Isabel Berwick Author Rss https://faqinsurances.com/author/isabel-berwick/ Isabel Berwick Author Rss - Faqs of Insurances Tue, 07 Nov 2023 19:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://faqinsurances.com https://faqinsurances.com/public/skin/logo.png Isabel Berwick Author Rss https://faqinsurances.com/author/isabel-berwick/ 144 144 <![CDATA[The condition can be debilitating at work – and medicines are in short supply globally ]]> https://faqinsurances.com/2023/11/07/the-condition-can-be-debilitating-at-work-and-medicines-are-in-short-supply-globally/ Tue, 07 Nov 2023 19:00:00 +0000 https://faqinsurances.com/2023/11/07/the-condition-can-be-debilitating-at-work-and-medicines-are-in-short-supply-globally/

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Millions of working adults struggle with ADHD worldwide. The condition often affects people’s ability to focus and complete tasks, making professional life difficult. Shortages of ADHD medicines have compounded the problem, with some patients forced to go without, or ration, their medication. How can managers better understand employees who are struggling with ADHD? What adjustments can they make to improve working conditions? And what can workers themselves do to cope? Host Isabel Berwick speaks to Dr Uthish Sreedaran, clinical director for psychiatry at Psychiatry-UK, and Leanne Maskell, founder and director of ADHD Works, which provides ADHD training and coaching.

Got a workplace dilemma you’d like Isabel and Jonathan to help you with? Submit it here: https://telbee.io/channel/ygf7_gly04xgtckcb0g56a/

Want to get in touch? Write to Isabel at isabel.berwick@ft.com

Want more? Free links:

The benefits of revealing neurodiversity in the workplace

Employers see the positive side of ADHD and autism

We’ve all got ADHD symptoms. Right?


View our accessibility guide.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Isabel Berwick

]]> <![CDATA[Straight-talking solutions to tricky workplace dilemmas, from the host of the Working It podcast ]]> https://faqinsurances.com/2023/08/12/straight-talking-solutions-to-tricky-workplace-dilemmas-from-the-host-of-the-working-it-podcast/ Sat, 12 Aug 2023 07:00:10 +0000 https://faqinsurances.com/2023/08/12/straight-talking-solutions-to-tricky-workplace-dilemmas-from-the-host-of-the-working-it-podcast/ Real readers, real problems: every week in the FT’s Working It newsletter, Isabel Berwick answers workplace dilemmas, with help from experts. To receive Office Therapy in your inbox every week, sign up at www.ft.com/newsletters

My manager doesn’t trust me

The problem: I am pitching for a new role with larger team responsibilities but my manager believes I am not ready for it. To be clear, he is not denying me the role, but has warned that I will have to change my style of working and will need constant “coaching” to take tough decisions. I feel he is setting me up for failure because he expects me to do as he does, even if I do not agree with his rationale (eg back to office five days vs hybrid).

Any challenge to his decisions will be seen in light of (in his opinion) my inability to carry out “tough asks” from management. Should I manage the team the way he expects me to? Or stick to what I believe is the right way?

Isabel’s advice: It’s not you — it’s him, but as I have learnt (rather belatedly), you are powerless to change other people — all you can change is how you respond to them. So you can work around this insecure man, doing his bidding while pursuing your independent course, as far as you can. Or you can decide to move, internally or otherwise.

Michael Skapinker, an FT contributing editor as well as a counsellor and coach, offers more nuanced thoughts: “I suggest asking for a discussion about your boss’s views of where you are and where you should be, so that you have a clearer picture of what he needs from you. I sense, too, that you have your own ideas of where things should be going, which are not your boss’s ideas.

“You can gently try to talk him around in your ‘clear the air’ chat. Or you can leave. It’s an unfortunate fact: the boss is the boss and you are not.”

A cure for the post retirement blues?

The problem: I have just retired from an employer I have been with for nearly 40 years. Work was rewarding but very full-on and client-facing. I was ready to go, but the new reality is weird. I will spend the summer relaxing but what advice can you give for a short-term goal or target? Friends seem to think I should have lots of ideas [charity committees, travel etc] but I feel empty.

Isabel’s advice: You are bound to find things “weird” — you are going through a profound shift. Here’s the best advice I got while going through sudden change: don’t make big decisions while the disruption is still fresh. Also, don’t listen to those suggestions from well-meaning but clueless friends.

You may in due course want to get expert advice about your “next stage”, perhaps from a coach who specialises in transitions, but an easy first step is to read Changing Gear: Creating the Life You Want After a Full-On Career by Jan Hall and Jon Stokes.

