The Work Clinic

So the smoking ban has nearly arrived, but what does this mean for the thousands of employees who smoke?

Some employers are putting in place smoking cessation clinics to help employees quit, even to the point of being given time off to overcome their habit. This is causing a divide in the office between the smokers and non-smokers, so where do you stand on the debate?

Read on for our expert Steve Miller's opinion...

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.

How is your workplace today? Take part in Roffey Park's annual research to find out whether workplace stress is declining, what contributes to an engaged workforce, and what can be said about leaders in organisations today.

Your boss is slurring their words, then suddenly, accuses you of not filing a report that you knew nothing about. Now they are shouting at you in front of your colleagues telling you you're pathetic. How many of you have incurred the wrath of drunken and disorderly colleagues in the office?

During my career, I've encountered a boss who was a raging alcoholic. Her excessive drinking at lunchtime turned her into a feared and loathsome power hungry control freak. Her irrational behaviour kept everyone on tenterhooks and needless to say there was a high turnover of staff while management turned a blind eye.

So what do you do? A recent survey conducted by counselling service provider Employee Advisory Resource (EAR) reveals that one in 10 employees has a problem with alcohol misuse.

Are you stressed, frustrated and need a way to kick your smoking habit but can't? Now is the time to quit!

Life coaches Rosy Maria and Belinda Pestana, of Secret Success, are giving away five free tickets worth £1,500 to a special 'Break the Chain – Quit Smoking’ seminar being held on the 4 August 2007 at the Montague Gardens Hotel, London.

This is a seminar with a twist. Both Rosy and Belinda are trained neuro-linguistic programmers, thought field therapists and they use tapping and hypnotism – depending on the individuals needs. The first session had a 100% success rate.

"Kellie, you smoke, don't you?" came the cry from across the office. "Erm, yes," I replied rather sheepishly. You see, long gone are the days when almost everyone I knew smoked – especially the journalists. Nowadays, I think people would be less horrified if I said I kicked puppies or stole sweets from children.

Well I made it back from my smoking cessation clinic. I wasn't probed. I'm not clucking like a chicken. And my tap dancing hasn't improved. But I also haven't had a cigarette since Sunday evening. OK, I know it's only early days, but I went out for dinner last night and had a couple of glasses of wine, which is usually the main trigger for a nicotine fix. I'll admit I felt a little twitchy, but I used a couple of the techniques that I was taught at the session, and I was fine. No craving.

Well its been just over a week, and I'm still not smoking. I haven't maimed or killed anyone yet, so I guess that should be seen as a positive sign that my session worked. But do I feel happier? Do I feel healthier? Do I feel free of the chains of addiction??

Managing stress at work can be an emotional rollercoaster, but it doesn't have to be. James Bradley, work-life services director of Employee Advisory Resource (EAR), explains why:

People simply do not like change, even if change is seen to be good. At some point they will question the effect the change has had on them and look at the negatives as well as the positives. At EAR we tend to take calls through our helpline from employees at very different points on the emotional spectrum; some people have coped up to a point and are looking for guidance in moving forward while others, and these make up a majority of calls, are right at the beginning of the process and struggling to deal with the situation...

Dear Natalie,

"Our board of directors has asked us, the HR department, to organise a long overdue makeover for the office. Do you have any top tips on how to do this? What can we do to make sure the re-design is a success?"

Jo Causon:

Office design and ergonomics are, potentially, business critical issues which are often overlooked by organisations. It is not just a matter of where people sit, or what colour the walls are painted, as office environment can have an impact on employees’ productivity and morale...

There are so many surveys which seek to sniff out negative feelings people may have towards their place of work.

I was kind of hoping to change that tone and quiz those people who have instead, experienced a work environment where the employer has gone out of the way to provide quirky and attractive perks to make office life just that little easier.

I must admit, I have not really experienced that kind of environment other than great work colleagues and subsequently friends.

Of course I can't complain too much, as being a journalist I have often had the privilege of being invited to many wonderful events, including concerts, sporting events, sailng trips to mention a few...

A survey compiled by cold & flu and sinus specialist, Lemsip, has taken a peak into what Brits get up to when they are at home, sick.

Unsurprisingly, a third (32%) of respondents prepare to go into hibernation when this year’s cold and flu season takes hold, choosing to sleep their way through a bout of flu.

Three in 10 respondents admit to taking the opportunity to catch up on daytime TV, although they would never confess this to friends or colleagues.

More than one in five take the old saying ‘feed a cold, starve a fever’ to heart, eating comfort food to perk up their mood, while 20% spend their time surfing the net, according to Lemsip.

Additional pastimes include cleaning the house and DIY (10%), and one in twenty (4%) will manage to make it out for a night on the town.

I must admit that I have never painted the town red while having flu, choosing instead to tuck myself under the duvet in front of the tele and watch Bargain Hunt and Cash in the Attic.

Do you suffer from seasonal affective disorder? Even if you don't then you're likely to be affected by the gloom at some point during the winter months.

I finally had to admit defeat and put on my winter coat (lined with goose feathers and ideal for artic conditions - well I bought it in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA). Anyone that has suffered a winter in Milwaukee / Chicago will be familiar with the cold blizzards and winds that can freeze the liquid in your eyeballs in a second. I digress.

Anyway, the fact is, it's bloody freezing in the mornings and I now finding myself waking up in the dark. It's with a heavy heart I have to lug myself out of bed in the morning. For many of us, the onset of the winter chills can get us down, makes us feel lethargic and we tend to comfort eat more. So it comes as no surprise that law firm Croner is warning employers to beat the winter blues or else see employee productivity plummet...

Spreading the luuuuurve around is something you normally do away from your employers. I don't mean in a kinky way, but about supporting friends, family, caring about the environment. You may do fundraising in your own time, take part in charity events and support local causes.

Employers are starting to recognise more than ever that employees want to be able to give back to the environment or community, especially in the wake of all these environmental disasters such as this week's raging wildfires in California.

