The Work Clinic

If you're one of the sufferers that has to hide away your eating disorder, you're not alone. Eating disorder charity Beat estimates that more than one million people in the UK suffer from some form of eating disorder.

Medical director Dr Sabine Donnai of Nuffield Proactive Health says:

Often employees that develop anorexia are high achievers and will become increasingly frustrated by their tiredness, lack of concentration and subsequent lack of achievement. Most people with an eating obsession do not have insight into their condition and will rationalise their behaviour and physical appearance.

Are you overweight, lack confidence and afraid of your colleagues taunting you behind your back? Business bitch Steve Miller is on hand to answer your dilemma.

Dear Natalie,

Due to my excessive eating habits, I've never had the confidence to follow my ambitions.

Although I have a Masters in Russian and French, I have spent the majority of my career working in a call centre as my food addiction has always ruled my life.

Now that I have it more under control though I am looking for work which suits my experience, but I'm still worried as my obsessive eating has really affected my confidence and I would be too embarrassed to socialise with new colleagues, especially at lunchtimes. I'm also scared of piling on the pounds again but want to keep on losing not gaining more as I comfort eat when I'm nervous of new surroundings and people. Help!...

Henry

Fattism and obesity keeps on cropping up in the workplace, and there are mixed views about whether the government should make 'fattism' unlawful.

According to results of Personnel Today's obesity awareness survey, 93% of HR professionals said they would hire a 'normal weight' candidate rather than an obese one who was identically qualified.

Dear Natalie

I read an article on fat discrimination, Obesity in the workplace: To get this fat takes ages and I felt compelled to share my horrifying experience.

Dear Natalie

I have finally made it to the boardroom on the back of a diversity push. I have got loads of new ideas but the male directors see me as a politically-correct appointment. So how can I be successful?

Anon

Peter Christie, head of reward at global management consultancy Hay Group, calls for concerted efforts to address continuing gender pay inequalities.

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) made front-page headlines recently when the organisation published a damning report warning that women are 'generations away' from pay equality.The report’s findings highlight the need for a fundamental shift in attitudes towards pay and gender in the workplace...

So Peter Bloxham, former head of insolvency at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, has lost his £4.5m age discrimination claim.

Bloxham accused Freshfields of age discrimination on the ground that changes to its pension scheme affected partners differently according to their age.

However, the tribunal said that it had found against Bloxham's claims of indirect and direct discrimination. It said: "The unanimous judgment of the tribunal is that [Bloxham's] complaint of discrimination on the grounds of age is not well-founded and is dismissed."

It is the first major case involving age discrimination legislation, which was introduced in October 2006.

AXA has today revealed that ageism is still rife in today’s workplace, with thousands of retirees having been put under pressure by their employers to quit their job. And UK plc could face a collective compensation bill of over £45m if employers are taken to tribunal for age-related cases.

Research from AXA’s international retirement scope survey reveals that three in five (60 per cent) of British retirees retired before the minimum legal age of 65. While most did so through choice (80 per cent), one in five (20 per cent) experienced pressure from their employer However, on the up side the survey does show that age discrimination legislation is beginning to have an effect, albeit a slow one, with the number who have been forced into early retirement by their employer falling since 2006 (28 per cent).

According to a study on behalf of City law firm Addleshaw Goddard, the culture of working long hours is prompting a legal profession talent drain.

The study, carried out among 13 top law firms, has found that an element of suspicion still clings to the concept of remote working, and even to those employees keen to find work-life balance. And it looks as if the declining economic climate will further damage the efforts of those who have worked to introduce flexibility into the profession. Law firms look set to tighten their belts and become even less willing to allow part-time or home-working - and this means that the number of women working in City legal roles will continue to drop.

The authors of the study call for more team-working, and a move away from the traditional partners-centric working habits. They also encourage 'output not input' and less emphasis on actually being in the office.

It seems particularly unfortunate for those lawyers who have fought long and hard for the working rights that so many of us take for granted, only to have them withdrawn at the first sign of an economic blip.

