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The Elephant in the Room: Protected Characteristics – Parental Status
Being a working parent is hard! For me, it was actually harder when my kids were at primary school, than when they were at nursery. At nursery, there was cover from 7am – 7pm if I needed it. At primary school there appeared to be a natural assumption that you could drop off at 8:50,…
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The Elephant in the Room: Protected Characteristics – Age
While it is not unlawful for a potential or current employer to ask you your age, it is unlawful for them to make decisions based on your age. On this basis, many hiring employers don’t ask about age because they don’t want to run the risk of an age discrimination from someone before they even…
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The Elephant in the Room: Protected Characteristics – Gender
There are two ways in which I can tackle the Gender Elephant! The first is in the traditional way; by looking up to see if there is still a glass ceiling. The second is by looking at gender in today’s society i.e. the increasing use of pronoun confirmation in email signatures, LinkedIn profiles etc. I’m…
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The Elephant in the Room: Protected Characteristics – Disability
Starting with the assumption that the person can do the job, has done it before and has a proven track record…… Would you employ a disabled person? If not, why not? Would it depend on their disability? Would it depend on your location and working environment? If they are deaf, blind, wheelchair bound, an amputee…
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The Elephant in the Room: Protected Characteristics – Race
I often ask myself how, in 2021 is Race still an ‘Elephant in the Room’ in the workplace. The Race Relations Act first came into force in 1965 and outlawed discrimination on the “grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins” in public places. It was then updated in 1976 and 2000 and replaced…
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The Elephant in the Room: Mental Health – Suicide
**TRIGGER WARNING** The content of today’s blog is heavy reading. If you are affected by any of the issues raised by today’s blog, please seek support and speak to someone immediately. Contact details are in the box at the end of this blog. There are a lot of myths which surround suicide, and it is…
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The Elephant in the Room: Mental Health – Psychosis
The main forms of psychosis are schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Unfortunately, it often takes a long time to diagnose properly and to treat effectively. Psychosis is a condition in which the person has changes in their thinking, perception, mood and / or behaviour. As you might imagine, all of these can be a problem in…
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The Elephant in the Room: Mental Health – Self-harm
Self-harm is widely misunderstood. There are many people who self-harm as a way of exerting control over themselves or a situation. Contra to popular belief, self-harm is NOT an attempted suicide, however, the people who self-harm are at increased risk of suicide, often because the stress triggers are the same. Self-harm is a behaviour which…
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The Elephant in the room: Mental Health – Anxiety
Anxiety can be a good thing. It helps us to avoid dangerous situations and it motivates us to solve problems. However, like many mental health issues there is a spectrum of anxiety which ranges from good mental health through to debilitating mental health. There are a number of different disorders which are classified as anxiety…
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The Elephant in the Room: Mental Health – Depression
Having clinical Depression is very different from being depressed. You can feel depressed when you hear bad news, when you read a sad story, or if you have had a bad day at the office. However, a medical diagnosis of Depression is made when symptoms last for more than two weeks and affects the employee’s…