Half of British workforce fails to take full annual leave

Half of British workforce fails to take full annual leave by Michael Cheary 90 per cent of employees feel more productive at work following a holidayDiligent Brits work 70.5 hours overtime each year Almost half of UK workers admit to checking emails or doing work whilst away Will reclaiming our annual leave help make us more productive? According to our latest research, which found that over half of UK workers (54 per cent) forgo an average of three days leave each year, the answer might be yes.In fact, despite a resounding 90 per cent of employees claiming a well deserved break increases their productivity at work, the average full time worker takes just 22 days of their average 25 days allocated leave.They also admit to putting in an average of 70.5 hours overtime each year, saving their employers almost £1,000.*Too busy for a break?More than two in five (45 per cent) employees admit to cancelling holiday for work, with a quarter of hard working Brits (24 per cent) claiming they would rather forfeit the occasional day off than le ave work undone or fall behind.Diligent workers will also cram in four extra hours of work on average the week before they take a break.Other reasons Brits fail to take their full leave include a lack of organisation; almost one in five (18 per cent) say they’re so busy they forget to book time off, and one in eight (12 per cent) admit they plan their holidays poorly and end up with too many days to take at the end of the year.Seven day forecastAccording to the average British worker, the key amount of time to take off work to ensure they are feeling recharged and productive when they return is five to seven days.Whilst away, almost a third of employees (31 per cent) like to switch off completely, but almost half (48 per cent) admit to checking emails or doing some work during their break.StaycationPerhaps surprisingly, one in six people (17 per cent) indicated that  they actually  look forward to returning to work after a holiday.Of those, two in five (37 per cent) relish getting back into a routine, and almost a third (31 per cent) look forward to catching up with colleagues.!Still searching for your perfect position? Have a look at all of our current vacancies nowSurvey of 2,129 people from the reed.co.uk database.* 52 weeks â€" 5 working weeks (average 25 days annual leave) = 47 weeks in work  Find a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your personal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. Life At Work Work-life balancefeatured

Going Nuclear Eliminating Debt Without Concern for Your Credit Score

Going Nuclear Eliminating Debt Without Concern for Your Credit Score If you’ve found yourself saddled with unmanageable debt and you’re trying to figure out what to do, one of your chief concerns might be preserving your credit score as much as possible. While this is certainly a worthy endeavor, sometimes it’s better to think long-term rather than short-term. In a lot of cases, eliminating debt without concern for your credit score can get you back on sound financial footing much faster. What’s more, if you’re already in a situation in which you’ve missed payments, or have been late more than a few times, your credit score has already suffered. At this point, it’s better to just focus on eradicating the obligations. Let’s take a look at some of your best options. Credit Counseling/Debt Consolidation In nearly every case, entering a credit counseling program will mean closing your unsecured accounts. Issuers usually require this before they will agree to work with a counselor. After all, they want to make sure you don’t take advantage of the program to charge more after they’ve agreed to grant concessions. This means your credit report will show some negative entries, which will make it difficult to get unsecured credit for up to five years, or until you successfully complete the program. You’ll also lose your unsecured credit history and have no activity over that period, so your score will also dip a bit. However, this shouldn’t be much of a hindrance when it comes to qualifying for secured loans for a home and a car â€" assuming you complete the program successfully. Debt Settlement/Debt Negotiation If you qualify for debt settlement, your credit score has already taken a beating. Creditors will only take your request for negotiation seriously if you’ve been missing payments. And, they’ve already conveyed the nature of the situation to credit reporting agencies. As a result, your credit score has already dropped, and your credit report reflects late payments too. Further, your accounts will be forwarded to collections before the process is complete. However, as dire as this all sounds, it’s better than the alternative, which is struggling to figure out how to deal with something over which you no longer have any semblance of control. There’s more good news here. Working with a company like Freedom Debt Relief to settle credit card debt can put you on track to rebuild your credit much sooner than you could trying to pay your way out on your own. While they can’t help you fix your credit report, they can set you on the right path to rebuilding your score. Once your settlement program is complete, your debt-to-income ratio will look very good to creditors considering you for loans. Just be careful to avoid getting back into the same problem. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy If your situation is such that neither of the above options is feasible, your only other choice will be to file for some form of bankruptcy protection. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing will be reflected on your credit report for 10 years. Despite this fact, some experts consider it the best option rather than the refuge of last resort. After all, you’ll eliminate your unsecured debt immediately, with no lengthy program to endure. Further, you’ll find all sorts of credit offers in your mailbox within months of filing. Granted, the limits will be low, and the interest rates will be high, but they’ll be there. Creditors will relish the opportunity to make you pay more for less. Plus, they know you won’t be able to get out of paying by filing for protection again for eight years. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Here’s where things can get a bit medieval. The court will all but take control of your finances for about five years or so. During that period, you’ll have to ask a judicial trustee’s permission to apply for any new credit accounts â€" and they usually deny those requests. What’s more, your credit report will reflect this decision for seven years. On the upside, you do get to keep a lot of assets you might have to forfeit under Chapter 7. Still though, you’ll surrender control of your life â€" and your credit score will suffer greatly. These are your choices when it comes to eliminating debt without concern for your credit score. The good news is some of them are far worse than others. Deciding which one to choose is largely dependent upon your situation and your tolerance for inconvenience.

