The tech sector is growing, but a lack of understanding about roles in the industry may be preventing women from joining. So what are the jobs, where are they, and how can women get started?Amid the scorn heaped upon the use of “Fatima”, the ballet dancer central to a government advertising campaign (it pictured her in her ballet clothes, with “Fatima’s next job could be in cyber”), an important point was missed, say tech professionals.A lack of tech knowhow is costing the UK £63bn a year, according to the CBI, and there are an estimated 600,000 vacancies in digital. Continue reading...

14 Dec 2020 15:47 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

While working from home have you had a cheeky nap? Don’t feel guilty. Research shows a brief kip boosts productivity. But will it catch on in the office?Naps need to hire a publicist. Not in China, where desk-side snoozes are a constitutional right; Japan, where inemuri (“sleeping while present”) is a sign you’ve been working hard; or Spain, where siestas are woven into the social fabric. But in the UK, US, Australia and many other western countries – where capitalist rat races are fuelled by flat whites and billable hours – naps have a major image problem. They’re linked with laziness and lethargy; with people who can’t be bothered to get through the day.Yet now is the perfect time to rebrand them as something we associate with a productive lifestyle. Go for a run! Guzzle a green juice! Take a nap! With a large proportion of people working from home (it is estimated that half the UK workforce will still be doing so at the end of 2020), lots of us have more control than ever over what our working day looks like. Our boss overlords have been forced to loosen the reins. Aside from those awkward Zoom team check-ins we’re pretty much free to do as we please as long as we get our work done. Should we so desire, we can take a 20-minute kip after lunch and emerge pin-sharp for a busy afternoon. After all, the sofa is right there, beckoning us over to enjoy a moment of shut-eye. Continue reading...

06 Dec 2020 09:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Excitement may be in short supply but some UK firms are going to great lengths to bring festive cheer to their employeesThe dancefloor may be swapped for the kitchen, and the buffet for a box of breadsticks and some mini bottles of booze, but the office Christmas party is set to go ahead this year – and there may even be some star guests.With the latest restrictions and working-from-home making the traditional Christmas staff get-together a no-no, companies are turning to virtual celebrations for this year’s festive season.Virtual realityGin tastingTalent showsCarol singersQuizzesA box of goodies Continue reading...

04 Dec 2020 14:08 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

As we progress through the pandemic, tens of thousands of people are being made redundant. The Guardian will track these job losses as they are announcedCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTens of thousands of people are being made redundant in the UK as the coronavirus pandemic stalls the economy.The economic fallout from the pandemic has plunged the UK into the deepest recession for more than 300 years, as lockdowns, physical-distancing measures and people voluntarily making changes in response to high numbers of Covid infections have a dramatic impact on business and social life. Continue reading...

19 Nov 2020 10:02 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Employers cut back on hiring workers in effort to cope with coronavirus pandemicGraduate recruitment suffered the biggest drop this year since the 2008 financial crash as employers cut back on hiring workers to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.The latest survey by the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) found that the number of graduate jobs declined by 12% and that the majority of employers anticipated a further decline next year. Continue reading...

11 Nov 2020 06:01 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

People who have been made redundant in recent months reveal how they have been copingSoaring UK job losses show furlough extension may have come too lateCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageRishi Sunak has extended the government’s furlough scheme until March, but Tuesday’s employment figures underlined the impact that coronavirus is having on the jobs market. The unemployment rate rose from 4.1% to 4.8% between the second and third quarters of 2020, while a record 314,000 people lost their jobs in the three months to September. Here are some stories from the frontline of the Covid employment crisis. Continue reading...

10 Nov 2020 10:47 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Normally I love working with people, but it’s no fun when they blame me for enforcing the rules that help keep us all safe Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageWaitressing can be a difficult job at the best of times. The hours are long, the work is exhaustingly physical and the customers have a tendency to take out on you whatever frustrations have been building in them all week.I fondly remember one weekend brunch shift when a woman berated me because we only had white sugar for her coffee, not brown; she insisted that this was a breach of “etiquette”. She was definitely not sweet enough.The writer is a waitress in Manchester Continue reading...

25 Oct 2020 16:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN