Category: Work

  • Why is the UK suffering from a Labour Shortage?

    There are over 1 million job vacancies in the UK in September 2021, but Brexit isn’t the only reason!

  • McDonald’s – Are they really offering their employees a better deal?

    McDonald’s – Are they really offering their employees a better deal?

    McDonald’s is one of Britain’s biggest employers, employing 115 000 workers in over 1300 stores. It is also one of the biggest users of zero hours contracts. However, following a series of protests over these contracts, the company has recently offered all its workers the choice of staying on ‘zero hours contracts’ or moving onto…

  • Why are trades unions in decline? And does it matter?

    Why are trades unions in decline? And does it matter?

    Trades Unions membership is in decline in the UK, but why is this, and what is the social significance of this seemingly depressing social trend?

  • Sociological perspectives on the relationship between education and work

    Functionalism Main post on the functionalist perspective on education. Education teaches us specialist skills for work – At school, individuals learn the diverse skills necessary for this to take place. For example, we may all start off learning the same subjects, but later on we specialize when we do GCSEs. This allows for a complex…

  • Retirement

    I’ve since moved this post to my Steemit Account.. Steemit’s a relatively new block chain based blogging platform – I recommend you check it out!

  • How to Improve Work in the United Kingdom

    Below is my summary of chapters 6-11 of the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices, which deals with what needs to be done to make work better for more people in the UK. Executive summary: we need to deal with the following areas: Legal issues – we need greater clarity in the law pertaining to…

  • An Overview of the UK Labour Market (2017)

    Adapted from Taylor’s ‘Good Work’ Report (2017). This report reviews the current state of work and makes (some fairly limited and piecemeal) policy recommendations about how to make work fairer for more people. Characteristics of the UK labour market The Review coins the term ‘the British way’ to describe the current working landscape in Britain…

  • Good Work – The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices

    My Summary of this recent report on Modern Working Practices fronted by Mathew Taylor of the RSA – I’ve had be selective and modified some of the chapter headings so they reflect more clearly the content of each chapter – IMO this is a pretty accurate, much briefer and more readable summary of the report……

  • Why workers aren’t benefiting from the automation of jobs…

    The increasing automation of jobs could (should?) result in us all working less – but instead, most of us seem to working just as longer hours as ever, why is this – a little dose of Marxism actually goes a long way to explaining this… What’s below is taken from the LSE blog (Jan 2015),…