Respondents from Edinburgh and Leeds were least happy to discuss their mental health at all (67% and 63% respectively). 39% of the respondents from Edinburgh cited shame and embarrassment as their main reason for not wanting to disclose a mental health condition, whereas, 26% of respondents from Leeds cited fears that their employers would not be sympathetic as the reason for not feeling happy to discuss their mental health.

“Despite the office of National Statistics estimate that one in six people may experience a mental health condition at any one time, our research illustrates that people are still very reluctant to reveal their conditions and show any signs of perceived weakness.

However, we know from our work that people with mental health conditions are perfectly capable of managing a job and their condition with the right support from their employers and therefore feel it is vital that such misconceptions are laid to rest”.

Tim Cooper, Managing Director, Shaw Trust

In fact 34.5% of respondents said that the reason that they wouldn’t want to reveal a mental ill health condition was because they would either feel ashamed or worried that they would be treated differently. With this percentage rising to 43.3% amongst 16 - 24 year olds.

The stigma attached to mental ill health was more of a concern than the fear of possibly hampering career progression among 25 - 44 year olds, with 37% of people in this age group citing shame as their main reason for not feeling happy to talk about a mental health condition.

Those respondents in graduate entry level jobs were the most confident that a mental health condition does not affect their ability to do their jobs, with 29% of the people in this group citing this as the main reason they wouldn’t discuss their mental health.

Respondents in professional sales, media and marketing were most concerned amongst all industry sectors about being treated differently if they were to disclose their mental health condition (31%) compared to just 4% of people within the professional finance industry who cited this as a concern.

Professional Finance also came out at the biggest industry group to cite that a mental health condition didn’t affect their ability to do their jobs as their main reason for not wishing to discuss it.

Overall 54% of people felt that they would receive more support at work for a physical disability than a mental health condition (rising to 58 % amongst the senior Manager / Professional group) compared to only 6.9% who believed they would receive more support for a mental health condition.

” People have become more comfortable talking about physical illnesses over the years, however, there is still a huge stigma associated with having a mental health condition. Dealing with such a problem often leaves people feeling awkward and a culture of secrecy seems to have emerged in which people are frightened to confide in others”.

Professor Cary L Cooper, CBE, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University

“There is a clear need for more structure and education on how to support employees with mental health issues, businesses need to create an environment in which people not only feel confident enough to discuss a mental health condition with a line manager or member of the HR team but in which they can also receive the support they need to continue making a valuable contribution. We see the effect that being out of work and coping with a mental health condition can have on people’s lives and we are urging employers to use this website to find out how to make a difference in the workplace”.

Tim Cooper, Managing Director, Shaw Trust

*All figures unless otherwise stated are from a Tickbox survey. Total sample size was 1070 workers. Fieldwork was undertaken between 18th - 24th September 2008. The survey was carried out online.

Cranfield school of management’s recent survey shows that there is still no progress in the FTSE 100 companies at promoting women to board level. The full article is set out below by Adam Jones.

This simply doesn’t make sense. The demographics show that by 2010, less than 20% of the workforce will be white, able-bodied men under the age of 45 - a government statistic from the National Labour force survey. The statistics on academic achievment show that women outperform men at both GCSE, A Level and Degree levels gaining higher grades at all levels.

Surely the issue here is not one of “men v women” in the boardroom. The issue is one of the companies simply not choosing the cream on the workforce, be it a man or a woman, to enter their boardroom. Not only does it bring into question the issue of whether the company is being run by the most able employee but it also begs the question of how the company are going to motivate their talented women who won’t feel that they can reach the top of their careers. Left with the choice of always being left out of the board promotions, or moving on, many women will feel that they have no choice but to move on. Thus the company loses some of its best talent.

Why? What is the real issue here? Is it really that men still feel that they are somehow inherently better able to run companies? If there are as few directors as there clearly are, how do they know that the men are better able to run the companies as what is their comparison?

Female entreprenuers are increasing hugely, establishing their own businesses, some of which are growing hugely succesful. Why? Because they feel that they will always be hitting the glass ceiling and that they would be better off putting their energies into a venture which won’t discriminate against them. Who knows how these businesses will develop over the next decade? If the women are the top graduates, employing other top graduates, maybe we will start to see companies that truly tap into the best talent regardless of sex.

 The article in question, humourously written in my view, is as follows:

Published: October 11 2008 03:00 | Last updated: October 11 2008 03:00

Male chauvinists have breathed a sigh of relief after a structural survey of the glass ceiling in leading British boardrooms revealed that it was still in good condition in spite of recent worries about localised cracking.