Gabriella Braun, psychoanalytic consultant and author of All That We Are: Uncovering the Hidden Truths Behind Our Behaviour at Work, adds that retirement is a change that, “unlike other transitions, reminds us of our mortality”. However ready we are for retirement, it causes anxiety. “You need to adjust, including facing the loss. Your feeling of emptiness — common in bereavement — suggests that, whether consciously or unconsciously, you’re doing that.”

As Braun sums up (and here’s advice we should all take at times of disruption and transition): “Don’t worry if you are up and down at times, it’s part of change. And you are changing your whole way of life. Take your time.”

Got a question, problem, or dilemma for Office Therapy? Think you have better advice for our readers? Email isabel.berwick@ft.com

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Isabel Berwick

]]> <![CDATA[How to avoid mismatched internal expectations, plus the Office Therapy advice column ]]> https://faqinsurances.com/2023/07/26/how-to-avoid-mismatched-internal-expectations-plus-the-office-therapy-advice-column/ Wed, 26 Jul 2023 12:00:27 +0000 https://faqinsurances.com/2023/07/26/how-to-avoid-mismatched-internal-expectations-plus-the-office-therapy-advice-column/

This article is an on-site version of our Working It newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every Wednesday

Hello and welcome to Working It.

This week’s big FT workplace talking point is Pilita Clark’s column about tattoos now being widely accepted in professional settings. There are hundreds of reader comments. Everyone, it seems, has a VERY STRONG opinion about visible ink at work, with self-declared older people least tolerant. (And then there’s reader Happy Ever After: “I find tattoos disgusting.” 🤢)

I keep my upper arm tattoo under wraps at work — but I am of course firmly on the “pro-ink” side. Every piece tells a story, and many of them are fascinating.

Send (safe for work) opinions on tattoos, your furry co-worker photos to cleanse my palate, and anything else that you think we should be covering here to isabel.berwick@ft.com.

What does ‘good’ HR look like?

Whenever the FT covers workplace disputes, employment tribunals and allegations of sexual harassment, one theme often emerges: the shortcomings of human resources departments. Here’s FT special investigations editor Madison Marriage, on the Working It podcast:

“Every story I’ve ever written to do with bullying, harassment, sexual assault in the workplace, HR has been a malevolent force, not a force for good. So I would advise people to be very wary of HR. My experience is that they are there to help the company, not the people lower down the ranks.”

The HR department has an inherent tension because it “serves two masters”, as it’s often put: first the company, and its best interests, and second, the human capital (aka “talent”, but probably not called that when there’s a dispute going down). When powerful organisational interests, money and fear collide, things easily go wrong.

One big change that would help stop this rot, as we discussed last week, is having human resources executives on every company board of directors, so they have far more influence to make sure matters of corporate culture and staff satisfaction are taken seriously — and measured — at the highest levels. Brand new research from the CIPD, the UK HR sector’s professional body, shows a bleak situation: “In all, 99 per cent of boards have a chief financial officer or a finance director among their board members, but just 2 per cent have an HR director as an executive board member.” 😳

That’s big-picture thinking. But what does “good” everyday HR look like? By this I mean the kind that will create a healthy corporate culture and help to prevent catastrophic situations. I put this question to Meena Anand, incoming chief executive of the City HR Association.

Good HR, she says, is about “creating some guardrails around organisations — being clear about what is expected from individuals”. Meena had a long career in global HR and saw many situations where internal communication was . . . less than clear 🌫️.

“Whenever there is a disconnect it is always mismanaged expectations. I have done loads of disciplinary and grievance issues and the one thing that comes up time and time again is that the manager has a set of expectations and the employee or their team has a different set of expectations.”

One of my own issues with HR is that there’s just so much of it. Are these poor people being asked to do too much, meaning they can’t focus on their best work? No, says Meena. “The whole thing about HR is that it is about people, so it can’t just be about one thing.” HR, in other words, reflects the whole beautiful, messy world we inhabit. By way of explanation, Meena sent me the photo below.

I’m not sure it exactly addresses my concerns about HR professionals being spread too thin, but I like the style.

What does “good HR” look like? What are your experiences in navigating HR, good and bad?

I dare CHROs to wear this next time they meet the CEO

This week on the Working It podcast

This week you have another chance to hear our popular episode on imposter syndrome, and how to turn this common form of self-doubt into a positive. My guests are Sian Beilock, a neuroscientist and academic, and Viv Groskop, a podcaster, stand-up comedian and executive coach.