In fact, research earlier this year found that corporate social responsibility (CSR is more important than salary when choosing a job

One employer that strongly believes in giving back to the community is The Feel Good Drinks Company by allowing staff time off to volunteer for projects that matter to them...

Anisha Patel, recent graduate:

According to a new study by AXA Insurance, we spend more than 50 minutes a day at our desks engaged in non work related activities, or what they term as “social not-working” - yet the average person only spends 22 minutes a month focusing on their money matters, with one in three not making any time for their finances at all.

Employees spend up to 14 hours a month sending text messages, emailing friends, visiting social networking websites, making personal calls and gossiping whilst at work rather than planning their finances.

As a result, AXA is urging companies to motivate their employees to use their time more effectively in My Budget Day , a scheme designed to help the nation get to grips with its money troubles by encouraging all UK adults to commit one hour a month to sorting out their finances...

Yesterday, employers were urged to take a stand against bullying in the workplace. As part of the National Ban Bullying at Work Day, operational director Matt Witheridge of charity The Andrea Adams Trust said that over 350 private and public sector organisations collectively employing three million workers took part in the campaign.

Judging by the huge national media attention this campaign attracted, the message is finally getting through to employers that bullying must not be tolerated at work and action must be taken to raise awareness and tackle bullying at source.

To celebrate the day, the release of 500 balloons were let loose around 2pm yesterday from The Roof Gardens, Kensington, where a personal message was attached to each balloon from someone that had been a victim of bullying in the workplace.

I caught a balloon in mid-flight and read the message before throwing it back up to the winds. It said:

"I don't need a thicker skin. I am not over-sensitive. I am not insecure, I am a victim of bullying."

"So many employees are left out in the cold," commented Witheridge. "We need employers to step forward and be prepared to make a difference by openly confronting the issue of bullying within their organisation." He also went on to explain that bullying isn't just a wellbeing issue, it also makes clear business commercial sense...

According to a recent Samaritans’ survey conducted by Tickbox.net:

"A third of UK workers cannot get to sleep at night, through anxiety, and three-quarters don’t ‘switch off’ when they leave the office. The research also showed that the most stressed employment sector was those working in the financial sector.

Stress in the workplace is frequently cited as the number one issue affecting staff productivity. A report from consultancy firm Woodrow Wyatt showed that 72% of employees identified stress as their major concern."

Following National Ban Bullying at Work Day, the Samaritans is asking employers to get involved in Stress Down Day on 1 February 2008 to raise the awareness of the effects of stress in the workplace and encourage people to take better care of their emotional well-being....

There must be times when you wish you weren't sitting at your desk, but instead wishing you were somewhere else, catching some fresh air or going for a gentle stroll to rid yourself of the pent up angst that's built up inside you? Life coach Stewart Stone awakens you to the signs of burnout before it's too late.

Stewart Stone, life coach:

"You’re passionate about your business, you work long hours, covering for sick colleagues, fighting fires, meeting the needs of demanding peers and an unsympathetic boss, but you’re in a senior position and this goes with the territory.

Extreme tiredness begins to set in, and on those rare occasions when you’re back to see your children before bed, you fall asleep reading to them. You’re disciplined, you go to the gym before work to at least preserve your physical health. You no longer laugh much, the tiredness is overwhelming, holidays no longer provide respite, you’re still functioning - how effectively though? HR needs to be more aware of the impact of burnout within its own function, as well as within the staff it is meant to be looking after...

As a nation, we’ve been accused of going soft, crying publicly at the least provocation. US presidential candidate Hilary Clinton turned on the tears last week and won over the voters of Iowa. But how do women really feel about showing their emotions in front of colleagues?

Badenoch & Clark’s latest quarterly Happiness at Work index has revealed that, for the third quarter running, HR professionals are among the least happy at work. And they remain undeterred by the current economic downturn, with a full 45% of UK HR professionals voicing more confidence in their job prospects than this time last year.

Matt Gascoigne, senior manager, Badenoch & Clark, says:

“We always see an increase in people seeking to move jobs in January – in fact, the number of jobseekers visiting our website in the first two weeks of January alone was almost double those visiting in the whole of December. What’s particularly interesting is the volume of people who anticipate making a change in 2008, and the relatively low impact the current economic uncertainty seems to be having. It seems that workers remain confident that they’ll find new roles.”

The research results make for interesting reading …

'Furious, dude? I was almost on fire with anger! I won't say what I wanted to do, but in the old days I would have gone in with the sharp sword!"

You might be surprised to hear that the voice behind the rant belongs to none other than Mike Fisher, ‘anger management expert’ and director of the British Association of Anger Management (BAAM). And what prompted this outburst? The suspicion that his website had been plagiarised by one Sam Tevfik – another anger management expert and the man behind the rival British Institute of Anger Management (BIAM). You couldn’t make it up.

But we’ve all experienced it – that moment when we just snap, when we see red. Very few of us are immune to it, but a tantrum that might be little more than an unpleasant interlude at home can cause real problems in the workplace. So how best to avoid turning green and Hulk-like in front of colleagues? Read on for some suggestions ….

Every TV ad break seems to carry an ad for a cancer charity, and we are constantly preached to about reducing our cholesterol levels in the name of a healthy heart. Yet according to the World Health Organisation, depression is already the fourth most significant cause of suffering and disease – and by 2020 it will be in second place, behind heart disease. Workplace ‘stress’ is already the second-biggest occupational health problem in the UK, after musculoskeletal conditions. Reports on the cost of stress to British business range from £3bn to £32bn ...

London Mayor and famous newt lover Ken Livingstone has unveiled an ambitious plan to boost cycling in the capital. He hopes to see a 400% increase in cycling by 2025, with a corresponding reduction in carbon emissions and congestion.

