Will rapidly changing employment trends mean the end of work as we now know it? How can we achieve a work/life balance when many employees say they are working harder and longer than ever before? With over half a million school children working illegally, are younger people being exploited? This book looks at the many challenges facing British workers due to the changing nature of work.
The information comes from a wide variety of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Work in the UK Today
Job satisfaction?, The joy of work?, Auf wiedersehen, pet?, Unprepared, uninformed and unsure of success, Do you work for a tyrant or a pussycat?, UK employees working longest hours in Europe, Sicknote culture?, ‘Sicknote Britain’ an urban myth, says TUC report, Pride and prejudice blur men’s view of the glass cliff, Losing your job is ‘worse than losing a loved one’, Work this way.
Chapter Two: The Work-Life Balance
Workers in 30s suffer most from work-life imbalance, The time and the place . . ., Flexibility for parents, Work-life balance in the British economy, Part-time and flexible working, Flexible working can keep your absence rates healthy, Flexible working, What are working from home and teleworking?, Becoming a working parent, Working from home, Work and childcare, Facts about working dads, Mothers on the run, Arranging a grown-up gap year, Working hard?, Are you a workaholic?.
Chapter Three: Work and Young People
Young people at work, The skills gap, Skills shortage 12-year high, Job crisis for school leavers , Business welcomes education white paper, Is it really worth it?, Modern Apprenticeships, Youth unemployment at all-time high.
Key Facts
Additional Resources
Index
Acknowledgements
• Over 4 million workers, 15% of the total workforce, are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their jobs. (page 2)
• Losing a job is more traumatic than divorce or widowhood, according to a study. (page 10)
• Employees want work-life balance – nearly four-fifths of employees (78%) believe they should be able ‘to balance their work and home lives’ as they choose and 95% believe that ‘people work best when they can balance their home and other aspects of their lives’. (page 16)
• Fathers are less likely to work part-time (4%) than men without children (9%), unlike mothers, who are more likely to work part-time (60%) than women without children (32%). (page 24)
• Over 90% of British workers regularly put more effort into their job than is expected of them, and over two-thirds regularly do unpaid overtime. (page 28)
• The UK currently has a million people unemployed, with a further 7.6 million people of working age inactive in the labour market. (page 31)
• Global Employment Trends for Youth, 2004 puts the global youth unemployment rate at 14.4 per cent in 2003, a 26.8 per cent increase in the total number of unemployed young people over the past decade. (page 37)
Work Issues Study Guide
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.50
ISBN: 978 1 86168 333 5
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