We’ve had a short summer hiatus but will be back with new episodes very soon, with new producer Mischa Frankl-Duval in charge. A big welcome to Mischa — and do get in touch with your ideas for the podcast.

Office Therapy

The problem: I am pitching for a new role with larger team responsibilities but my manager believes I am not ready for it. To be clear, he is not denying me the role, but has warned that I will have to change my style of working and will need constant “coaching” to take tough decisions.

I feel he is setting me up for failure because he expects me to do as he does, even if I do not agree with his rationale (eg back to office five days vs hybrid). Any challenge to his decisions will be seen in light of (in his opinion) my inability to carry out “tough asks” from management. Should I manage the team the way he expects me to? Or stick to what I believe is the right way?

Isabel’s advice: It’s not you — it’s him, but as I have learned (rather belatedly), you are powerless to change other people — all you can change is how you respond to them. So you can work around this insecure man, doing his bidding while pursuing your independent course, as far as you can. Or you can decide to move, internally or otherwise🚶🏼‍♂️.

Michael Skapinker, a psychotherapist and coach, offers more nuanced thoughts: “I suggest asking for a discussion about your boss’s views of where you are and where you should be, so that you have a clearer picture of what he needs from you. I sense, too, that you have your own ideas of where things should be going, which are not your boss’s ideas. You can gently try to talk him round in your ‘clear the air’ chat. Or you can leave. It’s an unfortunate fact: the boss is the boss and you are not.”

Got a question, problem, or dilemma for Office Therapy? Think you have better advice for our readers? Send it to me: isabel.berwick@ft.com. We anonymise everything. Your boss, colleagues or underlings will never know.

Five top stories from the world of work

  1. Why productivity is so weak at UK companies: An in-depth look at the UK’s poor productivity conundrum, by senior business writer Andrew Hill, who digs into the possible causes and then gets philosophical towards the end . . . what is productivity anyway?

  2. Interview with LinkedIn’s CEO Ryan Roslansky: I somehow missed this last week so am re-upping Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson’s excellent interview. Ryan is behind the social platform’s reinvention beyond job-seeking, into careers and leadership. May contain humblebragging.

  3. How I learnt to live with shyness: Not strictly a work-related article, but Emma Jacobs’ beautifully written piece covers many of the socially awkward experiences that will be familiar to shy people at work — and she highlights the upsides of this personality trait.

  4. Leaner times will test employers’ commitment to worker wellbeing: The more employers help staff with mental health support, the more they will be open to claims that they are falling short if they cut spending as the economy contracts, reports Brooke Masters.

  5. NatWest chief Alison Rose steps down after Nigel Farage row: Still an evolving story as this edition of Working It is finalised, this tale will perhaps one day serve as a case study of misalignment between “inclusive” values internally and wider business demands and obligations.

A word from the Working It community

I have paused serious reader comments this week (but do keep them coming) to spotlight Tucker, occasional co-worker to the FT’s US newsletter editor, Emily Goldberg. I am especially impressed by the aesthetically pleasing and dog-matched background in her (parents’) home. More like Tucker, please 🐾. It is about to be August, after all.

Tucker tucks in

One more thing

Anna Sinfield, the original producer on Working It when we launched, is an audio ⭐️ who has gone on to great things. Her new series, “The Girlfriends” is already number one in the podcast charts. It redefines true crime, reclaiming justice for Gail Katz, murdered in the 1980s by her husband. It’s all done through the efforts of a group of women — including some of his ex-girlfriends. It is, remarkably, funny as well as moving and anger-inducing.

And finally . . . can you help with this research 🙋🏽?

A callout from Working It reader Calum Carson, senior research associate at the University of Lancaster. He’s running its Inclusive Remote and Hybrid Working Study, and is seeking input from people in the UK with a disability and/or a long-term health condition with experience of remote or hybrid working in the past five years. You will, Calum says, “be part of helping to identify how employers can make remote and hybrid working more inclusive of disabled workers’ needs in the future”. Fill in the short form here and follow the project on LinkedIn.

Recommended newsletters

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This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Isabel Berwick

]]> <![CDATA[Make like the locals — warm up in a waterfront sauna and then brave a cold dip in a variety of the city’s designated bathing zones ]]> https://faqinsurances.com/2023/04/06/make-like-the-locals-warm-up-in-a-waterfront-sauna-and-then-brave-a-cold-dip-in-a-variety-of-the-citys-designated-bathing-zones/ Thu, 06 Apr 2023 00:00:32 +0000 https://faqinsurances.com/2023/04/06/make-like-the-locals-warm-up-in-a-waterfront-sauna-and-then-brave-a-cold-dip-in-a-variety-of-the-citys-designated-bathing-zones/ This article is part of a new guide to Copenhagen from FT Globetrotter

Copenhagen has cleaned up its act so much in the past 25 years that its once-industrial 12km-long harbour is now an all-year outdoor-swimming destination. In summer, a local friend tells me, the city’s office workers pile down to the waterfront and swim after work, and you’ll spot rickety ladders going into the water as you walk along the harbour front.