The plan includes:

• More bike parks at Tubes and railway stations
• An increase in the congestion charge for drivers of ‘Chelsea tractors’, which have acted as a deterrent to more timid cyclists
• A bike hire scheme based on Paris’s successful Vélib’ programme
• A series of ‘bike zones’ in 15 suburban town centres

Most ambitious, perhaps, is the introduction of around a dozen radial cycling corridors for commuters. These will bring cyclists into central London, and will mostly use existing London Cycle Networks. The first will be in place by 2010 with five more by the time of the Olympics in 2012. They will include routes from Balham, Hackney and Uxbridge and will have continuous, wide cycle lanes, dedicated junctions and clear signs.

It’s Brain Awareness Week. Most of us potter along, just assuming that the brain will continue to function of its own accord. And it will – up to a point. But by taking care of our brains, we can stay more alert day-to-day, and help guard against long-term mental decline.

Organised by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, the week aims to advance public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. While not all of us will be particularly interested in reading the latest neurological reports, we should all be keen to keep our brains in the best possible condition. Here’s how ….

According to figures released this week, nearly half of the UK’s workforce (44%) plan to take work home with them over the Easter weekend. As the latest barometer of the country’s working culture, this suggests that the traditional Bank Holiday is being increasingly squeezed out due to work commitments.

The figures, from business psychology experts OPP, showed men were more likely to take work home over the break (52%). Work is encroaching on the lives of both sexes though, with 49% of women admitting they’ll be thinking of work as they spend time at home on the long weekend.

All of this comes in the light of recent calls to add another Bank Holiday into the UK calendar. It seems, however, that many of us are failing to make use of the existing holidays to relax and re-fuel ...

Work life balance has been all the rage for some time now, but research from the Chartered Management Institute has come up with a new concept – ‘work life integration’.

The Institute’s study, ‘Management Futures – The World in 2018’ has found that over the next decade workers’ priorities will change. And employers will have to accommodate them. Rather than juggling work and private demands, we will begin to fit the two together, like the pieces of a jigsaw. Personal responsibilities will increase (more people will be bringing up children or caring for elderly parents), as will people’s private needs. Attending to these needs will lead to an inevitable blurring of boundaries between work and life as people struggle to cope with numerous urgent demands.

According to a report recently released by the government, work-related ill health is costing Britain more than £100bn a year, and directly affecting some 2.2m people. That’s more than the NHS budget for a full year – and more than Portugal’s annual GDP. More alarmingly still, it could be prompting whole generations of the same families to spend their lives in poverty and social exclusion.

Says Dame Carol Black, the national director for health and work, “When parents are prevented from working because of a health condition, the risk is not just that their children may end up in poverty, but that those children may experience worse health outcomes and face an increased likelihood that they themselves will be workless in the future.” Social concerns aside, this is a sobering thought, in the light of the current skills shortage.

Having an on-site gym is becoming increasingly common, as companies recognise the need to keep their staff happy, healthy and productive. For the staff, having a gym on the premises gives flexibility – and deprives them of any real excuse for not donning their lycra and hitting the treadmill. A win-win situation, you’d think.

But no. According to the Washington Post, there are a myriad of pitfalls awaiting the corporate exerciser. Consider this. You hobble down to the gym, still a bit stiff and sore from yesterday’s exercise efforts, only to find your main work rival pounding the treadmill like a latter day Zola Budd. How small is that going to make you feel? And just imagine the embarrassment of hitting the gym to sweat out last night’s curry – only to find the chief executive there, blithely training for his next Iron Man challenge ...

Assume as we might that homophobia is a thing of the past – or, at any rate, restricted to the margins of our society, it is very much alive and kicking. The ‘Living Together’ report by gay rights organisation Stonewall has revealed that ‘One in six people in Great Britain have witnessed homophobic bullying in the workplace.’

There are 350,000 lesbian and gay employees in Britain, and almost one in five of them have experienced bullying by their colleagues because of sexual orientation. The situation is 50% worse among lower ranking jobs than within management.

Readers of Nature journal – or at least those who have participated in their recent survey – seem to be fans of brain-enhancing drugs. One in five of them admitted to having used the drugs, without a prescription, hoping for improvements to their concentration, problem-solving skills and memory.
Alarmingly, a third of those surveyed admitted that they would feel under pressure to give the same drugs to their children, should they fall behind in class or lose ground to other students.
Last December two Cambridge University psychiatry department researchers published an article on the widespread use of brain-enhancing drugs in the academic world. According to one of those researchers, Sharon Moerin-Zamin, this is not confined to this one particular area of society. A recent government report predicted the use of such drugs would become "as common as coffee".
The Nature survey asked about respondents about their use of Ritalin, used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Provigil, used to treat narcolepsy, and the blood pressure drugs beta blockers.
Of the 1,427 respondents from around the world (mostly from the US) a fifth had used the drugs without a prescription. Of those …

Depression Awareness Week starts today, and runs until Friday, April 18th. It’s telling that depression has become enough of a problem in our society to merit its own week. In England alone, 31 million prescriptions were written for anti-depressants in 2006.

According to charity Depression Alliance,

“Depression is a feeling of persistent sadness, involving feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. It involves not only mood but also feelings of being physically ill and of not being able to think clearly. It is one of the most common conditions in the UK, affecting at least one in five people during their lifetime. It is also one of the most misunderstood. We believe that the lack of accurate information surrounding depression continues to prevent those affected from seeking and finding help when it is required.No-one should fear depression; the vast majority of people affected will make a full recovery after appropriate treatment. Successful treatment can involve a variety of different approaches, including self-help, psychotherapy, or medication. Depression Alliance is committed to offering people with depression information about the options available so that they can work with their doctor to make an informed decision about their own treatment.”

We’re always being told that the Mediterranean diet is a healthy one- all that red wine, garlic and olive oil is meant to have given the Italians, Spaniards and French the healthiest hearts in Europe, if not the world. It has come as a surprise, then, to hear that thirty Madrid restaurants are to install portable defibrillators. The machines, costing £1,854 each, could prove the difference between the life and death of diners used to 3 hour-long lunches traditionally followed by brandy and cigars.

