammate issue, or is it our fault? We've left deodorant on his desk the past few days, made comments, etc. – all the obvious stuff.
Isabelle's advice: Sometimes I think that BO (as we used to call it) can be one of the most difficult issues to face in the workplace. It's just very personal. Although it won't help with your current dilemma, I'm noticing that colleagues with these issues seem to be less prevalent than they were when I started working in the 1990s. (Do better deodorants make a difference? More conditioner and showers?)
I'm likely to be stuck for a solution, so here are some thoughts on personal hygiene issues from Amanda Arrowsmith, Director of People and Transformation at CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development. Her first comment is that no, this is not an HR issue (sighs of relief in HR offices everywhere 😰).
Prepare yourself – or a colleague who is friendly with this person – for a difficult conversation. As Amanda says: “A colleague has to step up and tell the individual about it. It's really important that any conversation is done with empathy and ownership from that person – saying that they noticed that this person (or their clothes) are smelly and they wanted to talk to them confidentially.
“It's important for the coworker to take ownership because it would be worse if it were the coworker [who has body odour issues] They think everyone is talking about them – or worse, that someone has gone to HR to “report” such a personal matter. In most circumstances, this direct approach – when managed sensitively – will be gratefully received as it often is, but people do not realize that there is a problem. good luck.
Do you have a question, problem or dilemma about office therapy? Do you think you have better advice for our readers? Send it to me: isabel.berwick@ft.com. We are all anonymous. Your boss, colleagues or subordinates will never know.
This week on the Work It Podcast
“Asynchronous” working is the practice of not expecting everyone to do their work at the same time. It gives employees freedom regarding their schedule, fewer (or no) meetings and ensures expectations that you won't get an immediate response from colleagues. It sounds great, but how does it work in practice?
Working It producer Mischa Frankel-Duvall hosts the podcast this week, talking about all things off-the-cuff with Scott Farquhar, co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian, which makes workplace software. It has a completely flexible working policy for its employees, who are located in several time zones. Misha also talks to Jane Rimmer, an assistant professor at UCLA's School of Management, about the team trade-offs needed to make work asynchronous: You all need to “work in public” and make everything visible.
Five stories from the world of work
Kuwait Talk: Why do young workers refuse to leave their jobs quietly? The Financial Times' Josh Gabbert-Doyon and Dan Thomas track a trend of young workers (mostly female) posting recordings on social media of being fired or “quitting loudly.” How does this “outing” force changes to HR and management practices?
Has the push for gender equality gone too far? Belita Clark examines the reasons why the backlash against gender equality is real, despite the fact that women are far from equal in any country. (And some of the 600 comments give a clear idea of what some men think when they are anonymous 😱.)
In defense of bragging, I really like this column by Jemima Kelly about the fun and, indeed, purity of bragging to someone who appreciates your achievements. It's not like bragging where no one else is belittled.
Chat apps have invaded office life: is this a good thing? Eileen Moore's Silicon Valley commentary is always great, and here she explores the lasting impact of Slack and other work technology on every aspect of our work lives: from how often we log in to how we talk to our colleagues.
The knight who defeated his faceless boss: Financial Times AI editor Madhumita Murgia previews her upcoming book with this excerpt about the Uber Eats courier who fought back the algorithm with his own coding.
another thing . . .
The National Theater's production of Nye, a new play by Tim Price, has many virtues: “A powerful, moving and sometimes chaotic piece of theatre,” said the astute Financial Times theater critic Sarah Hemming.
For labor watchers, Michael Sheen as Aneurin “Nye” Bevan provides a fascinating demonstration of how to force massive organizational change, despite opposition from vested interests. Bevan was the Welsh politician who presided over the creation of the NHS in 1948, against the wishes of the country's doctors and their powerful union, the BMA. His Art of Compromise is a masterclass in how to do just that.
Tickets for Nye are still available, and there is a live showing in cinemas on April 23.
A word from the business community
A recent newsletter on Kind Leadership, featuring the work of Dr. Bonnie Hayden Cheng from the University of Hong Kong Business School on the topic, brought in a variety of responses (one person said they lost a job because they were too nice 😧). I wanted to share some thoughts from Dr Su Lin Chong, reflecting on her time as CEO of private hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:
“Kindness is also about active listening. I have just taken on a new role and in my first week there was a medication error on the neonatal ward that was caught in the nick of time. The charge nurse was working double shifts due to staff shortages and she told me she had a sick little baby at home, so Fatigue combined with anxiety caused her to miss a vital step in checking medications.
“This led to my decision to stop double attacks on high-risk wards – it is safer to close the beds than to risk a medical error. This nurse went to climb the stairs. Yes, I scolded her but I also allowed her to tell me what had gone wrong. That is kindness.”