Swimming

Islands Brygge Harbour Bath

Islands Brygge 14, 2300 Copenhagen S

  • Good for: Year-round swimming for everyone, with five pools, including two for children, plus beautiful diving towers

  • Not so good for: Peace and quiet. This place is famous and central. The full capacity is 600 swimmers

  • FYI: The tallest jumping and diving tower is 5m, offering a summer nostalgia trip for anyone who laments the removal of diving boards from British swimming pools

  • Website; Directions

The jumping tower at Islands Brygge Harbour Bath © Valdemar Ren

It probably wasn’t the best idea to arrive for a swim at Islands Brygge on a clear morning with an air temperature around freezing. The locals had their members-only saunas to warm up in but I had to change by the side of the harbour pool, although there’s plenty of privacy — the small winter pool is set down steps, well below the busy harbourside path that runs alongside it. There’s also a much bigger adult pool here, with lanes, for serious swimming in warmer weather.

The surrounding area — literally, Iceland’s Quay — is a regenerated former port where the price of apartments has rocketed in recent years. The harbourfront next to the baths, even in winter, is busy with walkers, runners, families with kids in enormous Babboe cargo bikes — and people having coffee in the sun. It’s a wonderful spot.

There are plenty of cafés in the area for a post-swim drink and cake. The best known is Wulff & Konstali, a five-minute walk away, but I am afraid I was so cold that I had to warm up inside the closest option — a branch of the ubiquitous Joe and The Juice. Five stars for its heating.

Sandkaj Bathing Zone at Nordhavn

Sandkaj 27, 2150 Copenhagen

  • Good for: Sunbathing; trying to blend in with the cool locals in this emerging neighbourhood

  • Not so good for: Visitors with limited time. The area is a way out from the city centre

  • FYI: A new metro station, Orientkaj, and waterbus stop both serve Nordhavn — and arriving or leaving by waterbus is a treat in itself

  • Website; Directions

This is not strictly a harbour bath, rather a series of swimming areas marked with barriers, walkways, ladders and a beautifully designed indoor changing area (not open when I visited in winter). The wider draw is the chance to swim, lounge, eat and drink in a relaxed urban setting.

The members’ changing huts and sauna at Sandkaj Bathing Zone © Valdemar Ren

Wide terraced seating alongside the bathing zone makes swimming here something of a spectator sport. Locals wear chic quilted changing robes — far less bulky than their UK counterparts. This place is a sun trap, and there are plenty of cafés nearby for warming drinks, including a branch of Copenhagen’s Original Coffee chain.

Founder Thorbjørn Froda stresses its sustainable business practices: certified sustainably grown wood for the stoves comes from offcuts from manufacturing, and the water for the ice baths is drawn directly from the sea. There’s no swimming at this site, but a couple of minutes submerged in the ice bath is enough to make you lose feeling in your extremities, then it’s back into the sauna or book one of the pleasingly hot hot-tubs — they are heated to 40C. Staff are on hand and can bring cold drinks.

Froda’s advice? “Always end on the cold.” Finishing your sauna or tub session with a blast in icy water is what Nordic wellness culture is all about.

One hour in a CopenHot hot tub for up to six people, DKr1,300 (about £155); Panoramic Sauna for up to 10, DKr1,200 (about £140) per hour. Bookings are a flat rate per sauna or hot tub, regardless of the number of people. Check the website for most up-to-date opening times and locations. Bring Crocs or flip-flops. CopenHot provides towels, and secure changing cabins. Book at least 24 hours ahead.

Butcher’s Heat mobile sauna

  • Good for: Getting (very) close to the locals

  • Not so good for: Anyone who struggles with extreme heat or small spaces

  • FYI: This sauna is in a van and moves around the city, so check where your session is taking place. There is also a stationary Butcher’s Heat sauna here

  • Website

Butcher’s Heat offers the hottest, trippiest and most exhausting sauna session I’ve ever had. And also the only one playing Pink Floyd while we roasted. If you are happy to try something new and challenging, this one is for you.

