Human society, argues Earls, functions as a herd. Word of mouth is an essential part of the communication process in the human herd. He uses the Arctic  Monkeys as an example. They were not signed up to a record label, they achieved fame by making their music available as free downloads on the internet, playing gigs and relying on word of mouth communication between their fans.

When we encourage job seekers to network in order to find jobs, we are relying on the same word of mouth contact that dominates herd marketing. We often present networking as a way of making new contacts- and indeed it is that. But it is more than just contact making. Effective networking is having your contacts talk about you. Utilising the word of mouth processes that are inherent in the way the herd communicates. So that your reputation spreads, and even people you have not met start to take an interest in you.

This means that there need to be connectors and influencers amongst the people you network with. These terms, devised by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Tipping Point refer to the sort of people that know everybody and everybody knows, people whose personality is such that we pay attention to what they say.

It all sounds a bit arcane, but it is only common sense really. When we network we need to do so with influential people and in such a way that are sufficiently impressed to mention us to others. Networking remains the most likely way of getting a job. It is even more effective if we understand why it works and do it well.

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There have been a few hiccups since them, notably in the field of industrial relations, with mail and rail strikes. But the spirit of co-operation seems to have returned. Yesterday public sector pay freezes were announced, with barely a complaint from staff. And although BA cabin crew are threatening strike action, they have proposed a 2.6% pay cut as part of an eventual package- if BA reinstate flight crew.

Does this co-operative spirit reflect a change in wider society? For example, we all recognise that taking care of the environment is a communal responsibility. In a sense this parallels what is happening in the economy, a recognition that we are all in this together and we are far more likely to pull through if we co-operate.

Of course there are many other areas of life in which individual needs reign supreme. We are not yet back to the old wartime spirit of which previous generations were so proud- we may never get back there and I am not sure if we really want to. But it seems that good can come even out of recessions, and that must be encouraging.

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We have all got used to changing jobs frequently, the old ideal of a job for life has all but disappeared. Nevertheless, top flight football careers are amongst the most mobile, very often a player will change team every couple of years. Clearly this is unsettling and one can see why David Beckham would crave the security of a one-club career. 

But is a job for life really something to relish? We live in a world characterised by change, and we live much faster lives than previous generations. Although the ever present threat of redundancy is unsettling, compare that to the fear of growing old doing the same job, in the same place, with the same colleagues,  for maybe forty years. What really matters is how we handle things when we change job. 

The key to a successful, mobile career is known as career management. It involves long term planning and setting strategies to ensure that our careers work out the way we want them to. For example, you might start life as an accountant in a small marketing company. But your longer term ambition is to rise to a senior position in a large company, in which you manage a successful accountancy team. To do this you need to plan the type of career moves you will make over the long term, devise a training schedule so that you can pick up more skills and qualifications along the way, and develop a career action plan that helps you to work out where the transition points are.

In this sort of scenario job changes become the opportunity to implement the next step in your career plan. Rather than being an obstacle to be overcome, redundancy, or voluntary career transition becomes an opportunity to move forward. It may not provide the same level of security as a job for life. But a well managed career is probably the best strategy for the world we live in. Whatever work we do.

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Nobody disagrees that many abusive parents try to deceive social workers, nor that seeing children alone would help identify abuse. The argument hinges on the best way to achieve this. Unison and BASW feel that the current powers are adequate and that if parents refuse or become aggressive now, exactly the same would happen under the NSPCC’s proposals.

Hilton Dawson, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers further argues that what is really need in social work is a better career structure, so that experienced case workers handle the difficult cases, rather than at present whereby experienced staff work in management and the less experienced do the front line work.

I can see the BASW’s point of view, to a degree. Social workers carry out an essential but sadly a thankless task. They rarely, if ever get praise for their successes, and the tabloid press is ready to jump down their throats every time something goes wrong- which happens far too frequently. Furthermore, we live in an over-legislative society, more regulations do not necessarily make things better, indeed they often make them more cumbersome.

But if the BASW believe that a better career structure is really the answer to the many problems facing social workers today, surely they are best placed to make it happen. OK, they need the buy in of the local authorities who employ most social work staff, but this is a question of campaigning and negotiating. Yet the BASW’s main policy initiative today is to establish a College of Social Work. I am sure this is a necessary institution, but it is far less direct and relevant than a career structure which would get experienced social workers back into the field and make an immediate difference on the ground.

By simply opposing new initiatives, however unnecessary, whilst not taking visible, positive action to bring forward the changes they would like to see, the BASW do not advance the cause of social workers, indeed  they keep them at the mercy of the tabloids and the mob.

Social workers deserve better. And they need the BASW to exert better leadership.

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How would you feel if your bosses told you that a perfectly legal activity which you enjoyed in your private life had upset one of their clients and that you had to desist? That is probably how Jim O’Neill feels right now. The demand from Goldman Sachs that he cease his association with the Red Knights raises serious questions about both the legal and moral rights of employers to intrude into the private lives of their staff.

A successful and fulfilled modern career is one which integrates the working and personal aspects of our lives. There is no reason to doubt that until this week this is how Jim O’Neill saw his career. But once employers start telling staff what they can and cannot do outside work, it does not just undermine morale and weaken motivation. It puts staff in a position in which they are forced to choose between an ideal which is becoming increasingly important in contemporary society- career satisfaction- and a short term need to preserve income and job security.

