Essential reading for all employers. Workplace bullying is a canker that is costing commerce and industry millions of pounds in lost time.

The UK’s four million small firms are being urged to urgently review their policy on workplace bullying following a landmark ruling in the House of Lords.

Business pressure group the Forum of Private Business (FPB), and its employment law partner law firm Mace & Jones, warned that the decision opened a new channel for bullying claims under anti-harassment laws. From now on employers can be held liable for workplace bullying by their employees.

FPB spokesman and Mace & Jones Head of Employment Law Martin Edwards said even if there is no claim of discrimination or constructive dismissal, employees can now hold their employers liable for bullying at work. "The judgement enables people to sue the employers of bullies under the Protection of Harassment Act,’ he said.

“The Act was brought in to criminalise ’stalking’ and until recently it was not widely recognised that claims could be brought under the act by employees bullied at work. The decision also exposes employers to claims by third parties who are bullied by employees of the company. The message for employers is to update their anti-bullying policies - and ensure they are implemented effectively.”

Could Your Mobile Actually Be Slowing You Down?

Time Management means questioning every assumption and thinking the unthinkable...

The miracle of the mobile phone!

How we celebrated this new liberating influence in our lives - business and social. Doing deals on the hoof. Cutting out formal meetings. No more waiting around for calls. Arranging little parties on a whim…

It looked like a whole new culture of high-speed living and working - cutting a thousand unnecessary corners, speeding and streamlining executive dialogue, and generally getting a whole lot more done.

Well, let’s agree that it’s certainly made a quantum difference. But not in the way we expected. For this great liberator has also had the effect of enslaving us, so that we can never avoid its demands at any time. (Try ignoring that flashing message from your biggest client, even if it’s midnight.) And as for more efficient dialogue, well, take the classic case of noise pollution via mobiles…

“I’m on the train…”
Rail journeys are now a downright embarrassment, with everybody’s inner thoughts suddenly being played-out at full volume, indeed often louder than necessary, you notice, as though in protest at decent manners and respect for peace and quiet.

Irritating enough is the ordinary social and family chit-chat. Almost unbearable, however, is the so-called urgent business talk, often dragging out to the full length of the journey, leaving you earnestly praying that the next stop will be his.

You have only to listen to a minute or two of this scrambled dialogue to see that it is unnecessary.

It stems partly from a snob-reflex, dating from when mobiles were new, reflecting high status on the speaker; and partly from a childish urge to ‘play soldiers’, generating an artificial sense of heroic emergency action.

In other words, it has no rational basis at all, and any transcript of the conversation would read like pure nonsense. The messages and meanings would be better conveyed in a single itemised e-mail at the end of the journey - and his time would be better spent privately (and silently!) composing it.

This little cameo of an everyday business situation should cause you to ‘think the unthinkable’ about mobiles.

And this is all part of Time Management, which has a lot to do with questioning common assumptions about the effective use of our time.

The true and false dynamics of urgency at work

Not surprisingly, www.carolespiers.com places a good deal of emphasis on Time Management as part of your personal journey towards that First-class Ticket through life.

Carole’s Time Management philosophy is clearly reflected in the best-selling manual by her colleague John Perry, a University Senior Lecturer in Psychology.

Titled ‘Hurry Hurry - the True and False Dynamics of Urgency at Work’, this downloadable e-book is widely used at Carole’s own executive training sessions for blue-chip corporate clients. Among the issues you are invited to question are these :

How we manage our time…

· “Not enough hours in the day!”
But not all hours are equal. 80% of key tasks are often performed in 20% of the available time. Limit your availability. Delegate for time-efficiency.
· The Paper Tide
Ration paperwork ruthlessly. Bin what you can. Cut corners by phone. Even colour-coded folders and see-thru files can save crucial time.
· The art of prioritising
Amazingly, you can save up to 10 hours a week by keeping a Time Log, charting the progress of key agendas and rating your daily performance.

How our time manages us…

· The Interruption factor
The average manager gets interrupted every 8 minutes. It’s something you can’t schedule - but there are practical ways to cut the chat.
· How Meetings squander time
Everything from latecomers to attention-seekers or just an unclear agenda. Make sure it’s necessary, then keep it brisk and businesslike.
· Logging the time-waster elements
List everything that tends to hold you up - desk clutter, drop-in visitors, long-winded talk, confusion of roles, false alarms - and tackle them.

To download this valuable aid to empowerment and self-development, http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=24