Paul’s Blog
Welcome to my blog! I write about news and insights into career development, employment trends and the future of work.
Good Work vs Crap Work: The Quest to Find One and Avoid the Other
I’m just completed the very slightly depressing read of the Institute for the Future of Work’s report on the spread of ‘Amazonian’ work practices – The Amazonian Era: How algorithmic systems are eroding good work. Their survey found that 55% of workers felt less valued by their employers after recent changes to work practices, while 49% felt less fulfilled. The report calls for a ‘human-centered approach to technology and a renewed focus on making work better’
Is it time for Accent Discrimination to be made illegal?
Have you ever felt discriminated against because of the way you speak? Have you ever been told you needed to soften, or even lose, your accent, in order to get ahead in the workplace? Is ‘accent discrimination’ an actual thing? Well, the French government have decided it is, and have legislated accordingly. Should the UK follow suit, and add accent to the existing list of protected characteristics , or would that be a discrimination law too far?
Career Tip: Don’t Compare Your Insides to Other People’s Outsides
Have you ever found yourself judging your internal experience by looking at others’ external demeanour? Or to put it another way, judging your behind the scenes preparations against someone else’s ‘highlights reel’? From a career development perspective, this is a mindset well worth avoiding.
Accentuating the positive in job seeking and career thinking
Regulating our intake of negative news is regarded as a healthy habit for keeping out outlook on life positive and balanced, and maintaining a more optimistic view of the future. This principle translates well to the way we think about ourselves, when there are demonstrable benefits to out enjoyment of life and to job seeking and our career prospects, of keeping in mind our skills, our achievements and the positive potential for out future.
Career Decisions: ‘Undecided’ vs ‘indecisive’ – What’s the difference?
Have you decided you need a career change? Has a Career Change been forced upon you by recent circumstances? Are you feeling undecided about what to do next and what career path you should follow? Or are you in a state of indecisiveness? For important life decisions such as committing to a potential job or learning opportunity or identifying what kind of work you might do in the future, the difference between undecidedness and indecisiveness is useful to consider.
Career Planning Strategy – are you a ‘Goal’ or a ‘River’ Person?
“If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up somewhere else!” That old phrase has been spoken many times as a warning to the unfocussed and unprepared. But it’s a phrase that will have different resonance for you depending on how you think, in relation to your career planning strategy and to life in general. For some of us, the idea of knowing where you’re going, in as much detail as possible, is reassuring and a good way to avoid confusion and fear of an uncertain future.
3 Essentials for Answering Interview Opening Questions
From my experience of chairing interview panels, debriefing candidates post-interview, talking to recruiters about what great candidates do, and of course being interviewed plenty of times myself, here’s an observation. In the vast majority of job interviews, the opening question is a broad, open-ended question that is asking for more that it might seem; typical variants of this type of question include; Tell us about yourself.
Job Interview Success and Fine Margins
Usain Bolt is famous the world over for his extraordinary athletic exploits. As the overwhelming favourite, he successfully defended his 100m title at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, running a mind- boggling 9.81 seconds. In the same race, US athlete Trayvon Bromell finished the race in 10.6 seconds-less than a second behind Bolt. As an illustration of how tight margins between winning and losing can be this takes some beating. It becomes even more incredible when you take in the fact that Bromell finished 8 th (and last) with six other athletes finishing between Bolt and Bromell!
An Approach to Thinking About Work and Purpose
Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and William Damon, are three Harvard University psychologists who worked together to found The Good Project set up with the aim of nurturing excellence, engagement, and ethics in education, preparing people to become good workers and good citizens who contribute to the overall well-being of society.
One of the strands of their work is the idea of ‘good work’. Their thinking is that ‘good work’ is good for society, defining good work as satisfying work that gives us as individuals the chance to work for a purpose beyond ourselves, an opportunity to use and develop our talents and capabilities, and to work collaboratively with people who both challenge and support us.
Is it time for a UBI in the UK?
The recent death by starvation of Mercy Beguma, an asylum seeker in Glasgow, prompted many to ask; How is it possible, or acceptable, for someone to starve to death in one of the world’s wealthiest economies? With the documented growth in foodbanks, homelessness, and a range of issues associated with poverty, it has become a familiar question, If our existing systems fail to the extent that people living here cannot eat, might there be some better options?
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