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Journaling has become a very popular activity for many people in many settings. Much of the reason for its popularity is that it gives helpful opportunities for exploring our thoughts and feelings about important issues that affect us. It serves as a useful sounding board for dealing with issues that can be confusing and disorientating. Beginning a career in social work is, of course, a major undertaking and a significant life-changing step that should not be made unthinkingly or without adequate preparation. It is for this reason that this journal has been developed. Available from https://neilthompson.info/shop/ or Amazon

Jobs that involve working with people generally have a written work component to them (report writing and record keeping, for example). This can become a routine part of the job, and so there is a danger that we write without first thinking about what we are writing, why we are writing it and who we are writing it for. The result can be very poor-quality written work, communication breakdowns and misleading records and reports that have the potential to wreak havoc. What we write may continue to be used for many years to come by other people involved in the future, so committing stuff to writing for posterity without giving it any thought is a risky business. So, the idea…

People managers are an indispensable link between an organisation’s top management and its employees. However, their impact is affected by several moderating factors, such as leadership style, management skills and organisational support. This evidence review draws together the best available evidence to explore why people managers are important, what a good people manager looks like, and how to develop effective people managers. As organisations navigate issues such as hybrid working and recruitment it’s important to realise that people managers not only need to manage their teams’ day-to-day tasks and responsibilities, they also need to nurture their people, implement corporate strategies and act as change agents. Click here to read more

Our Tackling Sexual Harassment in the Workplace toolkit is a free resource. It will help employers create workplaces where women are safe to report incidents of sexual harassment and support employers to respond appropriately – creating environments where sexual harassment does not happen in the first place. Tackling Sexual Harassment in the Workplace toolkit: Supports employers to change workplace culture, put in place a sexual harassment policy, train employees, make it safe and easy to report and respond appropriately. Is adaptable to suit organisations' needs and allows employers to listen and embed feedback from employees. Provides hard and soft tools to help employers change organisational culture and includes a range of resources, from a template policy, culture survey, internal communications…

A deep dive into the consequences of stigma took us to painful places – anger, hurt, lack of self-worth, not belonging, self-limiting habits, struggles connecting with others and the resulting cumulative impact on mental and physical health. One team member highlighted research undertaken by Psychologists for Change on the psychological impact of austerity. It showed austerity to be the cause of people's distress, yet it was being treated as a mental health problem located within the individual. It’s like telling a disadvantaged young person that they can get on the London housing ladder by cancelling their Netflix subscription. It reinforces the messaging that poverty is a state individuals succumb to, enabling people in power to relinquish any form of responsibility.…

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Values are at the heart of best practice. This important manual offers a successful blend of theoretical understanding with very helpful practice guidance to enable readers to make sense of the complex but vitally important issues. This is an ideal resource for anyone involved in types of work where success depends on effective engagement with people. Available from https://neilthompson.info/shop/ or Amazon

I mentioned in an earlier Lessons for Living that the Avenue Successful Time and Workload Management e-learning course is based on four principles of time and workload management. One of those principles is ‘Invest time to save time’. Unfortunately, busy people often fail to do this. There may be useful ways in which they could save time and energy, be more effective and/or achieve better results with the same resources, but many people will not explore these because they see themselves as being too busy to do so. That is, they don’t invest time to save time. An investment is not the same as a cost – the idea is that you should get that time back, with interest. Abraham Lincoln is…