Business Butler Blog - homeworking

Following on from two years of mainly positive news about homeworking there appears to be a shift in opinion on its effects on workers, bosses and businesses. You probably remember all the good vibes when the working from home (WFH) revolution was gathering pace. Workers loved the new freedom and bosses agreed that productivity hadn’t suffered, in fact in those early months it had improved.

Remember when you and your colleagues would often work late just to finish an important project or start earlier at your boss’s request? Maybe you took your work home just to get the job done? Going above and beyond your contracted hours was seen as a prerequisite and you did so not out of fear of losing your job but because of your diligence and dedication to the company you worked for. Well t...

When the enforced mass exodus of employees from their places of work began in March 2020, companies had to turn to a new way of working. This transition to working from home (WFH) worked better than anticipated. Business owners and CEOs needn’t have fretted about production levels dropping and staff motivation flagging. The vast majority of businesses declared remote working a resounding succes...

Even working from home (WFH) doesn’t offer a safe haven from the dreaded workplace bully. Bullying claims from workers in the UK have surged recently and now WFH has taken a toll because of it. Allegations of bullying jumped 44%, a study found and video calls and messaging apps may be adding to the problem. Let’s delve deeper into this.

Record numbers

Most people wo...

After such a long period of working from home, from it being a necessity to it being a more productive way of working, while knocking time of travel to zero, many offices now have workers coming in just like the old days! Many other businesses have adopted hybrid work week schedules. Having employees only coming in for half of the work week or two days in the office and three days working from ...

There is no doubt that the world of business and the working environment have changed considerably since the pre-Covid-19 pandemic days. First there was the mass migration to homeworking, then a fragmented return to office based work and now many companies have adopted the hybrid model which offers workers the best of both.

Reducing hours but not salaries

The l...

Portugal has made it illegal for employers to contact staff by phone, text message, or email outside of their normal working hours. The ground breaking legislation titled ‘right to rest’ is aimed at improving work-life balance following an increase in the number of remote workers.

Attracting entrepreneurs to Portugal

Portugal's Minister of Labour and Social Security...

Ever since the mass migration to homeworking there has been one big concern facing business owners and managers. Will the staff be as productive working from home (WFH) as they are in the office?

Trust is crucial

The word trust is often banded about as being a key component in developing long-term relationships between a business and its customers. Trust, however, i...

Recent research reveals that three out of four job vacancies advertised in the UK don’t offer flexible working options. The annual survey conducted by Timewise, a flexible work consultancy firm, tracked more than five million ads for 17 key words or phrases, including job-share, home-working and part-time. Their findings from the survey showed that just 26% of job vacancy ads posted contained a...

With the world of business gradually returning to normal as lockdown restrictions are eased, the much anticipated mass migration back to work hasn’t materialised as expected. Tens of thousands of employees are happy working from home (WFH) and are reluctant to return to the office – and who can blame them? Remote working means you no longer face the dreaded commute to work, there is greater fle...

Following the announcement that people in England no longer have to work from home (WFH) from 19 July – and the rest of the UK will follow suit shortly - there will be tens of thousands of workers preparing to return to their offices for the first time in 18 months.

This is great news for business and the economy, although there is still some confusion about what this actually means, so h...

Business owners are renowned for making tough decisions, it’s part and parcel of what they do. From hiring and firing to expansion and closure, if you don’t like making important decisions then don’t run a business. The latest decision facing business owners is one that they would never even have contemplated 18 months ago - should they continue running the business remotely or return to t...

Working from home (WFH) was something many workers had never experienced prior to lockdown last March and was usually only a familiar practice among freelancers in specific sectors. Many business owners and directors approached remote working with trepidation, which was understandable because it was unchartered territory.

Now fast-forward 12 months and despite lockdown restrictions finall...

A Guest Blog by Caryl Thomas, HR Expert.

This time of year is usually filled with festivities. From Christmas parties to the legendary Secret Santa gift exchange, there is normally no shortage of reasons to get together with friends, family and co-workers during December.

But after a difficult year curtailing coronavirus, and with continued efforts to keep the risk ...

Along with the general worry and uncertainty caused by the Covid -19 pandemic there was additional concern and angst felt by business owners and managers across the country as their workers joined the rapid and mass migration to working from home (WFH). The main fears were that they would not be able to assert the same degree of control over their businesses and manage their workforces as effec...

Recent research reveals that at least 10% of businesses who are working from home (WFH) due to the coronavirus pandemic are not GDPR compliant. You may think that GDPR doesn’t apply to your business or you may believe you are covered while WFH, but simply by using your own laptop or desktop instead of your work PC may mean you are in breach of GDPR.

So, what is GDPR?<...

This era of working from home (WFH) has seen millions of workers adapt to using new technology, resulting in video conferencing platforms seeing demand for their products escalate exponentially. Now, although we can’t, and probably don’t all want to look like Huw Edwards or Sophie Raworth, here are some tips on looking professional in a video conference from the confines of your home.

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Times and technology have changed considerably in recent years and when you look back just 10 years ago homeworking was very different compared with today, even the term has changed to Working from Home (WFH).

The advancement in technology for working from home has made the transition from working from an office or other place of work almost seamless and despite the lockdown, it’s still b...

I’d imagine that the majority of workers who hadn’t worked from home (WFH) before were probably quite pleased to get the memo from their boss telling them that the office is closing, and they would have to take the laptop home.

I mean, who wouldn’t relish the thought of no longer sitting in traffic during the dreaded daily commute or standing in the rain waiting for a bus that was running...