Recent research of over 200 women by womenintechnology.co.uk, the online job board and networking group, has shown that the majority of women working in IT are dissatisfied with their work/life balance and that although employers say they support flexible working, the reality is often quite different.

The research, carried out at the recent “Working Smarter, Not Harder”, networking event, showed that although over half (55%) felt that they did have a work / life balance, almost all added an “although” or a “but” to their answer.

Nearly one in three (30%) UK employees are de-motivated in their current role, according to research published today by Investors in People UK. Significantly, 43% are considering taking action and leaving their job in the next 12 months, with those that have been in their job for one to two years most likely to want to do so (48%).

The research - carried out by YouGov on behalf of Investors in People UK - found that the top three de-motivating factors for employees were:

• Unreasonable workload (18%)
• Feeling underpaid (18%)
• Lack of clear career path (17%).

For those that have been in their role for one to two years, lack of a clear career path (24%) was the most de-motivating factor – greater than workload (17%) or pay (16%).

Think very carefully before, working late, you doze off with your face on your computer keyboard. A microbiologist carrying out research for Which? Computing magazine examined samples from 33 keyboards and found evidence of several bugs, including E coli and S aureaus.

As a comparison, microbiologist James Francis later swabbed a toilet seat and toilet door handle in a typical London office. One of the keyboards in the experiment had to be removed from the office as it was five times dirtier than the toilet seat – and home to 150 times the acceptable level of bacteria.

It's National Work from Home Day, so you have semi-official permission to stay in your pyjamas, at the kitchen table, laptop sandwiched between the Coco Pops and the orange juice.

An estimated five million workers across the UK will not have gone into the office today. We're hoping that with fewer commuters, the roads are clearer and public transport less crowded than usual. Stress levels have fallen, pollution levels are down and CO2 emissions reduced. People are happier, have a better work-life balance and ultimately will be healthier.

According to the TUC's general secretary, Brendan Barber, "Being able to work from home every now and again is a sensible move for individuals and their employers. Smart employers know this already. Now it's time for the rest to wake up to the benefits of flexible working."

We tend to assume that overcrowding will be the worst aspect of our daily commute, but it would seem not - apparently one in four commuters has bacteria from faeces on their hands.

Scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have swabbed 409 people at bus and train stations in five major English and Welsh cities. (Does this mean that the Scots and Irish were deemed above suspicion? As one of the latter, I'd like to think so).

Says Dr Val Curtis, director of hygiene at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 'We were flabbergasted that so many people had faecal bugs on their hands. The figures were much higher than anticipated, and suggest that there is a real problem with people washing their hands in the UK'. So much for all those tired old jokes about the French and their antipathy to soap.

The study also found that manual workers had cleaner hands than other professionals, students, retired people or the unemployed. And buses are cleaner than trains. So think very carefully before you leave the house in the morning ...

The Americans have given us some great things - trick or treating, Beavis and Butthead, the Baldwin brothers and pop tarts. But the latest import may actually be a good one.

In 2001, in the aftermath of the World Trade Centre bombings UK massage therapist and aromatherapist Kim Wooldridge received an e-mail from an online aromatherapist group asking whether she could supply aromatherapy oils to New York's emergency workers. Woolridge decided that she could do more and, following online enquiries, she was put in touch with a team from North Carolina, working with them to offer short massages to the emergency services.

"It was a very powerful experience", says Woolridge: "We worked with firefighters mainly, but also with police and social workers. Everybody was asking us "Do you have teams like this back in the UK?". So when I got back I started making enquiries and nobody had heard of such a thing."

In 2002 Woolridge set up Response Emergency Stress Team (Rest) UK. Now 40-strong, the team consists of trained volunteers, all of whom are certified massage therapists. The first live incident they attended was the fire at Atherstone last year, which claimed the lives of four of the 200 firemen attending it.  When the team arrived, the fire services had already been there for three days trying to find the bodies of their colleagues.

According to Hampshire fireman Simon Foster, the massage helped: "People who haven't experienced it may see it as a bit of a luxury, but it enables you to carry on, to feel like you can go back and do the work again. We were doing 12-hour shifts, and it was fairly arduous. [After a massage] you stand up and you feel rejuvenated. You walk out of there and you feel like a new person."

The only surprising thing about providing onsite massages for the emergency services is that it hasn't been done in the UK before. When we can provide Indian head massages for tired beancounters, surely we can do so for those in the front line, dealing with life and death situations and witnessing incidents that the rest of us can barely imagine.

We've always suspected that bosses - bad ones in particular - are bad for the health. And finally we have scientific evidence to back up our biases.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University found a strong link between poor leadership and the risk of serious heart disease and heart attacks among 3000 employed men. And it would appear that the risk is cumulative - the longer the men stayed with their poor bosses, the greater the threat to their health.

For the study, researchers tracked the heart health of the men, aged between 19 and 70, over almost a decade. During this time, 74 cases of fatal and non-fatal heart attack or acute angina or death from ischaemic heart disease.

Participants were asked to rate the leadership style of their senior managers on competencies such as how clearly they set out goals for their staff and how good they were at communicating and giving feedback. The staff who deemed their senior managers to be the least competent had a 25% higher risk of a serious heart problem.

And those working for four years or more had a 64% higher risk.

The researchers, who included experts from University College London and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, stated that if a direct cause and effect was confirmed, then managers' behaviour should be targeted in order to avoid serious heart disease among less senior managers.

According to British Heart Foundation cardiac nurse Cathy Ross, "This limited, male-only study suggests that a good, clear working relationship with your manager may help to protect against heart disease.

"Feeling undervalued and unsupported can cause stress, which often leads to unhealthy behaviours such as smoking, eating a poor diet, drinking too much alcohol and not getting enough exercise - adding to the risk of health problems".

Work Clinic today comes live - if slightly frostbitten - from the wilds of Surrey. And by day two of this enforced absence from the office, I will admit to a touch of cabin fever. While a certain level of civilisation remains (Starbucks, Sainsburys and the local newsagents) and I am warm and well-fed, I cannot physically get out of the small town where I live. But I am one of the lucky ones. I can work from home. I have a laptop and a phone, and I have remote access to my e-mail.