Until recently, older people were increasingly staying in work in line with the government's aspiration to extend working lives. With the slow down in the economy all this has been put on hold.  Possibly, HR departments are husbanding talent and skills selectively, recognising the value of age balanced workforces as they prune. Surprisingly the employment figures of older workers are holding up reasonably well in the recession - so far.

This relatively reassuring picture should not disguise the differential pain that older workers experience when they lose their jobs however. Older workers stay unemployed for longer. The latest figures cover the August to October quarter which is before the dramatic changes started to work through. By next month, the picture may be different.

After six months out of work, a fifty something's chance of return diminishes greatly. Again this may not be evident in the figures  but long term unemployment, disillusionment of fruitless job searching and wide spread age discrimination, will force many older people to become "economically inactive," joining the ranks of the hidden unemployed. Those who get work are likely to take jobs considerably below their potential - and previous earnings.

This is why recessions are bad news for older workers. During the period 1980 - 95, the proportion of 50 to state pension age workers economically active, declined from around 83% to 65%.

During the three and four day weeks forced upon us during Ted Heath's government in the 1970s, a "job release scheme" was introduced. "Young workers for old," was its essential message.

Would it be unlawful today? The lawyers would cite the Palacios v Cortefiel Servicios case where the Spanish government introduced mandatory retirement to boost youth employment figures. (The ECJ said this was legal, by the way).

But the government wants to extend working lives not cut people off at the knees. The reason is simple - with birth rates and longevity heading in opposite directions, we are facing labour shortages in the longer term.

Companies performing best, in recessions and at other times, are the ones which value talent and knowledge, investing in these things in good times and bad alike.

In the recessions of the 70s 80s and early 90s, millions quit on early retirement and redundancy packages, siphoning skills and knowledge out of the economy. Whatever emerges this time, companies investing in competent people of all ages, developing them and applying an "age management" mind set, will be fittest to emerge from the bruising experience.

Chris Ball

Chief executive

TAEN - The Age and Employment Network

According to The Sun (you don't often read that on Work Clinic ...), the gender pay gap is alive and well, as personified by the hosts of ITV's This Morning - Philip 'Silver fox' Schofield and Fern 'skinny malinky' Britton.

The Sun reports that Schofield is banking £45,000 per show to host the second series of Mr And Mrs while Fern will take home 'just' £15,000 for each programme. 

A source from the show told the Sun: "Fern asked for the same pay cheque as Phil but there isn't a huge production budget.

"Phillip's pay is basically pre-agreed, while Fern is only on an exclusive daytime deal with ITV. Fern won't be aware of this pay difference."

Phillip is believed to be earning more because of his £2 million exclusive contract with ITV, which also includes his presenting duties on Dancing On Ice.

Call me a cynical old grump, but isn't even £15,000 an episode a ridiculous amount of money for sitting on your backside reading from an autocue?

In this day and age, we'd like to think that employers hire on merit alone, and that a good attitude and sound CV are enough. Consider, then, the case of China's new graduates. All too aware of the importance of looks in an already competitive job market, they are resorting to plastic surgery in a bid to make themselves more employable.

Business at the Shanghai Plastic Surgery Hospital is 40% up on last year, and 50% of its patients have admitted that their surgery is work-related. Popular procedures include nose jobs, reshaping cheekbones to make them rounder, and restyling eyelids. The latter surgery alone costs £510 - the equivalent of a year's tuition fees.

And while students are of one the largest groups going under the knife for employment reasons, white-colour workers who have lost their jobs are also bowing to pressure. Even leg-lengthening surgery is on the rise.

While employers in the UK are not allowed to refer to applicants' physical appearances in job adverts, it's hard to ignore the fact that interviewers, however well-intentioned, will lean towards the better looking applicants. In a 2008 survey by employment law service Peninsula, nearly 90% of employers admitted to having at least once chosen the most attractive candidate for a job.

But why? And should we put up with this? Should we regard improving our personal appearance - without resorting to surgery, one would like to think - as part of our application procedure? Or should employers be coached to see past an applicant's outer appearance to the skills and aptitude within?

Much is said and written about diversity, but when it comes to people with disabilities, the focus tends to be on what they can and can't do. But a former worker is suing posh preppy clothes chain Abercrombie & Fitch over their reaction to how she looks.

