Currently browsing category

Making Work Real, Page 2

Book Review: Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success

‘If I keep doing good over the time, I will eventually be rewarded’, that is one of the core principles that have been highly influential in shaping my personality from a very young age. And my stance for this ideology has ever since persuaded me to believe that the acts of sharing, helping and collaborating with others would lead to personal and general satisfaction. Continue reading →

Book Review: Accelerating Out of the Great Recession: How to Win in a Slow-growth Economy

  How do you, not just survive, but thrive in the aftermath of a recession where so many failed to do so? The subtitle of this book is what immediately jumped out at me when I pulled it off the library shelf. To be able to say this book provides an answer on how to win in a slow growth economy in just 202 pages is quite a claim considering the struggle of most businesses post-recession. Continue reading →

Book Review: Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead

.   Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg, examines a decline in females achieving leadership positions, the root causes of this and potential solutions. I was greatly affected by Sandberg’s TED talk titled ‘Why we have too few women leaders’, and her experience as COO of Facebook and as a former VP at Google affords the author much credibility. Continue reading →

Lecture Review: Peter Cheese, Chief Executive CIPD

The brilliant guest speaker, Peter Cheese, talked about the ‘future of work and future skills’ from a thought provoking perspective. Peter discussed not only what future employers will be looking for, but also an idea of what the future world’s economy will be looking like in 20 or 30 years. He began by asking us where we are from and then asked, “What age do you think you will retire at?”. He then went on to say that you probably won’t go through life having only one job. Continue reading →

MWR: Does it Pay to be Ethical?

Ethics. Small word, yet it carries a tremendous weight whilst “imposing pressure on all businesses” today. (Webley, 2012) Was it ethical of me to choose to explore the issues surrounding the theme of ‘Ethical/Unethical? I will let you be the judge of that. So, without further ado, let’s begin. I chose two questions of interest during the early weeks of my individual learning plan, the first being “Could acting unethically actually be ethical? “. Continue reading →

MWR: Is It Possible to Separate Work and Leisure?

It’s no secret that most employees strive for a more attractive work-life balance, but is this even possible any more, or do we now have no choice but to accept the reality of the work-life merge? Step onto any commuter train, and you will be met by the sight of hordes of workers glued to their phone or laptop screens, already checking emails or starting their work. With figures from the Office for National Statistics indicating that 3. Continue reading →

MWR: What Drives Our Decision Making Process?

The brain is a decision making machine - every day we are presented with choices. This is especially apparent in Business, where making good decisions is of great importance. What are the mechanisms of choice however, how do we make decisions? How do they go right, and how do they go wrong? In our society we value reason and rational thought, we tend to think that good decisions are based on careful consideration, and a thorough examination of the relevant facts. Continue reading →

MWR: When Was the Last Time You Actually Switched off Your Work Mode?

   Working from home seems to be 2 in 1, but does it actually help to find balance between work and life? Working outside of the home makes it possible to go home to relax. A woman, working from home, was asked where she goes when she wants to relax and she replied with laughter and said: “Nowhere, nowhere at all” (Crosbie and Moore, 2004). Looks like working from home is not as enjoyable as it seemed at the first sight. Continue reading →