Personal Brands How to Think Your Way to Fortune and Fame - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Brands How to Think Your Way to Fortune and Fame - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Would you drop out (or drop in) to think for a living? How about for $90,000 over 6 months? That would cover your stint as an “entrepreneur in residence” aka EIR. This job does exist. In fact a legion of companies with EIR positions compete for people who think of great ideas. Silicon Valley’s most prestigious venture capital companies and some large corporations as well sponsor this warm and nurturing â€" and highly connected â€" life. Are you an idea maker? What exactly does the job description specify? Apparently, just the commitment to think, meet and mingle with other thinkers and doers, and prior experience thinking and materializing great ideas. Not the lemonade stand type of idea â€" even if you sold peppermint and guava flavored choices, made from secret recipes you and your fellow third-grade classmates devised in your school’s young entrepreneur club. Via Sunday’s New York Times, we discover that relatively mature great idea makers are courted and rewarded, including Michael Bauer at Foundation Capital. Mr. Bauer has previous experience thinking. In fact, prior to taking an EIR slot, he successfully envisioned and launched ventures in broadband technology and green businesses. For this he gets a villa, an assistant, fantastic lunches and even more fantastic lunch partners. Clearly his personal brand includes thinking, and he’s leveraging that. What’s the lesson for your personal brand? Answer this: How much time do you spend thinking? How often do you record your great ideas â€" and review them? How much time do you spend connecting with people who can help you transform your ideas into a great ventures? Are you too busy working or job-hunting to be thinking? Really? No matter how mature you are â€" and how much successful experience you have, really great ideas happen to people even before they finish college or have a day of real work experience. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs…. you know the biggest names read Malcolm Gladwell’s work to discover much less vaulted stars in their respective industries, making a great deal of money. Gladwell says all the greats pretty much have 10,000 hours at the one thing they eventually leveraged for fortune. So, personal brands: if you have been you for about one and one-half years, you’ve had all the time you need if YOU are a great idea. If you haven’t yet been the fantastic, elastic, bombastic personal brand you need be, in order to leverage yourself for a fortune (and fame): there’s time. Personal brands: Make yourself your own EIR. Pay for yourself with whatever work you are doing and more work you could bring in. Present a crisp, clear, compelling reason to be hired, and be relentless about leveraging your personal brand promise. As money rains in for what you may or may not want to spend your life doing, spend part of every day being an idea maker. The lunch you provide yourself won’t rival what the Silicon Valley EIRs are eating. But, you should be making calls to people who would go Dutch with you to Subway, in order to engage in the kind of connectivity that doesn’t come from a router. Personal Brands: Eat. Think. Connect. Author: Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen.

Why You Need to Bring Your Whole Self to Work

Why You Need to Bring Your Whole Self to Work We all know about organic products and foods but is it possible to have an organic employee experience? And what does it mean to be truly organic? Does such a thing exist? Well if theres one person who can answer that, then its  Andres Traslavina who is Director of Global Recruiting at Whole Foods Market. This  American supermarket chain specializes in selling organic products and has some 500 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. Have a listen to the episode below, keep reading for a summary and be sure to subscribe to the Employer Branding Podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Play or Soundcloud. In this episode youll learn: What kind of employee experience they give their staff What its really like to work for an organic company Why their approach to employer branding is unique to them Why happiness is one of their core values Why their customers end up becoming employees All about their Four Pillars Connect with Andres on LinkedIn

