Guru Blog

"G4" emails reveal friends sharing a joke

2012-02-09T10:32:56Z

Details of private emails between a bunch of former public schoolboys, who call themselves the “G4”, discussing an impending trip to to the Dubai 7s rugby tournament in March have emerged, rather embarrassing the G4 boys, who are all former public-schoolboys now fulfilling predictable roles as traders, bankers and lawyers. The Telegraph Read More......(read more)

Network Rail faces tough decision on bonuses

2012-02-03T12:11:12Z

The six executive directors of Network Rail could be in line for bonuses worth up to 60% of their annual salaries, the Independent reports today . For anybody sent into a spiral of confusion by that news, Network Rail really is just what it sounds like: the company responsible for the railway network in this country. And this country is the UK, not Read More......(read more)

Brighton bus drivers face "babe" ban

2012-02-01T11:52:44Z

Image: Rex Features Guru exclusively refers to his female colleagues as “hot stuff”, “sweet cheeks”, “good-loooking” and “toots” and all manner of other affectionate business terms. Consequently, he was horrified to read that bus drivers for the Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company have been warned Read More......(read more)

Disney lifts the beard ban

2012-01-25T14:07:10Z

Image: Rex Features After 60 years of living in terror of persecution, Disney employees are finally able to look a little tiny bit like they might be Communists, as Disney has announced that customer-facing staff can now have beards . Why don’t they just go and dance on poor Walt’s grave?! The amendment loosens up the “ Disney Look Read More......(read more)

Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza in uniform extravaganza

2012-01-25T13:48:11Z

Image: Rex Features Sometimes Guru counts himself extremely lucky to have such a huge media presence. Today was just such a day. If Guru hadn’t been Guru, renowned HR blogger and philanthropist (once bought a Big Issue), he might not have been lucky enough to receive the 600-word press release that changed his life: Holiday Inn has introduced Read More......(read more)

Hungry MPs and the case of the missing 10g

2012-01-24T08:34:00Z

Image: Rex Features Packets of crisps in the House of Commons restaurant can be up to 10g below the promised weight of 34.5g. Such is the sort of crap MPs have to put up with, or up with put, as Winston Churchill wouldn’t have said. This horrifying glimpse into the world of MPs comes from written feedback left at the Members’ and Strangers’ Read More......(read more)

Policeman tweets his way into disciplinary meeting

2012-01-19T10:52:59Z

Image: Rex Features Dorset policeman Nick Manning is facing disciplinary action for tweeting about the damage public sector cuts are having on the force . His senior officers seem to have particularly objected to a tweet indicating that the North Dorset force was running on a skeleton crew. The tweet read: “Last 3 nights in North Dorset, 3 cops Read More......(read more)

Not teaching in Glasgow proves profitable for teacher

2012-01-12T11:25:27Z

In a time of rampant cuts, Glasgow City Council may be feeling a little nervous after it emerged that it had continued paying a teacher for two years after she’d left employment in the area . The teacher was paid £82,635 by the council between 2006 and 2008. The General Teaching Council for Scotland found it “difficult to understand” Read More......(read more)

Guru Christmas 2011 Blog Spectacular

2011-12-23T11:53:39Z

Image: Rex Features It’s almost Christmas and Guru can’t find anything interesting to comment on. Knowing that what most people will be hoping for in their metaphorical stocking will be a new Guru post to read for Christmas, Guru would like to introduce the Guru Christmas 2011 Blog Spectacular. The Guru Christmas 2011 Blog Spectacular takes Read More......(read more)

Personal emails - the lesser of two evils

2011-12-21T07:54:29Z

Image: Rex Features According to a press release from Cartridge Save , in a working year the average employee writes the equivalent of four Harry Potter books in personal emails. Guru suspects that this is meant to be an alarming comparison, but all those imaginary emails sound fairly benign when compared to the imaginary Harry Potter novels the employees Read More......(read more)

Top interview tip: keep candidates behind a bush

2011-12-07T12:08:25Z

Image: Rex Features According to research from Airdri, as many as one in five candidates could be missing out on jobs because of bad handshakes. Airdri worked with language expert Judi James to discover this. According to the press release, Judi James is “renowned”, probably meaning that she occasionally goes on telly to talk about what Read More......(read more)

Overlooked for promotion? Try being more unpleasant

2011-12-05T08:47:13Z

Image: Rex Features Nice guys finish last. It’s official. An American study has found that agreeable men earn, on average, $7,000 less than disagreeable men ( I didn’t get where I am today by being nice… ). It also found that women earn about 14% less than men, which, if Mrs Guru is anything to go by, can’t be explained by how Read More......(read more)

Elvis Costello not suited to sales role

2011-11-29T11:31:11Z

Line managers of sales staff might sympathise with Universal Music. Although plenty of managers will have sales staff who just won’t work hard enough, or refuse to up-sell, few will have to deal with staff issuing statements discouraging customers from buying their products. But this is just what Elvis Costello has done - taking to his website Read More......(read more)

What's in a name?

2011-11-23T10:08:31Z

Image: Rex Features Reading the very excellent Flip Chart Fairytales blog on income inequality and some analysis of the faulty logic behind senior management pay , Guru was struck by a neat corollary between nonsense job titles and the pay debate. CEO pay is often justified by comparison with the pay of other CEOs, often on other continents, with the Read More......(read more)

Blatter announces realisation of Martin Luther King's dream

2011-11-17T14:11:34Z

Image: Rex Features Guru has had a busy morning rewriting the company’s equal opportunities policy to take note of recent evidence that racism doesn’t actually exist, and that if it does it’s not really that big a deal now is it ( Sepp Blatter urged to stand down from Fifa position by PFA chief and UK Sports Minister for racism views Read More......(read more)