As Get Safe Online Week draws to a close today, we’ve got a new interactive toolkit to help improve workers’ Internet security awareness and skills. According to Get Safe Online’s 2008 Report, a worrying 66% of Internet users have the same password for multiple websites, 23% have posted confidential or personal information online, and 17% have opened email attachments from an unknown source, potentially putting themselves at risk from viruses or other malicious software.
This could have a huge impact on the firms they work for, who may stand to lose valuable commercial or customer data, or lose money through damage or downtime due to attacks, not to mention getting people into trouble - whether or not they know what they’ve done wrong.
The benefits that the Internet brings to UK business are growing every day. Social media and networking are increasingly important to people’s professional and personal lives. But employers have to put time and money into making sure their staff are aware of the dangers associated with working online, or they could just be pouring all the money they spend on the rest of their computer security systems down the drain.
So, to do something about this, we’ve got together with GetSafeOnline.org and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) to produce Not Safe For Work? - a free online toolkit for people at work in the UK. It has video interviews from industry experts, quizzes and reading lists, and can make you a personalised advice prescription, tailored to your own Internet usage.
Have a go now, it could tell you something that will save you a lot of grief.
And hey, let’s be careful out there!
posted 21/11/2008
You only need to turn on the telly for a few minutes at the moment to see we’re in a very worrying period for the economy and hence for our jobs - Redundancies and hardships for certain business sectors are making the headlines daily. The real situation is complex though, and if you’d like a little more of the facts and trends behind the more “hell in a handcart” style headlines, you can check out the TUC’s new Recession Report, which plans to track economic and employment developments every month, to give you an inside track on what’s going on.
But if you’d just rather browse the web in denial, we can (with tongue firmly in cheek) recommend a helpful utility called Recessionblocker.com, which simply screens out any of the gloomier words that might upset you when reading the news.
posted 19/11/2008
Your office dress code may be risking your health, according to a new TUC advice guide. Working feet and footwear shows how a number of big city institutions and upmarket shops insist that women in public-facing jobs wear slip-on shoes or high heels. Wearing uncomfortable shoes for such long periods of time can lead to long-term foot problems.
The TUC’s Brendan Barber said: “We were surprised how many times we found that employers’ dress codes did not permit the wearing of comfortable sensible footwear by women. These dress codes – apart from being blatantly sexist – can lead to long-term foot and back problems. Feet bear the brunt of the daily working life and instead of worrying about what their staff look like, employers should focus on the effect that the wrong shoes and prolonged standing can have. Employers should look at encouraging their staff to come to work in comfortable shoes and, where possible, provide the option of sitting.”
So if you’re a city Cinderella, or worried you need special shoes to stay safe in your own working environment, check out all your problems in the TUC guide.
…and don’t get us started on neckties.
posted 14/08/2008
A senior car worker for Toyota died from working too much overtime a Japanese labour bureau has found.
The 45 year old man was one of Toyotas most senior engineers and had been working on a new hybrid car at the time of his death.
Having worked on average more the 80 hours of overtime a month in the two months preceding his death, regularly worked nights and weekends and travelled extensively overseas, the man was found dead in his Tokyo home from ischaemia the day before the car was to be premiered at a show in Detroit.
Japan has one of the worst records for long working hours and last year there were 142 documented cases of “karoshi” - death from excessive work
Read more at the Guardian: Senior Toyota engineer died of overwork
posted 10/07/2008
A heavy dose of reality came to the world of reality TV in France this week, as three contestants from top-rated show Temptation Island took the production company to court for infringing their employment rights, and won.
In a move which has already sent other shows’ contestents scrabbling for their lawyers, Anthony Brocheton, Marie Adamiak and Arno Laizé have been awarded €27,000 compensation for employment law abuses during the 12 day shoot.
Holiday pay of €817 and, given France’s 35 hour working week, overtime payments of €8,176 were added to €500 for unfair dismissal, €1,500 for wrongful termination and €16,000 for being employed on an illegal contract.
Mr Brocheton told how she was continually ordered around by the production company - effectively on call 24 hours a day: “They said it was not work. But for us it was hell.”
The court also affirmed that contestants would have other rights of employment, and France could see them going on strike if they feel particularly aggrieved about eating bugs or pretending to be a cat. Can an National Union of Reality Z-listers be far off?
Read more at the Times: French court finds TV sex frolics are labour not love
posted 07/03/2008
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