and now listen to this...

There are theories, aren't there, about coincidences and whether they are real or whether it's because you had already had the thought, or reacted to one event that the next was significant enough for you to notice and make a link.
Following on from my thoughts on part time work, I heard a wonderful talk yesterday on women's equality on Radio 4.  It is brilliant.  It is 15 minutes long - I stayed in the car in the Tesco car park to hear it out.  Judith Shapiro, a successful economist acknowledges and celebrates the accomplishments of women in her lifetime but succinctly puts her finger on the next challenge and changing men and women's view of part time work is one of them.  I have an underlying concern that women's history is always repeating itself - that we go two steps forward and one step back and that the next generation feel they have to break the ground that their mother and grandmothers had actually already broken.  Shapiro's reflection is an excellent pointer to looking forward and moving forward.

click here to go to the BBC website: 

FOUR THOUGHT

Listen to it!

More on Judith Shapiro and credit for the photo here: http://www.intelligencesquared.com/speakers/judith-shapiro/

Flexible / Part Time Working

I've had a couple of reasons to think about this in the last few days and this is a quick blog, hopefully I will follow it up with more soon.

One friend, a teacher, has just had her first baby.  She's applied to go to a four day week but her superiors were making noises that they weren't too happy about the idea.  The school has always granted this for other mothers when they have requested it but my friend is an assistant principal.  Her concern is that they won't grant her the leave because she is too senior. 

Another friend works in the construction industry.  She (in my opinion) already works her socks off everyday.  This may be her personality, her diligence but it may also have to do with being a woman when most of her colleagues are men.  She is currently trying to work even harder to justify asking for part time work in the future when her family circumstances change.

I am no expert at all but I know that policies are in place so that everyone who cares for someone, be it a child, a sick relative, an elderly parent has the right to ask an employer for flexible working.  The employer doesn't have to grant it but they do have to give proper reasons and there are legal procedures for you, in your request and them to follow.  The best source of info is the government website.

Types of flexible working include:
Job sharing


Working from home

Part time

Compressed hours

Flexitime

Annualised hours

Staggered hours

Phased retirement

Employers can reject an application for one of the following reasons:

• extra costs which will damage the business
• the business won’t be able to meet customer demand
• the work can’t be reorganised among other staff
• people can’t be recruited to do the work
• flexible working will have an effect on quality and performance
• there’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times
• the business is planning changes to the workforce

This must be done in writing and should inform the employer on how to appeal.

There's loads of information on the Working Families Website also.

And for those of us who don't care for anyone - care for a cup of tea? no not like that obviously, the government website also sets out that anyone can ask their employer if they will consider flexible working. Read about 10 powerful women and men working part time in this article from the Telegraph.

test

widgets, gadgets, twitter feeds and blog posts just the thing for a Sunday morning

— Joanne Hobohm (@cwic_tweet) June 9, 2013

Social Media-ing

As part of the new self-employed 21st century me I have been getting up half an hour earlier (week days only) and 'doing' social media online. I still feel like a monkey with mittens on when it comes to navigating the clicks and whizzes and setting things up like 'pages', 'links' or 'groups' always takes much longer than I anticipate but I'm going to persevere.  Why? Because I'm learning stuff, and not just how to operate in this strange cyber world.  I'm also forming an informed opinion on the different 'platforms' and what's good for what.  Here's a little summary - see if you agree.


Facebook
I keep my personal page private and try to restrict my friends to actual friends.  That's a moving definition though because Facebook can be useful for linking with new friends - people you meet on holiday or on a course.  I use the 'close friends' sub group for most of my posting and I hide notifications from some (such as my hip younger cousins) if they are dominating my news feed.  I'm careful about what I post and I can see the hazards of other people posting photographs of you and the inevitable linking of all one's online presences.  Most of my FB friends treat it as I do, not a place for deep and meaningful exchanges but good for a quick update, a shared joke or a quick hello, thumbs-up.

Facebook- business page
I've set up a Studio Hobohm Facebook page.  I have no idea if you can see this if you are not a member of Facebook.  Investigating this is on my 'to do list'.  At the moment it is Studio Hobohm's only web presence so it's an alternative to a website, has a relaxed feel and is easy to add to and update.  I still feel I need a website as my broader market is probably not Facebook friendly enough but it's been a good way to think about a company profile, images and links.

Twitter
I tweet under my Cambridge Women in Construction guise: @cwic_tweet.  Tweeting is a funny old business and the one I am most skeptical about.  It's difficult to see how anyone has time to read what you are saying or follow up on the links that are posted.  There is a steady stream of information but as I have been tweeting at the same time each day (first thing in the morning) - I imagine I am only seen by a few people before I slip down the ranks.  I believe you can pre-write tweets and send them out at set times but I haven't (had time) to work out how to do this.  Twitter seems to be a true marketing tool - raising awareness, letting people know you exist and giving them a flavour of who you are and what you do through the content of your tweets.  I haven't got the hang of the hash-tag and I haven't joined any 'conversations'.  At the moment I feel like everyone on Twitter is posting for attention and I'm not sure anyone is looking for the info.  It's a battle of the followers and the followed.   I've linked the feed to the studio hobohm page and I will try again to get that working on this blog as I think that may have more interest.

LinkedIn
This is a much more grown-up version of all the others but as a consequence seems a lot less active and not much fun.   It's the working world and has already been useful for job references and old uni contacts.  It's a kind of online CV and has groups for discussions and messaging which I think could be useful for CWiC - another 'to do list' item. That would make checking it more meaningful because I must admit I don't do much more than log on at the moment.