The daily office commute is no longer a necessity. Remote work is booming, thanks to tools like Slack and Trello, uniting teams across vast distances. In the past year, the Office for National Statistics foresaw that half of the UK’s workforce would be remote in 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation, businesses increasingly […]
During one of his routine press conferences, the Director-General of the World Health Organization addressed the racist abuse and threats he had recently faced. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed that he had endured “personal attacks” and “racist comments” for as long as three months, with the abuse even involving derogatory terms based on his race. […]
When the travel start-up, Pana, conducted an all-employee meeting using Zoom, they communicated that some employees would be facing layoffs. They scheduled two subsequent calls that morning. The first at 09:00 for employees who were going to be laid off, and the second at 09:45 for those who would remain with the company. To determine […]
There has been significant attention given to the practical aspects of remote work, ranging from establishing a home office to becoming proficient in video conferencing tools. Yet, a growing curiosity surrounds the factors contributing to the rapid success of some individuals in remote roles, while others encounter challenges. To explore this phenomenon, we conducted an […]
The first few weeks of working during the lockdown have been truly remarkable, albeit at times, quite bewildering. We’ve swiftly said goodbye to our well-established daily routines and embraced entirely new and, for many, rather uncomfortable approaches to work. In this piece, we take a step back to contemplate our current experiences. We focus on […]
The wake of the coronavirus pandemic has seen a sharp increase in racist abuse directed towards Asian communities in Britain, according to figures obtained by HuffPost UK. Data collected through freedom of information requests reveals that the British Transport Police (BTP) and the Metropolitan Police have reported a significant rise in racially-aggravated assaults, harassment, and […]
The following articles feature our latest research on the rise of anti-Chinese racism in the UK. The objective of the research was a simple one: to identify increases in anti-Chinese prejudice since the outbreak of the coronavirus. · MSN · The Guardian · The Sun · ITV News · Evening Standard · Aol […]
The extremely low utilization of shared parental leave (SPL), a government initiative introduced in 2015, has received widespread attention. According to a YouGov and Winckworth Sherwood poll of 1,000 UK employees, only 7% currently take advantage of SPL. SPL allows couples to decide how to divide up to 50 weeks of leave and up to […]
“Don’t talk to me about diversity now – it’s not even in my top five priorities!” Stated a senior leader to their director of diversity and inclusion. This leader may believe that, given the current crisis, such a perspective is justifiable. Their attention is naturally focused elsewhere, and being asked to consider the diversity […]
Boredom can hamper productivity and decision-making, especially in remote work setups. Professor Binna Kandola explores strategies to combat this issue in his ongoing lockdown work series. Historically, boredom and monotony have led to conflicts in capsule environments, such as during spaceflights and in Antarctic research centres. We are all likely to face these challenges while […]