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Managing Menopause in the Workplace
In the UK, 75-80% of menopausal women work; understanding and supporting symptoms, both visible and invisible, is crucial for managers and employers. Facts The average age for women to reach menopause in the UK is 51, although the expected age range is between 45 and 55. Currently, around 75-80% of women of menopause age…
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How to support transgender employees in the workplace
The legal protection of transgender individuals starts with the Equality Act 2010. Within this act, gender reassignment is recognised as a protected characteristic. This is reaffirmed in the Statutory Code of Conduct of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. This, therefore, means that an employee is protected if they plan to, are experiencing, or have undergone…
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The Elephant in the Room: Loan Elephants – Sexual Harassment
It is naïve to think that sexual harassment does not exist within your workplace. It is naïve to think that you, as the business owner, would know if there is sexual harassment in your business. It is naïve to assume that because you don’t know about it, no one is feeling sexually harassed. It is…
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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
This is the first in a series of blogs to mark our 14th birthday on 1st May 2021. The background to my thinking here is a little odd, but the theme of these blogs is based on ‘The Elephant in the Room’. All the things which employers do not want to talk about or deal…
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Black Lives Matter
Photo credit / explantion: (Great Uncle) Michael Leigh wearing a T-shirt designed by (Uncle) Neil Mandel in 1990/91 as part of his Young Enterprise business project. It appears that we still have not learnt the lessons. Over the past few weeks many of us will have seen the horrifying video of George Floyd, an African…