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For most people this is the first working day of the new decade. Rarely have we begun a year, let alone a decade, with such a pervading spirit of economic gloom and personal negativity. It seems that whatever we read, or whoever we talk to, we cannot get away from the recession, redundancies, pension scheme losses, insolvencies and general misery. (more…)

The announcement by the government that children as young as seven are to receive careers education will have sent shudders down the back of all responsible careers professionals. We are already plagued by an educational system that encourages them, often via their parents, to make long term career decisions years before they are ready. We now seem destined to raise children who are expected to know what they want to do forty years hence even though they have not even lived a quarter of that time! (more…)

Sometimes amazing things happen to us, for reasons we don’t understand. We put them down to luck, or chance. Whilst things can, and do, happen by luck or chance, more frequently outstanding things happen to us because we make them happen, even though we don’t realise it. (more…)

The news this weekend that Gordon Brown’s eyesight may have been further damaged raises some important questions. Both about our attitude as a society to disability, and about the effectiveness of disability legislation in general. (more…)

“Now is the Winter of Our Discontent”. The opening words of Shakespeare’s Richard III were used to describe the profound industrial unrest that took place in 1978-9 Schools and airports closed for lack of workers, and ambulance drivers struck,. For several months the country was riven by strikes. Rubbish piled high in the street. Thousands of petrol stations were closed. Schools and airports closed for lack of workers, and ambulance drivers struck, grave diggers in Liverpool downed tools. (more…)

The nature of our future working lives is becoming an increasingly important debate in modern society; changes to the way we work and how we manage our careers are likely to be defining characteristics of the 21^st century. But there are two, distinct pressures on the future of work and it is not at all clear which is going to win out. (more…)

One of my most frequent activities during the recession has been replying to the vast numbers of people who have asked to come and work at Career Energy as a career consultant. There is clearly something about the work we do which appeals to people; the idea of helping others is always attractive and what better to help them with than careers, which take up such an significant part of our life. (more…)

A fifty seven year old man came to see me. He had come to this country as a young man, a refugee from war in his homeland. His immediate need when arriving in the UK was to earn money to send home and he got himself the first job that he could, a fairly menial job which paid relatively well given what he was used to, but which did not stretch or challenge him in any way. (more…)

Writing in the Guardian this weekend, Equality and Human Rights Commission Trevor Philips makes out a powerful case for increasing the opportunities for all in the workplace. In addition to their traditional work around gender and ethnicity, the Commission’s Working Better project aims to ensure that new ways of working are introduced which address the specific work-life and personal life management issues of all groups. These include parents, carers, younger workers, disabled and older people. (more…)

How would you react if you discovered the company that you worked for was engaged in corrupt practices? It is not an idle question. The allegations that British Aerospace paid out millions of pounds in bribes to secure contracts raises important personal questions for all of us. How would you react if you had to choose between your personal integrity and the risk of losing your job? (more…)