Not so for much of the rest of the working population - Mr Work Clinic included (he is on housework duty, instead). It rather begs the question 'Why?'. Why, why, why in this day and age don't all employers make provisions for staff (at least those whose jobs allow it) to work from home? Today the roads around this town are icy and treacherous - are organisations prepared to let their staff risk their lives because they, their employers, are bizarrely reluctant to facilitate remote working?

Yesterday, when the snow here was a good foot and a half deep, I stood and watched people trying to drive, because they felt that they absolutely had to get somewhere - more than likely their place of work. Isn't there something wrong with a society where we are willing to put work before our own health and wellbeing? Not to mention that of the emergency services staff who end up rescuing these idiots.

Most of us need to work - I admit that - and a lot of us actually enjoy working. But surely not to this ridiculous extent. And if employers are worrying about time and money lost when staff can't reach the office, then it's up to them to make sure that we can work from home. It's not a lot to ask, surely?

You'd expect people to work more efficiently if they felt that their jobs might be at risk. Apparently not ...

Figures released today by international recruitment consultants Badenoch & Clark have shown that employees are fighting the blues by getting their heads down and trying to keep busy. It seems this reaction is being driven by the general fear in the job market - 46% of those questioned identified job insecurity as the key cause for workplace blues.

Rising workloads continue to be a key cause of workplace blues, with one in ten UK workers spending the equivalent of an extra day in the office last year. However, it seems media headlines of redundancies and the general strain being felt by UK workers have become more important, triggering many people to respond by trying to appear busy in order to prove their worth to their employer.

According to Neil Wilson, managing director of Badenoch & Clark, "There are some strong lessons to be learnt here for employers. Unhappiness in the workplace is becoming a serious problem as the economic downturn continues to bite, and it seems not enough managers are doing everything they can to combat it. For example, better communication and consultation over job losses would go a long way to alleviating the strain.

"If left alone, workplace blues can create a culture where everyone works with their head down, meaning there's little feedback, little input to decisions and probably no challenge to suggestions - all of which is all vital for a healthy business.

"Untold damage can be done to an employer's brand as well. Employees are the best ambassador for any organisation. If they're unhappy at work, they're unlikely to play that ambassadorial role effectively and employers will find it increasingly difficult to attract the top talent. If you're looking for a highly skilled change management specialist to help you navigate through shifts in your business, the best candidates are unlikely to want to work for an organisation whose people's heads are constantly down."

Last year I wrote about a charity asking its staff to stop singing at work because of potential financial implications. This year, however, following on from a deluge of music-related reality TV shows (Bradley Walsh in 'Maestro', anyone?), insurers Admiral are looking to a few 'doh, ray, mes' to motivate their call centre workers.

Admiral has hired Inspire, set up by two vocal coaches, to provide vocal health sessions aimed at motivating staff, team-building and reducing sickness and absenteeism. Forty staff have already formed a choir, meeting once a month over a six-month period, Singing work by Queen, The Blues Brothers and OutKast, they will perform in front of thousands of colleagues at the company's staff general meetings in Cardiff and Swansea

The morale boosting benefits of singing are well known, but Inspire will also participate in inductions for all new Admiral call centre staff, training them to use their voices effectively, and providing tips on avoiding sore throats and managing throat infections.

I could do the cynical journalist bit and decry this for a waste of money during a credit crunch, but I think it's a lovely idea.

Cynical women - myself included - often refer to 'male pride', but it would appear that it is more than just a tired cliche. Academics in the University of Cambridge's sociology department have found that men who live in fear of redundancy are far more likely to succumb to depression than their female colleagues. And - oddly - both men and women are worse affected by the fear of losing their jobs than by actually being made redundant.

The study, which included case studies of companies which had been taken over by competitors, sparking concerns over potential job cuts, found that men recorded higher measures than women of depression and anxiety on the standard clinical measure. This measure records symptoms such as poor concentration, insomnia and unexplained sadness.

Senior lecturer Brendan Burchell says that "a macho issue about men being the breadwinner" has much to answer for, adding that "Men, unlike women, have few positive ways of defining themselves outside of the workplace between when they leave school and when they retire. Despite several decades of more equal employment opportunities for men and women, men retain traditional beliefs that their masculinity is threatened if their employment is threatened."

Ironically, although men may be feeling the strain, the number of women in full time work fell by 53,000 last quarter, whereas the number of men dropped by 36,000.

But is this news? We've known for years that men find it more difficult to deal with stress than women do. And we've all heard the saying "pride comes before a fall".  So rather than continuing to commission research that reaches the same conclusion each time, shouldn't the experts be doing something to combat this stress, or at least to understand and alleviate the symptoms before it's too late for the victims?

More than a quarter of employees are worried about debt. And one in five claim that financial worries are keeping them awake at night, according to new research by the Institute of Employment Studies.

The research, Financial Well-being in the Workplace, also revealed that more than 30% of workers do not feel in control of their finances. And oddly, those in poor financial health are the least likely to use the financial education offered by their employers.

Annette Cox, the report's author, says: "Employees who report better financial well-being are more likely to report increased productivity. Now, more than ever, people are going to need help and support to better manage their finances. Employers are in a good position to do this, and offering even basic information about taking care of their money will go a long way."

Last November, I blogged about the need for companies to provide financial assistance to staff. Plus ça change ....

Ten years ago, I would have fretted about work while on holiday. These days, I prefer to make sure everything is ship-shape before I leave, then close the door on it until the end of the holidays. But it's no longer that simple.

Modern technology means that few of us are ever really incommunicado. There are two issues here - the rights and wrongs of contacting staff while on holiday, and the temptation of said staff to continue blogging and tweeting about work outside office hours.

