Back to basics: Disability discrimination in the workplace Unless you’ve been walking around with your eyes and ears closed to the world, you can’t have failed to notice Mencap’s #HereIAm campaign, which recently entered its third year. And this is exactly what the UK’s leading charity for learning disabilities is trying to confront – the […]

Are our workplaces still a man’s world? This is a man’s world – so sang James Brown – and most notably, the working world is a man’s world. The world is also changing, but why aren’t our workplaces? Despite the government target for boards and executive committees of the UK’s top businesses to comprise 33% […]

Back to basics: Sexual orientation discrimination It is unlawful to discriminate against employees because of their sexual orientation, whether someone is lesbian, gay, heterosexual, bisexual or asexual. Under the Equality Act 2010, sexual orientation is a protected characteristic, similarly to race, gender, age – which our blog series at Tell Jane have previously explored, check […]

“It’s Christmas party time!” Is this exclamation of merriment met with festive cheer – “yay, I wonder who my Secret Santa is” – or festive sneer – *groans, bangs head on desk, hides in toilet*? Either way, here’s our survival guide for navigating the office party minefield. This isn’t a dos and don’t checklist for […]

Should non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and court injunctions be used to protect the reputation of wealthy business men (and women) when they have harassed and bullied their employees? The short answer is no. And it seems I am not alone in my feelings here in light of former leader of the House of Commons Lord Hain’s […]

Back to basics: Religion or belief discrimination explained We continue our blog series on identifying and understanding different types of workplace discrimination by looking at religion or belief discrimination. And if you’ve missed previous back to basics blogs, you’ll find links at the end of this article to check them out. What is religion or […]

Don’t just stand by. Bystander intervention is a term borne out of heightened awareness of street harassment – that is, harassment that takes place in public places such as on public transport, in nightclubs and bars, even schools and universities. It seeks to galvanise individuals to act when they witness someone being harassed in order […]

The state pension age in the UK is set to rise to 66 for both men and women by October 2020. The government’s expectation is for employees to work later into life, but are our workplaces following suit? Let’s take a look at age and discrimination in the workplace. What is age discrimination and is […]

Does your leadership style mirror those who have led you? A question of leadership. I’ve been thinking about leadership recently, in particular about how leadership styles develop, evolve and are cultivated. When I saw a version of the question “Does your leadership style mirror those who have led you?” on Twitter recently, my initial reaction […]

How have UK workplaces responded to the #MeToo movement? Not that well according to a recent survey by law firm Slater and Gordon. The survey of 2,000 women revealed 37% respondents had been sexually harassed at work in the last 12 months – and as well as being subjected to unwanted behaviour, 39% reported witnessing […]

Recent study reveals attitudes to pregnancy are hindering women’s career progression. Young Women’s Trust, a charity supporting women aged 16-30 on low or no pay, commissioned YouGov to survey UK employers with one in five admitting that if a woman is pregnant or has children it impacts decisions about whether to promote them. Worryingly, one […]

Get set for some eye-watering figures. A report commissioned by INvolve revealed earlier this year that the cost to the UK economy of workplace discrimination was £127 billion; £123 billion of which was gender discrimination, £2.6 billion against ethnic minorities and £2 billion due to sexual orientation. In 2017, it was reported that 21st Century […]