First among unequals?

According to a report from the Chartered Management Institute, we may be 57 years away from equal pay for women. Is it seriously true that some employers pay men and women differently for doing exactly the same job? How on earth do they get away with it? Imagine if you paid someone a different salary because of their ethnicity? Pehaps that happens too. Unbelieveable.

Home working

This is such an interesting article about home working from yesterday's Guardian. I've heard Caroline Waters, HR Director at BT, extol its virtues before at one of our Good Jobs campaign events. Obviously working at home isn't suitable for every job, but many people could technically work from home from time to time - the issue for employers seems to be not "can my employees log on?" but "can my employees be trusted?"

Well if you can't trust your employees then that's an issue that needs to be addressed separately and urgently in my opinion. Do you really know exactly they're doing all day anyway, even if they're in the office? You'll be measuring their output/outcomes through regular performance reviews anyway won't you?

Personally I'd hate to work from home all the time - I'd miss the sociable side of work, the feeling of being part of a team, the view of Tower Bridge from my window at City Hall. But my current pattern of working at home on a Monday suits me just perfectly.