When technologies collide

The perfect storm is on its way. A few days ago, I was waiting to cross the road in sunny Bournemouth. I was being quite careful as the two types of driver we have down here (boy racers and pensioners) are fairly uncoordinated and quite unlikely to stop to help once they have mowed you […]

The internet has killed advertising

Gore Vidal once said: “Advertising is the only true art form left in the Twentieth Century.” It may have been true once, but the standard of advertising quality has plummeted dramatically in the 21st century. And one of the main reasons for that is the success of Facebook. The world of advertising was once populated […]

Good news for slackers

A study, possibly not a particularly rigorous one, has found that, for peak mental health benefits, we should work just one day a week. The study found that the risk of mental health problems reduced by 30% when people did work of eight hours or less per week. One day of employment is the most […]

A rose by any other name

Chris Froome, the British-Kenyan cyclist, yesterday suffered a freak accident, leaving him in intensive care. He is one of many superstars working for Team Ineos. They were previously Team Sky and although not a fan, I knew what Sky did. Ineos, not so much; fracking perhaps? Names are important, they matter, or at least they […]

It’s never too late

75% of British workers in their 50s think they have hit a career ceiling. Retirement age is being postponed to the point where those in their 50s need to make decisions about their current and future career, possibly long into the future. Delays to retirement age kicked in for men as well as women from […]

The washing-up test

There have been some recent articles explaining the tricks some employers use to check the suitability of interviewees. Trent Innes, MD of Australian accounting company, Xero, bases his hiring decisions on what people do with their glass or coffee cup. “You can develop skills, you can gain knowledge and experience, but it really comes down […]

Why work should fit around our naps

The Greek word, ‘acedia’, was used by medieval monks to describe the feeling of lethargy and lack of purpose that is common to employees most afternoons. Christian mystics who lived in the Egyptian deserts during the 3rd century AD often complained about being haunted by the “noon-day demon”. One monk of the time described how […]

Elon Musk may be a dick, but he’s a clever dick

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, is weird. He got into trouble with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for falsely claiming that had secured funding to take his company private at $420 a share – and then got sued and fined $40m. Can you imagine another CEO who deals with Wall Street analysts by […]