I once got a call from a colleague while I was about to board a holiday flight to New York. I was bemused rather than annoyed - she felt it was preferable to call me than to bother someone more senior who was in the office. But it was about something very minor and I really feel that holidays are holidays - anything less than a matter of life and death should be dealt with by other staff.

As for tweeting and even checking e-mails, while I do occasionally succumb at the weekend, I make a point of avoiding this when on holiday. Even reading work e-mails renders a holiday null and void.

So, after 4 days free of work-related thoughts, you would assume that I am at my desk today fresh-faced and full of enthusiasm. Which I would be had the clanking of milk bottles at my front door not woken me at 4 am ...... Grrr. 

According to research by the University of Southern California's Brain and Creativity Institute, fast-paced modern media such as Twitter fail to give us the necessary time to reflect on either our own comments and actions or those of others.

Researchers used compelling, real-life stories to induce admiration for virtue or skill, or compassion for physical or social pain, in 13 volunteers. They found that emotions linked to our moral sense awaken slowly in the mind - brain imaging showed that the volunteers needed six to eight seconds to fully respond.

The study inevitably raised questions about the emotional cost of heavy reliance on a rapid stream of news stories, as personified by Twitter. According to the university's Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, "If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people's psychological states and that would have implications for your morality." Immordino-Yang was keen to point out, however, that the blame lies not with social media per se, but the way in which it is used.

Hanna Damisio, co-director of the Institute, has voiced concerns about the juxtopositioning of good and bad news on sites such as Twitter, saying that it leads to an "indifference to the vision of human suffering."

Younger employees have grown up with social media. They are used to getting their information in rapidly-delivered soundbites, good and bad tidings together. They are very well informed. But are they good, rounded, people? Do they view colleagues with care and compassion? And if not, what should employers be doing to ensure that they do so?

After an Easter break where most of us have had at least some sunshine and fresh air, it has come as something of a blow to find ourselves back at our desks, particularly as the sun, no respecter of working hours, continues to shine. Worse still for those of us in urban areas, who may scarcely see a blade of grass from Monday to Friday.

So consider the lucky people who work at Chiswick Park, the West London office park designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership and developed by Stanhope. A survey has found that 85% of respondents believe that the physical environment of the park adds considerable value to their work life.

The park, which refers to those who work there - including employees of Starbucks, Paramount and Setanta - as 'guests', even has its own 'Enjoy-Work management team'. The team aims to help guests achieve work-life balance.

Henry Williams, director at Stanhope, says "The office buildings and surrounding environment have a major influence on an employee's well being, and consequently levels of performance. The survey has been running for three years and these results represent the most positive to date, which suggests that in the current climate the role of the workplace is more significant than ever."

We've all seen the footage of drunk teenage and 20-something women staggering about the streets and invariably ending up in the gutter, if not their local police station. And new research has found that binge drinking among women has almost doubled in the past decade.
According to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 15% of female drinkers over the age of 16 consumes more than double the recommended daily amount of alcohol (three units).

The report highlighted five main trends:

• An increase in drinking amongst women
• An increase in drinking among middle-age and older groups
• A recent decrease in drinking among 16-24 year-olds (both sexes but especially men)
• An increase in alcohol consumption amongst children
• An increase in drinking in Northern Ireland compared with the rest of the UK

While even a relatively unobservant line manager will hopefully recognise the symptoms of binge drinking, what of staff who have a less dramatic but potentially more serious problem? How can employers recognise alcohol problems among their employees? And what - if anything - should they do? Are employers morally obliged to help staff, or should they simply cast a blind eye as long as the job is getting done?

I have a rather uncharacteristic soft spot for posh erstwhile politician Michael Portillo. And so it was that last night saw me watching him present an episode of current affairs stalwart Horizon entitled "How violent are you?"

In Portillo's case, the answer was 'not very', but the programme certainly gave me food for thought. The main experiment saw him spend 60 hours in the company of two screeching mechanical babies (the kind used to teach teenagers that motherhood means more than a council house). My heart went out to the man - by the end of it, he was physically and emotionally drained, and verging on paranoia.

Portillo's most telling comment was that he was doing nothing that millions of other parents don't do before heading off to work every morning. It was worrying to watch him struggle through a day's work (in a busy kitchen), knowing that this is the norm for many people.

So there are lots of tired people out there, doing jobs that involve making life and death decisions about other people's health. Very worrying ....   

According to Equality Works, the equality and diversity consultancy, workplace bullying is becoming more widespread as a direct result of the recession. Chief executive Jane Farrell says: "Many people think of bullying as simply meaning verbal or sometimes physical abuse," says Farrell. "However, in today's business climate of concern, informal comments or changes in attitude can lead to feelings of being under threat and victimisation."

Farrell also says that bosses need to be more vigilant to prevent serious problems in the future, adding that "Recession and redundancies are currently a hard fact of life but that is no excuse for not handling the situation with compassion and sensitivity."
Why is bullying so prevalent in UK workplaces? And surely now is the time to be supportive of one another.

One of the main problems is that bullies tend to see their behaviour as something else - maybe 'firm management' or their idea of 'encouraging' a team-mate. But at the end of the day, it's just bullying, plain and simple.

Some bullying behaviour to look out for:

Derogatory comments about someone's performance being made in an open-plan office

• So called 'jokes' being made that have the effect of undermining confidence
• People getting more competitive with each other and collaborating less and less
• Managers shouting at staff
• Continual drawing attention to 'difference' such as 'part timers not pulling their weight'.

It's that time of year again, when the government (perhaps to detract from its own problems) decides to focus on other professions and their alcohol consumption. Call me a grumpy old cynic (all charges which I will happily accept), but can't they find better ways to spend their money (think: schools, hospitals, old people)?

Do we really need a Department of Health survey to tell us that the media are the heaviest drinkers? (That said, I am almost impressed that my colleagues are, according to the report, each necking the equivalent of four bottles of wine or 19 pints of beer a week).

Media professionals drink a hefty 10 units a week more than the next biggest group, IT workers. Oddly, given the mess they've made of the economy, finance workers are only the fourth biggest drinking group.

