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‘Facticity’ is the technical term for the things we cannot change, the things that are beyond our control. There will always be such things, and we have to get used to that. Some people have a problem because they tend to be defeatist. They accept things that they don’t need to accept – they fail to recognize that there are steps they could take to address their problems. However, the problem I am talking about here is the opposite of that. It refers to situations where people know there is nothing they can do, but they try to do it anyway. For example, someone who is interviewed for a job, but is unsuccessful may not be willing to let go of this fact. They may rail and rage against their potential employer, as if they have done them a significant injustice, rather than accept that, in the interviewing panel’s view, another candidate was better suited to the job. Not getting the job does not mean that you are a failure or that you are inadequate; it simply means you were not their first choice. Change what you can change, by all means, but railing against what you cannot change is a waste of time and energy and succeeds only in generating unnecessary bad feeling.
Governments, regulators and investors are taking a much greater interest in what organisations are doing to combat modern slavery and the exploitation of people both within the workforce and within company supply chains. Modern slavery is considered a key element of environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters. It is an issue of interest to investors, policymakers and regulators, who are looking to boards to report externally on their policies and actions. This factsheet looks at HR’s role in tackling modern slavery, and the steps that can be taken to prevent it.
‘Work first’ is a core idea that underpins the UK’s employment and welfare systems, and effective ‘work first’ orientated systems have long-term, paid employment as the primary goal for people interacting with them. This is the right objective, but with work entry rates for unemployed benefit claimants falling, health-related inactivity rising sharply and millions of people not claiming benefits locked out of support, urgent improvement is needed to reach it.
For the unemployed, the Jobcentre has become a Universal Credit (UC) monitoring service rather than an employment service. By updating DWPs own figures, we estimate that the department now spends £350 million a year on monitoring claimants, the equivalent of over half of the annual spend on work coach salaries. The estimated 13 million hours a year that work coaches spend monitoring claimants crowds out the opportunity for support which could help people towards work.
The poet and broadcaster Lemn Sissay has accused ministers of ignoring “brilliant” recommendations to improve the “dysfunctional” children’s social care system in England because they are not vote winners. Sissay, whose bestselling memoir My Name Is Why was a reflection on his own childhood in care, said the government had “cherrypicked” from the 2022 MacAlister review, despite the report putting forward costed recommendations that would save money in the longer term.
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Conflict can range from mild disagreement to violent confrontation, and, especially in its stronger forms, can be extremely destructive. However, it would be a significant mistake not to recognize that, in the right circumstances and if handled skilfully and confidently, conflict can actually be constructive. This is because carefully controlled conflict can spur innovation, free people up from tramline thinking, generate considerable learning, provide opportunities for people who have previously been at loggerheads with one another to respect one another, allow us to see situations from new perspectives, and so on. Conflict can be understood to be like fire. If it is controlled and handled carefully, it can be very productive and helpful, but if allowed to go unchecked, can be enormously destructive, raging out of control and drawing in a wide range of people who get harmed in the process. Developing the skills of handling conflict effectively is therefore a very important basis for best practice in tackling problems.
The UK is entering this election year with unacceptably high levels of poverty, appallingly high for some groups. We need a coherent plan with creative policies to end poverty in the UK. This report looks at the current situation across different groups and regions, and the future prospects for poverty in the UK.
When you observe a person who is stressed, sometimes you begin to feel stressed yourself, even if you are not doing anything stressful. Consider a scenario in which you’re watching someone give a presentation and they are noticeably anxious. You may start to feel the same increase in heart rate or sweaty palms that they are feeling. How does this stress contagion work? A recent study conducted by the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz in Germany explores this question and finds that observing stress in others leads to higher levels of stress hormones like cortisol. The findings of this study can be particularly helpful in managing stress in the workplace.