Anxieties about the physical state of the ceiling had been aroused by anecdotal evidence that more women had been appointed to prominent directorships.

However, an annual structural survey undertaken by the Cranfield School of Management showed that women still held only 12 per cent of board seats at FTSE 100 companies and that the glass ceiling would continue to hold back women from obtaining equal representation for another four decades or so if the recent pace of deterioration didn’t change.

One male director said it was a relief that the glass ceiling was in no danger of imminent collapse.

“Business loves certainty and it is great news that corporate Britain might not be forced into fully engaging with vital issues such as equal pay and macho HR practices until the middle of this century, when the effects of global warming will probably give us plenty of new excuses to avoid taking action.”

Adam Jones is the FT’s online business education editor.

http://blogs.ft.com/management/

I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of my cat; the two will hover; spinning, inches above the ground.

With a giant buttered-cat array, a high speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago.”

– John Frazee, In The Journal of the Irreproducible results

FLEXIBLE WORKING FOR COMPANIES

Businesses need to be dynamic to thrive in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Flexible working is where it’s at. The economic climate is constantly changing; the labour market is changing too. Individuals are increasingly looking for a more flexible working arrangement to help them balance the demands of work, professional development, caring responsibilities hobbies, travel and other external pressures.

In addition, the legislative environment is providing workers with a wider array of employment rights and many are discovering that being able to work flexibly needn’t be a handicap for them or the employer, with the right guidance and research, it can be applied to companies that previously considered themselves ‘anti flexible working’ due to technology restraints.

Time4balance can provide advice and training to help companies understand how to devise and implement flexible working arrangements to suit their business needs whilst accommodating their employee’s personal needs for work based flexibility.

• Increase competitiveness and productivity
• Flexible working arrangements can potentially help businesses to:
• Reduce rental space and associated costs
• Meet customer demand
• Operate in global time zones
• Reduce staff turnover
• Become an “employer of choice”
• Meet legislative requirements

Time4balance can provide a team of specialist consultants to assist companies in devising and implementing flexible working strategies, working in association with other specialist consultancies.

TIme4Balance is based down on the South Coast, with significant links and contacts in the City of London.

Yes, it’s true. If you are like me, I hope for your sake you are not, then you like to receive Blog updates by email to you inbox rather than just RSS. I am just lazy, and find it hard to keep checking my RSS reader, which  by the way is the fabulous and now FREE ‘NetNewsWire‘ for the Apple Mac by Newsgator.

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Seems that this new Apple Bluetooth Keyboard is causing some small moans and cries about the missing ‘delete’ key which has always been on the far right near the numerical keypad.

Have read so many reviews of users in despair over the loss of the ‘delete‘ key. We need to clarify that the ‘delete’ key in question is not the standard ‘backspace’ key about the ‘return’ key, although in my opinion it does what the ‘delete’ key should do, which is to delete backwards and not forwards. Say what?

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I used the supplied Illustrator files to take the RSS one apart, then reassemble with the email ‘@’ icon. I am working on the version with reflections and to change the colour or the ‘hue’ you can just do this in Photoshop.

I prefer email updates as I tend to forget to check my RSS feeds, so having them delivered in my Inbox means I don’t forget.

For guidelines on how to use these RSS icons, check this link out.

Feel free to download and use this email/RSS icon or email for any other versions, I will see if I can help.

Unlike many people, I (thats Anna Kavanagh), enjoy speaking to big groups of people, it does help if they are in conference of which I am participating, I am not so sure I would enjoy speaking openly in park or something. I don’t have a soapbox thats for sure.

But for the most part, I seem to be able to connect to the audience in a sincere down to earth manner, really encouraging people to open up and ask questions.

More often that not, after my ‘moment’, I am approached by members of the audience saying how they either enjoyed my talk or how they could relate to what I was saying.

So to all you conference and exhibition organisers out there, I am here and would gladly pop along and speak and participate in your conferences, exhibitions etc. Just give me a call or drop me a line.

Below are some of the conferences etc that I have attended.

I have been a speaker on Radio 4 ‘Woman’s Hour‘ (you can listen to this online), and The Guardian’s ‘Nice Work‘.

I also enjoy speaking at Conferences on flexible working, including The Law Society conferences, the Minority Lawyers Conference, the Employment Lawyers Association conference, the Young Solicitors Group conferences, the Women Judges Conference and other conferences on advanced forms of working.

What we are also excited about is a Forum feature, which will enable curious individuals to throw out thoughts, questions and problems in the hope that someone else may have the answer.