The cynic in me wonders how much the Department of Health's survey compilers drink, given that they have to come up with these statistics year after year after year ....  

1. Avoid where possible - work from home if you can

2. Again, where possible, time your commute to miss the rush hour

3. Take plenty of water with you. Don't assume that you can buy it at the station - everyone else will think the same.

4. If you have to take public transport, avoid the area around the door on the train/ bus. Again, everyone else will be there and any benefits you might have won through occasional blasts of 'fresh' air will be outweighed by the crush.

5. Distract yourself. If you're in a crowd, you won't have space to read, but listening to something good will help take your mind off the fact that your nose is wedged in a stranger's armpit.

6. Workplace facilities permitting, wear casual clothes for the journey and change once you get there. The lucky few will be able to shower at work.

7. Leave home in plenty of time. Arriving at the station/ bus stop hot and bothered will only make the main part of the commute worse.

8. Put your own wellbeing before work demands. If the train looks too crowded, wait for the next one. Or if you're already on it and getting too hot and uncomfortable, just get off and wait.

9. Change your journey. Swap the bus for part of your usual train journey if you can. Or take the train rather than the tube. While it make take longer, it may well be more comfortable.

10. Get on your bike! A heat wave may be the excuse you've been waiting for .....

According to North West law firm Mace & Jones, the recession is prompting an increase in senior level personality conflicts.

The root of the problem apparently lies in staff shortages. As more and more staff are laid off, managers are being forced to work more closely with their teams - managers more used to sitting in the corner office, avoiding unpleasantness.

Mace & Jones' head of employment law Martin Edwards says: "This is leading to personality conflicts as egos clash, insecurities are heightened and areas of responsibilities are redrawn."

He adds that "Personality conflicts are one of the most destructive employment issues in a workplace. Work is disrupted and teams are divided. This in turn leads to poor management, missed targets and bad working environments." All at a time when many companies are struggling to survive. 

Edwards recommends tackling the problem head-on, pointing out that "No business can tolerate staff who cannot put their differences aside for the good of the firm. If senior management, the leaders of the business, cannot work together, this is a very serious problem."

The danger here is that companies facing financial problems will not see this as a priority. They will assume, wrongly, that the situation will sort itself out. They may even think - again wrongly - that a bit of temper or inability to work in a team is not a bad thing in a senior manager. By the time they realise the error of their ways, they may well find themselves faced with a tribunal.

  Arthur Dent, hapless hero of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, believed that 42 was the answer to "life, the universe, and everything." But perhaps not quite everything. According to a survey by YouGov, the average at which people feel totally confident and comfortable about their skills at work is 37 - after 30,000 hours in the job .... You'd like to think that they'd got it right by then.

And, more depressing still, we are unlikely to feel fulfilled at work until we hit 50. But, on a more positive note, it seems that Britain's oldies are now more entrepreneurial than ever. So much so that a new word has been coined to describe them - olderpreneurs.

According to the survey,

• 85% of the population do not intend to stop work altogether post retirement age
• 33% want to continue in full-time work post retirement age
• 31% want to carry on in a similar role but on their own terms
• 8% want to start a business in retirement

Commenting on the findings, John Lawson of financial services organisation Standard Life said: " People do not get old like they used to. The Baby Boomers started a trend for redefining what is effectively their 'third age', and these findings point to a continued trend for re-writin the rule book for younger generations."

What they've failed to point out is that, these days, few of us can afford to stop work post-retirement.

It's baking hot outside, and while most of us would love weather like this if we were sitting on a beach, it's a very different story when we have to contend with work.

Some tips for keeping your cool this week:

1. Dress appropriately, Surely if there was a time for stuffier employers to relax their dress codes, even temporarily, this is it. Opt for loose, pale-coloured linen and cotton clothes where possible.

2. Resist the urge to fry in the sun at lunchtime. If you do need to go out, cover up or wear sun cream. Always wear sunglasses.

3. Arrange phonecalls or video conferences rather than travelling in the heat.

4. Drink as much water as you can. Avoid coffee.  

5. Cut back on the booze. If you have to socialise as part of your job, stick to soft drinks.

6. If you really suffer in the heat, try to work from home, or to start and finish your working day so that you miss the hottest part of the day - and the commute.

7. Maintain energy levels by eating less, more often.

8. Slow down - avoid rushing about, particularly outdoors.

9. Buy a hand-held battery-operated fan for the commute, and persuade your employer to buy a small desk fan for you,

10. Read the Department of Health's advice on what to do in the case of a heatwave.

Those who don't know better assume that BBC staff are erudite, graceful and sophisticated creatures. Not so Radio 4 broadcaster http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Green Charlotte Green. While her intellect is not in doubt, those of us given to clumsiness will thrill to the news that she is a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klutz klutz.

Having finished reading the midnight news, Green left the studio, only to catch her foot in her headphones cable. She then fell on a tape recorder, gashing her shin. A hospital dash (by licence fee-funded taxi, no doubt) revealed damaged ribs, leading to a fortnight off work.

Much as I admire the quality of many of the BBC's programmes (note 'many', rather than 'all'), it perturbs me that they wrap their staff in cotton wool - I don't see many private sector companies giving someone 2 weeks off over a couple of bruised ribs ....

While swine flu takes hold, and those deemed particularly at risk are told to stay at home and avoid crowds, there's another section of society that is oddly keen to get to work, regardless of the state of their health.

According to the CIPD's latest absence management survey, out today, the number of private sector workers taking 'sickies' is falling, as workers fear for their jobs. The CIPD found that private sector workers took an average of 6.4 days off due to illness last year (the lowest result since the survey began), down from 7.2 days the previous year.

The average public sector employee apparently feels less threatened by the recession, taking 9.7 days off through sickness last year, fractionally less than the 9.8 days they took off the year before.  

While glad to see that people are less prone to 'throwing a sickie', I do worry about this ridiculous insistence on struggling to work when ill. Swine flu aside, I don't relish spending 7 hours a day inhaling someone else's germs.