Blue and purple coloured globe lights in the darkened Butcher’s Heat sauna
‘The hottest and trippiest sauna session I’ve ever had’: Butcher’s Heat © Valdemar Ren
A woman in swimwear looking out through the back door from the Butcher’s Heat sauna van
Butcher’s Heat specialises in ‘saunagus’: aromatherapy in a sauna © Valdemar Ren
The mobile sauna is a converted ex-military truck that fits a dozen visitors

The Butcher’s Heat van is a converted ex-military vehicle that seats 12 cosily — it was parked on a popular stretch of the harbourfront when I visited. It’s no frills: you have to change outside, but the organisers provide plenty of water, fruit and snacks.

Butcher’s Heat specialises in saunagus: aromatherapy in a sauna. The session is led by a “gus master” who sits next to the stove and puts oils on to the coals. As we piled into the van, she explained we’d be sitting inside — in silence with music playing — for 12 minutes at a time, followed by a break for water and harbour dipping.

Each sauna session in the Butcher’s Heat truck is divided into intense 12-minute stints . . . 
. . . followed by a break and a dip in the water

Once the doors of the van shut and the oils go on to the coals, things get very intense, very quickly. The group was a mix of couples and groups of friends, both locals and non-Danish speakers. Most of us wore pointy felt hats provided by the organisers to help our bodies manage the heat. We looked like sweaty pixies as we listened to the loud in-van music that started off dance-y and strayed into psychedelia later.

The “gus master” poured citrus oils in part one, cedar and peppermint essence in part two — the latter makes your skin feel cold even in the heat — and I can’t remember part three because by that time I’d elevated to a higher plane.

Make sure you haven’t got anything big planned after a session. I was in bed by 9pm.

A one-hour session in the Butcher’s Heat mobile sauna is from DKr220 (about £25). Bring your own towels and slippers.

Where do you like to sauna and swim in Copenhagen? Tell us in the comments

Follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter

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This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Isabel Berwick

]]> <![CDATA[Also in today’s newsletter, women mark 50 years trading at the London Stock Exchange ]]> https://faqinsurances.com/2023/03/22/also-in-todays-newsletter-women-mark-50-years-trading-at-the-london-stock-exchange/ Wed, 22 Mar 2023 13:00:37 +0000 https://faqinsurances.com/2023/03/22/also-in-todays-newsletter-women-mark-50-years-trading-at-the-london-stock-exchange/

This article is an on-site version of our Working It newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every Wednesday

What happens when your organisation disappears altogether? How do the former employees feel? Recent collapses in the banking sector brought this to my mind, although the sight of Paperchase stationery shops (among others) disappearing from British town centres has been a stark visual reminder of what happens when businesses die.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Isabel Berwick

]]> <![CDATA[Also in today’s newsletter, the latest tech sector lay-offs ]]> https://faqinsurances.com/2023/03/15/also-in-todays-newsletter-the-latest-tech-sector-lay-offs/ Wed, 15 Mar 2023 13:00:57 +0000 https://faqinsurances.com/2023/03/15/also-in-todays-newsletter-the-latest-tech-sector-lay-offs/

This article is an on-site version of our Working It newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every Wednesday

The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank sent shockwaves through the finance and tech world this past week. Silicon Valley Bank employees, at least for now, were offered 45 days of employment at 1.5 times their regular pay, according to Reuters. But we’ll be watching to see what’s next for workers at both banks.

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Isabel Berwick

]]> <![CDATA[Tech start-ups are building artificial intelligence-powered tools for employee wellbeing ]]> https://faqinsurances.com/2023/01/18/tech-start-ups-are-building-artificial-intelligence-powered-tools-for-employee-wellbeing/ Wed, 18 Jan 2023 13:00:03 +0000 https://faqinsurances.com/2023/01/18/tech-start-ups-are-building-artificial-intelligence-powered-tools-for-employee-wellbeing/

This article is an on-site version of our Working It newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every Wednesday

It’s astonishing that despite the gains that women have made in the workplace in recent years, many of us still feel guilty about taking time off for maternity leave — and may even feel some stigma about it. On the Working It podcast this week I talk to Janine Chamberlin, UK country manager at LinkedIn, who is about to have her second child and take a year’s leave.

Janine has publicly wondered why women’s own anxieties are still so prevalent. As she writes in an insightful blog that builds on the topics we talk about: “The more we share our experiences of maternity leave and pregnancy in the workplace like this, the more we will chip away at any remaining sense of stigma — and maybe then, we’ll live in a working world where expecting parents can finally say goodbye to the guilt entirely.”

This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Isabel Berwick

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