What George Orwell can teach us about blogging
Posted by: Simon / 01.02.2012
I'm not sure if it was hearing the word "precariat" this morning in an HR related
discussion on Radio 4. Or the suggestion on twitter recently that
perhaps HR professionals should be renamed Social Sustainability
professionals. Or - while I am delighted that the Global
Entrepreneurship Congress 2012 is to take place in Liverpool,
and am looking forward to the benefits it will bring to the City -
I do wonder what is wrong with the word "enterprise".
Whatever it was, it reminded me of George Orwell's 6 rules for writing clear and
easy to understand English, and how often they are broken:
(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech
which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it
out.
(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon
word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright
barbarous.
Now, having just published a book, I'm sure that readers of
it will be able to find plenty of examples where I've broken these
rules (I nearly suggested that people in glass houses
shouldn't throw stones, but that clearly breaks rule (i)). But it
did make me wonder what Orwell would have thought of the
"blogosphere" (oops - there goes rule (v)).
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TUPE - a lot of fuss about nothing?
Posted by: Simon / 24.01.2012
TUPE is difficult, complex, needs a very expensive lawyer to guide you through it,
and stops businesses doing what they want to do. That's the common
view but it's WRONG. Here are some facts:
- The aim of TUPE is simply to protect employees from losing
their jobs, employment benefits and legal rights through a change
in employer that they have no control over.
- It applies where an existing business or service transfers from
one organisation to another. It doesn't apply if a business just
gets a new owner, or if a new service is different to an old
one.
- In a TUPE situation you have responsibilities to consult with
staff and their representatives, and to provide information at
various points. That may be time consuming but it isn't difficult -
and requires only basic project planning skills
- You can make changes after a transfer - including redundancies
if you need to - provided you have a valid business reason (known
as an economic, technical or organisational reason). It has long been established that reduced income from
a client or funder is a valid economic reason.
- If there is a dispute about whether someone should be
transferred (known as assignment) there are clear guidelines about how you decide this.
It's not impossible for an old and new employer (or an employee) to
disagree on the answers but the questions to be asked are very
straightforward.
- Pension schemes don't transfer as of right. There are however
rules under the Pensions Act that require a new employer to provide
a minimum standard of pension to transferring staff who were
previously in a pension scheme.
- Public sector workers are covered by guidelines called the "Fair Deal for Pensions" under which they must
be provided with a pension which is broadly comparable to their
public sector scheme if they are transferred to a private or
voluntary sector organisation. This is a piece of government policy
(dating from 1999), nothing to do with TUPE.
It's possible to debate the fine nuances of TUPE - for many
HR/Employment Law people it has become the equivalent of "How many angels can dance on the head of a
pin?" But practical TUPE problems come more from a lack of
co-operation between new and old employer than the legislation
itself.
You can find out more here
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