It used to be that any sign of emotion at work was a career-killer, particularly for women, who were expected to act like men if they wanted to climb the corporate ladder.

But these days, a decade after the death of Princess Diana and the ridiculous outpouring of grief it prompted, blubbing in the office is accepted, and even, in certain circumstances, de rigueur.

Experts say this is due to the proliferation of Generation Y employees. They've been brought up to show - and share - their emotions, regarding the traditional stiff upper lip as old-fashioned and unhealthily repressed.

So is it - or isn't it - ok to cry at work? I think it depends on the circumstances. If a colleague has been bereaved, immediate, public tears are both natural and acceptable. But if they're crying over something to do with work, or something colleagues would regard as relatively trivial, it would be best to find somewhere more private.

So take yourself off for a coffee or a quick burst of fresh air, and get it out of your system. Whatever Gen Y might think. sobbing over your keyboard (apart from the risk of electrocuting yourself) will mark you out as overly emotional and possibly less capable of doing your job.

It's National Stress Awareness Day today. The fact that such a day exists, and that it's in its 11th year, says a lot about society - and the workplace - today.

The organisers, the International Stress Management Association (ISMA), use the day to help people suffering from stress, by

• highlighting the many coping strategies and sources of help available, and
• offering free advice.

Ann McCracken, chair of ISMA, says: "Stress, anxiety and depression accounts for over 13.5 million workdays each year, making it the single biggest cause of sickness in the UK. The aim of the campaign is to increase public awareness about the effects of stress, the treatments available and, most importantly, to help individuals suffering from stress to seek help."

ISMA provides a network of stress advisors, based in branches of Boots, Health and Safety Executive offices and 40 other participating organisations.

Every week seems to be national something or other week, and this is no exception - it's National Commute Smart Week.

A report by the catchily named Citrix GoToMyPC has found that British workers are wasting 4.6 million hours a day commuting. 62% of the 2,000 adults surveyed said that they wanted to reduce the time they spend travelling to and from work. Frustrations include being stuck in traffic (42%), issues with public transport (38%), travelling in the dark (36%) and cost (30%).

While part of me, on reading this, wishes that British workers would learn to whinge less, and part of me wonders why they haven't accepted that commuting is their lot in life, the [small] charitable part of me appreciates their concern.

This week's National Commute Smart Week has five themes:

1. Flexible working
2. Remote working
3. Virtual meetings
4. Health commute
5. Road congestion and road safety

If you're one of the whingeing workers - er, sorry, 'concerned commuters' - check out their website for suggestions and advice, including their Ten Top Tips for Smarter Commuting.

Research carried out by business psychologists Robertson Cooper has found that a quarter of 37,000 people surveyed have gone to work while ill. While presenteeism is a complex issue, a growing number of people feel compelled to turn up at the office when they are too ill to work, and should be at home.

The research also showed that:

• Only 50% of workers surveyed reported good health
• The remaining 50% described their health as 'alright' or 'poor'

• 26% took no sick leave at all over the last 3 months, regardless of their state of health

• 51% of those in the 'good health' group reported productivity of 90% or above, compared with only 38% in the 'alright or poor health group'

Professor Ivan Robertson, managing director at Robertson Cooper, said: "Presenteeism in the workplace has a number of causes, one of which is related to feelings of job insecurity. Recently, this is likely to have been inflamed as a result of the recession."

Robertson added: "To prevent presenteeism, managers should reward people for the work they deliver, not the hours they put in. Investing in the health and wellbeing of workers pays dividends in terms of improved employee engagement and productivity. And it delivers considerable savings over and above those caused by driving down absenteeism."

Robertson Cooper is calling for a national debate on how businesses can find the right balance between absenteeism and presenteeism.

Research carried out at the University of Stockholm, and published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, has found that employees who fail to complain about unfair treatment at work double their risk of heart attack or dying from heart disease.

Keeping things bottled up - 'covert coping' - greatly increases the likelihood of poor health, according to the researchers. Employees, particularly men, who confront colleagues and bosses about workplace disputes are at a much lower risk of heart problems.

Covert copers were asked how they dealt with stress. Methods included not saying anything, walking away from conflict, developing head or stomach ache, or losing their temper later at home.

Judy O'Sullivan, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Stress itself is not a risk factor for heart disease, but some people's responses to stress, such as smoking or overeating, can increase the risk."

So it's official - next time your boss winds you up, just let them know what you think of them. And don't worry about the aftermath - tell them it's a health matter.

Today is meant to be the most depressing day of the year - the day when post-Christmas credit card bills arrive, daylight is scarce and we have 73 days to trudge through until the next bank holiday.

I reckon that's rubbish. The sun is shining, there's no ice to slip and slide over on the way to work, and the folks at iOpener have come up with 10 tips for being happy at work.

1. Greet everyone you see as you arrive: that way you'll feel connected to your colleagues.
2. Do something difficult. Everyone feels good about themselves when they meet a challenge.
3. Put things in proportion.
4. Show a close colleague some appreciation. It's all too easy to forget to thank people.
5. Think about the differences you make to others, including your family, just by being at work and doing your job well.
6. Make active choices about what you do and when. Composing a to-do list in an order you find important can increase your sense of control.
7. Phone a friend. It's always good to share and connect with people outside work.
8. Write down the parts of the job you really like: think about how you might get more out of them.
9. Volunteer to do something you wouldn't normally do. You'll get a lot of appreciation and you might learn something new.
10. Revist your main new year's resolution. Take one small step towards meeting it.

Spotted this useful article in the Guardian's Work supplement at the weekend. Here are a few pointers, but if you have time, read it in full.

DO

• Question whether the work involved is to your advantage
• Go back to working a 40 (or 35 - whatever's in your contract) hour week
• Come up with clever ways to say no

DON'T

• Go to meetings you don't need to be at
• Try to do everything
• Discuss work with people face-to-face or over the phone (it's easier to say no by e-mail)