EDITION 989
2 OCTOBER 2023

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
Editor and CEO of TEN

1. How to build a better online network. Most leaders understand how to use online tools to build and expand their networks. It's easy to reach out to industry contacts and colleagues through LinkedIn and X [formerly Twitter]. But building a useful online network requires focus on three things: reputation, specialisation, and network position. READ MORE

2. Tory hopefuls 'jostle for position'. Rishi Sunak is "battling to keep control" of the Conservative Party as potential leadership rivals "jostled for position" on the opening day of the party conference. The PM wants to "move on from crisis management", said the outlet, but possible future leaders, including Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and James Cleverly, have "attracted the spotlight" with "punchy policy interventions". Sunak is "struggling to hold together his fractured party". The Guardian

3. Sick days on the rise. A new study has found that UK workers are taking more sick days than at any point in the last 10 years. Employees took on average 7.8 sick days in the past year, up from 5.8 before the pandemic, found the Chartered Institute for Professional Development. Describing the trend as a "worry", the group blamed stress,Covid and the cost-of-living crisis. The research analysed rates of absence in more than 900 organisations, covering 6.5m employees. Employers need to offer more support to get people back to work, said the report's authors. The Independent

4. World’s 10 best universities revealed. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024: [10] Yale University; [9] University of California Berkeley; [8] Imperial College London; [7] California Institute of Technology; [6] Princeton University; [5] University of Cambridge; [4] Harvard University; [3] Massachusetts Institute of Technology; [2] Stanford University; [1] University of Oxford. Times Higher Education rankings score more than 2,600 global universities across 18 metrics, ranging from research quality to global reputation. Oxford tops the rankings for the 8th year in a row. World Economic Forum

5. Shorter emails, better emails? If your emails are going unanswered, they could be too long. Two Harvard researchers recently sent one of two emails to around 7,000 school board members asking them to complete a brief survey. One email was 127 words and the other was 49. The shorter email surfaced nearly double the survey responses. The researchers explained there was a chance readers didn’t make it all the way to the survey request in the longer email - or that the length of the email suggested the survey wouldn’t actually be brief, either. Inc

6. Britons eat less healthily. The cost-of-living crisis means families in Britain are eating less healthily and resorting to ready meals and processed foods, according to the BBC Good Food Nation survey. Some 69% of UK adults said they considered themselves to be healthy eaters, but 28% said they were eating less nutritious food because it is too expensive. The survey also found that 19% are eating more ready meals and processed foods because they are cheaper, while 17% are cooking less from scratch. BBC

7. Move here for work-life balance. The UK has ranked seventh in an annual work-life balance list, moving up from 28th in 2022. Remote's European Life-Work Balance Index assesses countries based on factors like healthcare, maternity leave, sick pay and overall happiness. In the 2023 list, the index also assessed places based on average working hours and LGBTQ+ inclusivity "to better define life-work balance in line with values such as diversity, equity and inclusion synonymous with the modern workplace". Remote

8. Threat of long-Covid ‘exaggerated’. Academics have claimed that the risks of developing long Covid have been exaggerated by flawed research. Experts from the University of California said sweeping definitions of what constitutes long Covid, and a "striking absence of control groups" in many studies, meant data on the long-term effects and prevalence of Covid was unreliable. However, other researchers have "strongly disagreed" with the latest conclusions. Long Covid sufferers report fatigue, brain fog, chest pain and shortness of breath. The Times

9. Brits 'dodge baths'. Britain is turning into "a nation of bath-dodgers" as households "turn off the taps" to save money. According to sales data from PZ Cussons – the parent company of brands including Imperial Leather soap, Carex handwash and Original Source shower gel - customers seem to be swapping baths for showers to reduce bills during the cost-of-living crisis. But the broadsheet added that there is "one reassuring sign" that the country is "not on a slippery slope to smelliness" because sales of soap bars are up. The Times

10. The bottom line. 32% of people in the top quarter of household incomes (earning more than £40,000 a year) identify as working class, according to the latest British Social Attitudes Survey. However, in the poorest households (earning less than £19,000), 48% identify as middle class, or say they have no class identity. 77% of Britons think that class adversely affects social mobility, up from 66% in 2012 and 70% in 1983. Daily Telegraph