Expert Office Advice

It’s well documented that office workers loathe Mondays. However, a recent survey shows that Mondays are the days when workers put the most effort into their looks, and spend the longest time preparing for the long day ahead.

A survey carried out by Debenhams has found that British women on average spend 76 minutes to get ready on a Monday morning, nearly 4 times longer than on Friday (an average of 19 minutes).

One third of the time spent in the morning is taken up by doing their hair, 18 minutes go to makeup application, 16 minutes are lost trying to choose the outfit and the rest is left for actual showering/washing.

However the duration of this vigorous preparation seems to decrease as the week passes, with only 40 minutes on average spent on Tuesdays and a quick prep of 19 minutes on Fridays.

According to the survey, British workers do look better and smarter on Mondays, with men being no exception to the rule. They too let the 28 minutes they spent on Monday decline to a mere 11 minutes by Friday.

Losing your job due to the worldwide recession is stressful enough without having to worry about outdated business cards.

A group of former TBWA\Chiat\Day employees have come up with a creative way of reusing their old business cards – by crossing out the obsolete information and adding a little statement.

The idea took off and now you can browse the worldwide collection of Cards of Change online, submit your own, look for perspective partners and employees, or simply get inspired.

Photo: ©Cardsofchange.com

Trying desperately to juggle your professional life and motherhood? You are not alone. The Family Care Company carried out a research a while ago which shows that over 50 per cent of working mothers found it easier to blame traffic jams or a misbehaving alarm clock than admit it was their little one that made them late for work. It seems that the struggle to keep an effective work-life balance is still affecting nearly half of mums.

More interestingly, nearly 60 per cent of working mums said that childless female colleagues were less considerate and understanding than men were. Almost two thirds of working mums thought that asking for flexible working schedule would impact their careers in a negative way.

Juggling work and motherhood has become a hot topic, with more and more information, help and advice being available to new mothers.

Here at Office Connection we’ve selected a list of online resources that provide extremely helpful tips and give a platform to working mothers to communicate with each other and share their experiences.

Working Families offers an outstanding range of articles, toolkits, expert advice and consultations. Issues covered include your rights at work, maternity leave and pay, time off work, pregnancy, childcare for children with disabilities and much more. There’s also information about free legal helplines available. (more…)

Indoor air quality is a very important aspect of keeping your office a healthy and pleasant place to work. Poor air quality can cause eye-irritation, skin inflammation and sore throats as well as mental fatigue, headaches and other flu-like symptoms.

Poor air quality in the office is mostly caused from contaminants in the air from both biological and chemical sources. Every office has its share of contaminants, including carbon monoxide from vehicles that gets sucked into the ventilation systems and circulated around the building, while potted plants provide an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Electrical equipment such as photocopiers can produce ozone, which is highly irritating to humans. Excessive humidity usually stimulates the growth of microbes, while air that is too dry allows static electricity to build up and this can cause skin rashes, nosebleeds or headaches. (more…)

When planning a meeting it is easy to forget that the room in which you are holding the meeting is a key element that should be given due attention. A bit of planning before the meeting as to the seating, refreshments, heating/cooling, presentation and other arrangements can go a long way towards ensuring a successful and productive meeting.

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A good paper filing system is essential to the organisation of any business. In order to ensure that the records of a business are maintained efficiently it is essential that they are organised in a methodical, logical and systematic way.

Try to avoid storing your paperwork in too many folders; it is not efficient to make separate folders for anything less than 20 papers. If you have small records that are comprised of less than one or two documents it is better to file these in miscellaneous folders. It is also important to use enough file headings as finding records is easier when they are organised under sections and subheadings.

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Recent studies have shown that people in the UK are spending more hours than ever before on their computers. According to many stress experts, those who work from 45-60 hours per week are high risk for various stress related diseases.

Choosing the right office furniture and equipment can help reduce the eye strain, back strain and the overall physical pressure that can be caused by long hours sitting in an office.

It is important to pay attention to aspects such as the size, shape and height of the furniture and also where it is placed in within the office.

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That file must be somewhere here… Whether you are going through your papers on a messy desk or entering various keyword combinations in your email search box, doing this too often causes not only stress and aggravation, but can ruin a healthy and composed atmosphere at work.

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You’ve had enough and you are leaving. If you think the ‘Farewell’ card will be the last thing to remind you of your previous colleagues, think again.

As a recent survey claims, almost half of us (approximately 43%) will end up working with an ex-colleague at some point in the future. It turns out that burning bridges may not be that wise after all.

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Stress is a natural part of everyone’s life, whether personal or professional. Healthy level of stress can be good and useful, but stress overload results in anxiety and panic attacks, moodiness and depression, irritability and negative physical symptoms. In some cases too much of stress drives the sufferer to resort to drinking, smoking and overeating.

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