EDITION 870
24 MAY 2021

As another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. This newsletter is sent to 50,000+ subscribers each Monday at 10am. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can subscribe, learn and engage. I would be very grateful if you did.

1. How to make workplace changes. People often find change really disconcerting, especially at work. You’ll often hear the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to argue against tweaks as small as moving desks or as big as introducing a new process. So how can you get your colleagues and bosses on board with workplace changes? READ MORE

2. More than 50 million vaccinations administered. England has surpassed 50 million vaccine doses, according to NHS data. Some 31,546,846 UK adults have had their first jab, while 18,699,556 have had two, NHS England figures show. The milestone was reached as the vaccination programme continued to move down the age groups, with 32 and 33-year-olds in England now being invited to book their first vaccination from this weekend. Mr Hancock said the government is on track to offer a first vaccine dose to all adults in the UK by the end of July. BBC

3. Long hours can kill. Long working hours are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people a year, according to a new study by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization. The global study found that working 55 hours or more a week was linked to a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, compared with a 35-40 hour working week. The majority of victims (72%) were men and middle-aged or older, and the deaths often occurred years later. A WHO official concluded that "working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard." World Health Organization

4. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Have you ever been faced with a task and put so much energy into it right out of the gate that your fire fizzled too soon? The key to achieving our goals is not starting strong but staying strong. I recommend setting upper and lower boundaries. Let's say you want to write a book, as I am doing at the moment, for example. Commit to no less than 30 minutes a day, but no more than three hours at a time. This will help you avoid burnout. Realise your tendencies and adjust accordingly. Also, discard rest and recovery and give yourself breathing room. Editor

5. Last week in the City. In Britain, the annual CPI inflation rate more than doubled in April – to 1.5% from 0.7% in March. Consumer prices are now rising at their fastest rate since the start of the pandemic, driven by rising energy and clothing costs. UK unemployment figures unexpectedly fell from 4.9% to 4.8% in Q1, as numbers of those in employment jumped by 84,000. UK house prices soared by 10.2% in the year to March, the highest annual growth for 14 years. The Financial Times

6. Most Premium Bond holders never win. Three-quarters of Premium Bond holders have never won a single prize, despite investing a collective £108bn. Researchers found that 15.9m of 21.4m Premium Bonds customers have not won a single prize since records began in 2007. A savings expert said: “My advice is to look at other savings products.” Premium Bonds enter customers into a monthly draw instead of interest, with prizes ranging from £25 to £1m. The Sunday Telegraph

7. Societal pressures fuel burnout. Burnout is a term we've heard and read in abundance this past year, only to be eclipsed in use by, perhaps, pandemic. But if you think it's a new plight, you're wrong. It has been used since 1973, with allusions to burnout even existing in the Bible. As more and more claimed to suffer from burnout, the World Health Organization officially recognised it as an "occupational phenomenon" in 2019. So, what prompted burnout, often denoted by "exhaustion, cynicism, and loss of efficacy"? The blame, in part, is a society that "requires people to strive to the point of self-destruction." The New Yorker

8. Moderate drinking harms brain. Even moderate drinking adversely affects nearly every part of the brain, according to a study of more than 25,000 people. Higher volume of weekly alcohol consumption was associated with lower grey matter density, with alcohol explaining a reduction in grey matter volume of up to 0.8%. “There’s no threshold drinking for harm - any alcohol is worse,” said a researcher. “Pretty much the whole brain seems to be affected, not just specific areas as previously thought.” The Guardian

9. Idea of the week. Sometimes the most valuable leadership lessons come at times when you are unable to work or lead at all. One of the most important acts of leadership is to simply let others lead. Recognise that, especially in a crisis, people want to step up; they want to be given more responsibility. Editor

10. The bottom line. Even in non-Covid times the average Brit gets through about 127 rolls a year – twice the European average: a national total of some 8.5 billion. It requires one tree to be felled for every 800-1,500 rolls produced; that means felling seven million trees simply to meet the UK’s yearly toilet-tissue needs. The Independent