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There is no escaping it: too much news is bad for you. It should come with a government health warning: “This intellectual diet is fine taken in small doses, and preferably in weekly instalments, via a well-balanced newsletter, such as 10 things from William Montgomery." So, as another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. Please feel free to share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can also subscribe, learn and engage. I would be very grateful if you did. William Montgomery 1. How to measure qualitative performance. Performance reviews often require you to assess an employee’s performance on some qualitative aspects of the job. To do this objectively, focus on measuring behaviours. Aside from questions that are specific to the position and your organisation, consider these attributes: READ MORE 2. The spring statement. Sunak unveiled various measures he said would help “provide security for working families” facing soaring living costs. These include a five-pence cut in fuel duty; a £3,000 rise in the threshold at which national insurance becomes payable (to £12,570); and a doubling (to £1bn) of the fund local authorities can use to help the most vulnerable households. The Chancellor also pledged that the basic rate of income tax would be reduced to 19p by 2024. There was anger, however, that he’d made no changes to benefits or the state pension. Labour accused him of not understanding the “scale of the challenge” facing many families. BBC 3. Changing the clocks is bad for your health. Daylight saving time increases the rate of strokes and heart attacks; and even causes car crashes. In spring, many countries move clocks forward by an hour to make the evenings longer; while mornings get lighter later. In autumn, they move clocks back an hour, which gives more morning light. Daylight saving was introduced in WW1 to save energy by reducing electric lighting, but scientists say it disrupts the circadian rhythm that regulates our sleep patterns. The US Senate has just voted to make summertime permanent, after experts said sticking to one time zone would be better for all. The UK will eventually get that lost hour back when BST ends this year on Sunday 30 October. It was all a lot easier when we used sundials, but there seems little appetite to change it. World Economic Forum 4. Sweatpants are a productivity booster. Working in yoga pants and a sweatshirt could make you a more productive employee. That's the conclusion of a new study that found remote workers who wore clothes they were comfortable in were more present in their tasks. Researchers at Columbia University assigned hundreds of participants various states of dress: casual, formal and “Zoom mullet” — smart on top, stretchy pants below. Surveys revealed that while working in business clothes didn't make participants feel any more powerful, those in comfy clothing did feel more authentic and engaged. The Daily Mail 5. Mission statements are not just for laughs. Even though some mission statements defy belief, such that of the now defunct biotech firm Theranos “Do or do not, there is no try” - a quote from the Star Wars character Yoda; or tobacco giant BAT’s “Building a Better Tomorrow”. Yet research has proved that they do work, so long as they are translated into action. If they’re not - like Google’s “Don’t be evil”– it’s worse than not having one at all. BP’s distinctive “We want to help the world reach net zero and improve people’s lives” makes you go, “Woah, there!” But it’s provocative and it encourages an esprit de corps among those workers who sign up to this ambition. And that is what a good mission statement should do. The Times 6. People face biggest drop in living standards since 1956. Official forecasts have shown that Britain is facing the biggest fall in living standards since records began in 1956. The Office for Budget Responsibility said they would fall by 2.2% in the next tax year, the largest reduction in a year and twice the size of the falls during the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s. It also predicted that household energy bills will surge to about £2,800 a year from October, when the price cap on standard tariffs is expected to rise by a record £830. The Independent 7. Life? There’s an app for that. Communal calendars and lists of chores are no longer just scraps of paper on the fridge - a plethora of apps now keep track of the minutiae of work and life. Many swear by Trello, a list-making app common in workplaces, but used for passwords, recipes or shopping lists. Cloud-based calendars are another popular tool for keeping track of plans, TripIt gathers travel reservations in one place, and Merge - a task management app - was invented with the purpose of divvying up household chores. Got an app you can’t live without? CONTACT US 8. Statins could prevent Parkinson’s. A study has found that statins could stave off Parkinson’s disease by keeping arteries in the brain healthy in old age. US experts tracked nearly 3,000 people with an average age of 76, a third of whom were taking statins. Over a six-year period, those on the cholesterol-lowering drugs were 16% less likely to develop signs of Parkinson’s, such as shaking, stiffness and shuffling movements. There is currently no cure for Parkinson’s disease, which leads to parts of the brain becoming progressively damaged over years. The Times 9. DVLA is a national disgrace. Remember last year when the Government appealed to retired HGV drivers to get back on the road to relieve the acute fuel and food shortages? Well, though thousands applied, many never got back in their cabs: the vehicle licensing agency wouldn’t issue them with licences. It gets worse. During the first lockdown, 3,400 of its 6,200 staff were given paid leave without having to work from home. Months after, thousands were still doing that; in nine of the past 24 months, more than 500 have been on paid leave or on strike. And so a huge backlog in applications has built up, leaving disabled drivers prisoners in their homes, and ruining the livelihoods of those whose jobs entail car travel. Yet nothing seems to be getting done about it. It’s a national disgrace. The Times 10. The bottom line. A staggering £11.8bn was lost to fraud and error in the government’s business support schemes during the pandemic, the House of Commons library estimates. It said this is almost twice as much as 1992’s Black Wednesday, when Britain crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, costing £3.3bn – which in today’s prices is around £6bn. The Daily Mail |