Law student Riam Dean claims that she was sent to work in the stock room of the chain's Savile Row branch in London because wearing a cardigan (as suggested by a colleague) to cover a prosthetic arm was breaking the company's 'look policy'. Dean also claims that staff are issued with a guidebook outlining how they should look at work, from how they wear their hair to the length of their fingernails.  A spokeswoman for Abercrombie & Fitch has stated that Dean's version of events is inaccurate.

A tribunal is due to begin this week, and regardless of the rights and wrongs of the parties involved, the thought of someone being discriminated against because of any aspect of their appearance is a sobering one. Not only for the workplace, but for society.

Pre-employment screeners Powerchex have published their latest annual survey of CV discrepancies in the financial sector (they don't say how these compare with other, less 'creative' sectors ...). To summarise their findings:

• 19% of candidates' CVs include discrepancies - the highest level in three years
• Nearly all kinds of financial sector companies saw an increase in discrepancies. The largest increase was in the IT sector
• Brokers have a disproportionately large number of applicants with hidden criminal records
• There has been a six-fold spike in the proportion of candidates with undisclosed bankruptcies since last year
• Women were more likely than men to have a discepancy on their CV
• There has been a sharp increase in the number of under 21 year olds with discrepancies on their CVs
• Candidates educated in the state sector are 25% more likely to lie on their CV than the privately educated
• University graduates are more honest than non-graduates
• The better the university a candidate has attended, the less likely they are to lie on their CV

Taken separately, few of these findings would give much cause for thought. But read through in a single sitting, they do seem to point to the fact that it is those already at a disadvantage in the workplace - women and the poorly educated - who feel they have to lie to get on. Particularly in the tradition-bound, misogynistic world of the City.

Four out of every 10 UK workers say they will have to work more than half a decade (six years) longer than they had originally planned to retire, according to research conducted by employee risks and benefits experts Aon Consulting.

According to Aon's Employee Omnibus Survey, 64% of workers believe the recession will delay their retirement plans, with one in five (19%) of these envisaging having to work a further six to nine years.

Aon points out that an older workforce will have serious knock-on effects for Britain's employers, including increased costs from salaries, training, pensions and other benefits such as health insurance and wellness programmes. However, the non-financial benefits of retaining older employees ,such as retained knowledge and experience, may far outweigh these financial costs.

Richard Strachan, senior consultant at Aon Consulting says: "There has to be a real discussion in this country about the value older workers bring to the economy, and a shift in the thinking that we have to retire at a certain pre-conceived age. Already governments around the world are shifting the retirement age to later in life to reflect increasing levels of longevity, but employers need to match this with a positive attitude to workers older than the current retirement age.

 
He adds: "As pension savings become more of a hot topic, employers need to ensure, as part of both their ongoing duty of care and an ever increasing focus on plan governance, that they highlight to members how their plans are performing and, perhaps more importantly, why and where they can access up-to-date information.

Boardroom consultancy IDDAS launched a report today - "Women improve boardroom effectiveness" - offering an insight into the views of female directors of FTSE 100 companies.

IDDAS spoke to a fifth of women sitting on FTSE 100 boards, asking them what lay behind their success. Subjects covered included how women are recruited, how they broach difficult subjects, what holds them back, and the impact of being the only woman on the board.

Key findings include:

• Women are so rare at this level that they tend to operate under a constant spotlight, which drives them to perform exceptionally well
• Female directors are especially good at promoting teamwork on the board.
• Women are happy to raise tough issues, and are able to do so in a non-confrontational way
• Women tend to be less ego-driven than men, and committed to the organisation's goals, rather than their own agenda

The report concludes that the characteristics of successful women directors are:

• Social intelligence
• Courage and resilience
• Breath of view
• Energy and drive

Less helpful characteristics:

• Low self confidence
• Perfectionism
• Telling executives how to do their jobs
• Challenging and aggressive behaviour

Helen Pitcher, IDDAS chairman, said: "Women clearly add huge value to the boards they sit on. Organisations should be more creative in the way they evaluate the particaular combination of skills, experience and personal qualities and individual brings to the board."