How to Transition to a Career in Data Analytics CareerMetis.com

How to Transition to a Career in Data Analytics â€" CareerMetis.com Photo Credit â€" Pexels.comData analytics is one of the fastest-growing fields out there. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is expected to grow 30 percent through 2024, and with a median wage of $79,200, it is an attractive field to consider.Data analytics is the process of examining large data sets to uncover patterns and correlations that can be used to make business decisions. It is similar to the work of statisticians but focuses on much larger data sets. The field has evolved because of the need to be able to analyze the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data that are collected every day.Organizations that can effectively capture and analyze big data have an edge on their competitors. Because their analyses help an organization understand its clients and guide decisions, this position is in high demand.evalWhile it originally was just a specialty in the tech industry, data analytics is now becoming a specialty that is in demand in multiple industries, government, and privat e sectors, including healthcare and science. Plus, its analyzing power is valuable in different areas of the business including performance management at the organizational and granular levels and predicting future trends and behaviors of customers.Because there is such a high demand for professionals in this field, not only are more students looking to major in it, but many others are switching careers to join the ranks.As a data analysis interviewee, you will never be asked that common interview question, “why do you want to leave your current job?” The benefits of switching are clear. Plus, if you are currently working in a field that has a need for data analysts, you will have a leg up over new graduates. Since there is a shortage of experienced data analysts, hiring managers will look favorably on applicants who have current experience in their industry.If you are a student looking to major in this field you have a couple of options. If you are just beginning your college c areer, there are bachelor programs in data analytics. You could complete your undergraduate degree and jump right into your chosen industry. If you are almost done with your undergraduate degree, it might make more sense to pursue a master’s degree.You will likely have a higher starting salary and will have the additional knowledge gained from your bachelor’s to help you pursue data analytics in a specific field such as healthcare or marketing.If you are looking to make the jump to data analytics from your current career, your next steps will vary depending upon your current skillset and in which industry you would like to work. To stay in an industry where you already have the experience, it might be a simple matter of learning some specific tools.However, if you are planning on switching industries and have had little exposure to handling data, you will need to obtain additional schooling.evalImportant strategies include:1) Learning analytics toolsevalIf you already have a deg ree in computer science, math, or statistics, it might be a simple matter of learning the analytics tools used in the field. The common ones currently in use include R, SAS, SQL, and SPR. These are the bread and butter of data analysis.No matter how well you understand the theory and math behind analytics, you can do very little without the knowledge of how to use the tools that evaluate the data. Not every organization will use all of these. If you are looking to transition in your company, find out which one it uses and learn it. Otherwise, learn as much as you can about each one.2) Keeping currentBecause it is a new field, data analytics is changing and growing rapidly. If you do not stay current, it would be easy to fall behind in developments. Subscribe to any industry journals that are available and read blogs or articles from thought leaders in the industry.evalStay abreast of developments, comment on interesting threads and become immersed in the field. Even after transition ing into your new career, these tips will help ensure your success in your new field. It might also help you with the next point.3) Networking and ConnectingIn the same vein as number two, by networking with other professionals in the field, you can exchange ideas and advice. If you can find a mentor, even better. Sometimes, knowing theory and the tools is not enough. Insider tricks help you be more effective in your job, certainly faster, and maybe even more insightful.4) Going back to schoolIt can be hard to go back to school once you are established in your career. However, because data analytics is such a technical field, if you don’t have the necessary background in math or statistics, it might be needed.There are several online programs for a Master of Science in Analytics. Online programs allow you the flexibility to study on your schedule and at your pace, making it possible for motivated individuals to earn a degree while working full time.If you love ferreting out inform ation to help you make better decisions, you will love the field of data analytics. Whether you want to help hospitals discover trends in illnesses and ways to make internal processes more efficient or help your business find ways to reach more customers by analyzing online reviews and social media posts, you can use data analytics in your current industry.

Study Positive feedback increases intrinsic motivation - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Study Positive feedback increases intrinsic motivation - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Here an interesting study?on the effects of positive feedback: Male and female undergraduate students performed an interesting task and received either positive or negative feedback relative to their performance. Subjects then filled out intrinsic motivation and feelings of competence scales. Results showed that, relative to negative feedback, positive feedback led to higher levels of intrinsic motivation and competence feelings for both males and females. So not only did positive feedback increase feelings of competence, it also gave the subjects more intrinsic motivation. This is crucial, because intrinsic motivation (i.e. your own desire to do something) is the only kind that reliably and sustainably makes us work towards a goal. This is just one more reason to praise people who do good work. Related posts Why motivation by pizza doesnt work Motivation youre doing it wrong Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

What if failure wasnt an option - Hallie Crawford

What if failure wasnt an option Happy Monday! Today I have some food for thought for you this week What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? I love to ask this question during my workshops presentations because it always brings up some great answers. People’s faces light up and the energy in the room just pops! One time when I asked this question in a teleclass, a man said “I’d date a supermodel.” I love his honesty! Here’s what I would do: Call Oprah and tell her I need to be on her show! Or I’d audition to be a backup dancer in Tina Turner’s band when she goes on tour again (I love to dance). Have you ever thought about what you would do if you simply believed you could? Why not make a list right now? Take away the prospect of failure and let your imagination run wild! Then set a time to do each thing on your list because, in reality, the only thing that’s stopping you is your mind and the fear of failure. So forget the failure and act now. Have a great week! Career Seekers Career Coach