And of course it is also so stupid. Jim O’Neill is one of the most highly respected economists in the world. It is reported that he is considering resigning over the affair. Have Goldman Sachs no tools in their kit other than the big stick to resolve this matter? It would serve them right if he did resign. And, in my view it would be great for Manchester United.

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Autism, and its related condition Asperger’s syndrome are characterised by an inability on the part of the sufferer to relate to, and communicate with others. They come across as severely withdrawn and in less enlightened times were assumed to be stupid. In fact many autism victims are highly intelligent, it is just that they cannot communicate the outcomes of their thought processes effectively. Mark Haddon’s best selling novel, The Curious Tale of The Dog In The Night-Time gives a poignant and powerful account of what it is like to be autistic.

But despite their communication difficulties there are many work related tasks at which autistic people excel. They can be highly logical, focused on detail and extremely thorough in their performance. This makes them ideal for computer or numerate work. A Danish company, Specialisterne employs over forty people with autism, testing software and working on other specialist technical tasks.

The proposals to help autism sufferers are just another step in the gradual opening up of the workplace to excluded groups. Not all have health problems. Some have learning difficulties, others have had difficult ,home lives and are socially excluded. There is much more work to be done in bringing excluded groups in from the cold. But today’s announcement is a welcome step.

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Yes, there is much that employers can do to improve the working lives and productivity of staff who suffer back pain, and it is to everyone’s benefit that they do so. Ergononomic measures can be taken, for example making sure that staff are seated properly and using specially adapted equipment. Flexible working can help, as can ensuring that staff are working in roles that are less physically demanding.

But where the campaign is unrealistic is that is does not appreciate that all these measures come at a cost. And many, if not most, employers are cash-strapped in the current economic slowdown. Even with the best will in the world, they are likely to find new measures difficult to implement.

What is missing from the campaign is a clear call to action to staff who suffer skeletal pain to take what measures they can to improve their working life. In some cases all they will be able to do is to lobby their employers to make changes. But there are also many people with milder pain problems who do not address them properly, who could do simple things like adjust the rake and height of their chairs, but who are unaware that this alone could save them serious problems later.

And there are people with serious problems who fail to take notice when warning signs come on, who pass over the chance to spend a day or two off work when experiencing mild twinges, and who end up as a result taking months off later.

We all have to take responsibility for ourselves. Just as we are on our own when looking for a job, so too there are times when we are on our own when working in a job. It is a fine thing for employers to be lobbied to make improvements. But sufferers cannot rely on unwilling employers making changes as a result of a high  profile campaign. It is unrealistic to believe otherwise. A bottom up approach is every bit as important as a top down one.

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This does not seem fair. The civil service moves slowly and although it has been known since the earliest days of the recession that its workers will, along with the rest of the public sector, bear much pain for getting the economy back on its feet, planning the redundancies has taken months and most have still not been implemented. This is very different from the private sector in which redundancy decisions canbe taken and implemented far more speedily.

The effect is that a civil service worker, suspecting that their job is at risk, is likely to have relied on their contractual redundancy terms to underpin their short term future whilst hunting for another job. They are now being told that these terms are changing.

The absurdity is that if civil service workers receive smaller redundancy payouts, they will turn to state benefits sooner. So whilst the public finances will be saving money in redundancy payouts, it will actually cost the taxpayer more in benefits. Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of PCS says that the changes ‘are more about crude politicking than making savings’. One can see his point.

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It is not surprising because British workers have higher expectations, and these expectations have been imposed upon them by society. Sociology professor Richard Sennet explained that “in the 1980s there was a great change in the culture of work and it promised everyone could become upwardly mobile. So crap jobs became dead-end jobs.”

The question now is whether the recession, and the fact that immigrant labour is drifting away from the UK, will cause a reverse trend in our working culture and expectations. All the academic research being carried out on the future of work predicts greater work life balance, more flexibility, much better integration of careers and life. But reality has a habit of overturning scholarly predictions and there is a real possibility that economic pressures will force us back into a much more restricted view of work, and its impact on our lives.

If we return to an era in which we are required to take whatever job we can due to limited choice, work harder for lesser reward and with little prospect of significant personal development, how will we respond? Will necessity force us back to the sort of work ethic we see, indeed expect, from Eastern European immigrants, so that our economy and prosperity recover, or will our experiences of a choice-based working culture leave us unable to cope with the new reality?

Fortunately, for now it is only a theoretical question. But it is still not at all clear how long it will take until the economy recovers, if at all, and it would not be wise to ignore any possibilities.

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Bullying can take many forms, from verbal abuse to sexual intimidation to physical violence. And for most people the big question is what to do if they ar being bullied.

First and foremost, do not suffer in silence. Find someone to talk to about it. Your employer has a legal duty to prevent bullying- not much use of course if your employer is the bully, but otherwise a complaint to them is certainly in order. But find a friend as well, you need to feel cared for, not just that you are going through a formal complaints procedure.

The old school adage of standing up to a bully is not so effective in the workplace, where hierarchies may mean that confronting your victimiser might actually worsen your position. But this doesn’t mean that you should not speak to the bully about their behaviour; most bullies have been victims of abuse themselves and may not even know that they are behaving in an unacceptable way.

Support is also available from trade unions, counsellors, ACAS and the Citizens Advice Bureau. The internet is full of excellent resources on how to deal with bullying at work. Let’s just hope that the news story drops out of the headlines and bullying resumes its place a social evil that needs to be counteracted.

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