Bookmarks (37) clear filters

Working from home has some well-publicised advantages, such as time and money saved on commutes, but some people have also found innovative ways to use their time. From cat-napping to later-life learning, four readers share their highs and lows of working from home.‘The tumble dryer doesn’t impact in terms of video-...

Laura Hancock started practising yoga when she worked for a charity. It was a job that involved long hours and caused a lot of anxiety. Yoga was her counterbalance. “It saved my life, in a way,” she says.Yoga brought her a sense of peace and started her journey of self-inquiry; eventually, she decided to bring those...

Millions of workers could be returning to unsafe workplaces without Covid risk assessments while the vaccines are still being rolled out and dangerous variants are circulating.A survey of union safety reps by the TUC suggests almost half of employers have not carried out a Covid risk assessment or have outdated, ina...

You don’t get joy from work – not many people do, says Eleanor Gordon-Smith – but you won’t get more of it sitting at the computer promising yourself you’ll work soon.I have always had a problem with work, I don’t have much internal motivation to do any and a lot of anxiety about it. Now I am supposed to be working from home I...

Working from home can mean never being able to switch off, but could EU-wide regulation end the always-on culture?When Poland went into strict lockdown last March, Natalia Zurowska barely had time to clear her desk at work. “I went in to get my laptop and then left,” says the 36-year-old, an office manager for a graphic design firm in Warsaw at the time. “I...

People over 50 who lose their jobs more likely to suffer long-term joblessness than other age groupsFinancial insecurity drives stressYoung Britons face Covid jobs crisisFix furlough gaps for self-employed, government urgedLisa Griffiths, a 61-year-old special needs nanny, has spent her career easily moving from one contract to the next. So when her last, five-year contract ended recently, she was shocked to find new employment...

From warming up your voice to avoiding spillages, here are some tips for keeping up professional appearancesI have been pretending not to be in bed while working for more than 20 years, but never got around to codifying my moves until lockdown, when they became useful to others. Before we drill down into specifics, there are some cardinal rules.First, never let a work call...

It may not be recommended, but, from necessity or choice, many of us find ourselves working from them. Here’s how to set up your perfect bed officeEverybody who knows what they’re talking about will tell you not to do it, but the lure of bed is hard to resist for any home worker. Or it may have become a necessity. With children home schooling,...

Most workplace festivities will be virtual this year – but, on the evidence of this lot, maybe that’s not such a bad thingWe were a party of about 15 in All Bar One, which was filled with other office parties. It was a sit-down Christmas dinner and, after the main course and cracker pulling, I wiped my mouth with a large cloth napkin and...

If you started a new job in 2020, or began working from home, you’re missing out on more than the Christmas party. Here’s why office friendships matterYou never forget your first. I met Abi in early 2009 when we were assistants on a fashion magazine. We sized each other up like a pair of cats on a suburban lawn, then quickly became inseparable. She:...

How best to resist the temptation to send one more email? Try these healthy hacks to put the home back into WFHEven though it happens in the same space as my Zoom counselling sessions, making music helps me to switch off immediately. I close the camera, switch on my synthesiser and load up the software. That simple process transports me into a sonic fantasy...

From cities, to science, to politics, six Observer writers assess how a post-pandemic world will emerge into a new normalCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageHere are some things that the pandemic changed. It accustomed some people – those whose jobs allowed it – to remote working. It highlighted the importance of adequate living space and access to the outdoors. It renewed, through...

More than 40% of working women worried about impact of Covid on job prospectsWomen in their mid-30s will never know equal pay in their working lives if progress towards tackling the gender gap is not accelerated, according to new analysis.To mark Equal Pay Day, the day that women in effect stop being paid because of the gender pay gap in the UK, Labour has...

Culture secretary distanced himself from widely mocked poster amid job losses in artsA government-backed advert that encouraged people working in the arts to reskill by turning to a career in cybersecurity has been scrapped after the culture secretary described it as “crass”.On Monday morning Oliver Dowden distanced himself from the Cyber First campaign, which resurfaced on the same day his department was celebrating awarding...

Anthropologist James Suzman says now is the perfect time to rein in our unsustainable work habits. But is it possible?Three encounters loom large in the anthropologist James Suzman’s memory of his brief but informative stint in the corporate world. The first was early on, when he told a colleague that he didn’t need to spend the half-million pounds allocated for a task because he...

The Garrick Club was founded in 1831 – a place where ‘actors and men of refinement and education might meet on equal terms’. Women were not allowed to be members and, almost 200 years on, that is still the case. Emily Bendell on why she is taking legal action against the Garrick and Amy Milne-Smith on the history of London’s clublandLast year, businesswoman Emily...

During lockdown millions started WFH – and most of us don’t want to go back. In just a few months the landscape of work, family and city life has altered dramatically - but are all the changes positive?There’s a man sitting at the first-floor window of the house that lies on the other side of my back fence. It’s early August, the weather is...

St Martin-in-the-Fields jettisons ensembles to focus on in-house provision at a time when freelance performers ‘on their knees’Ten London musical ensembles claim they have been “summarily dismissed” by one of the capital’s most prestigious churches in an “act of callous and unchristian behaviour”.The orchestras and choirs have put on concerts regularly at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square for 30 years, paying a hire fee...