Points of view
Measure What Matters
Stalling for time on EU Pay Transparency directive? That’s a business fail
The emotional tidal wave was immediate – livid, disgusted, shattered and, frankly, humiliated – when I was told “because he might be a husband and father one day”. That was what I had just been told by Bob, a male colleague in his 40s, when I asked why a junior male...
Work is broken and it is well past time to fix it for Ireland’s working parents
What do glass slippers, leather shoes, and the world of work have in common? Too many people pretend they’re the right size. Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters and US president Donald Trump’s officials all attempted to wear shoes that didn’t fit. Likewise, too many...
Is doubt a leadership superpower in the workplace?
The executive offices and boardrooms of the most successful companies are not full of people who know it all. They never were. Yet, in the age of the “strong leader”, this stereotype has fooled us into thinking that the best leaders know exactly where they’re going...
The case for flexible working: ‘We lose one-third of women in their child-rearing years’
When I first met Laura (not her real name), she was an associate solicitor in a small but busy general practice and excited to be pregnant with her first child. Five years later, she was a solicitor at a top Dublin law firm and a parent to two young children with a...
‘Brain fry’, the workplace side-effect of too much technology
How many times a day do you touch your phone as against shaking a human hand, hugging a friend or relative, or even stroking your dog or cat’s fur? How many hours do you spend staring at a screen – big or small – instead of into a person’s face? How much of your week...
‘Saving the family’ is really about putting women back in their boxes
Women in the US are being pushed from the frying pan into a five-alarm authoritarian fire. Religious conservatives, Christian nationalists and the tech bros of Silicon Valley, who have long conspired to put women back in their pre-civil-rights boxes, are not only...
Having a baby: can you and your employer afford it?
We were all babies once. Early-stage humans grow up to be employees, entrepreneurs, taxpayers, citizens, workers, friends, family and part of our community. If we want the human race to continue, pregnancy is not optional or just nice to have; it’s essential. Even so,...
‘Build your network’: A HR expert and a serial entrepreneur on career success in the AI era
Sometimes a number makes you gasp. No, it’s not fuel prices, although they are shocking too. It’s 900,000: that’s the number of jobs likely to be lost to artificial intelligence (AI), according to figures from the Central Bank of Ireland. A paper published by the bank...
Should you live in employer-provided or subsidised housing?
Housing, housing, housing: it’s an everybody, everywhere, all at once problem. Thanks to the accommodation and energy crisis, employees are finding the costs of living and commuting difficult. Hiring and retention are also becoming harder for companies as the...
The grooming gap: do women’s investments in hair and clothing pay dividends at work?
Women are represented in the top professions more than at any time in history, and are living in the public eye. Although it means our financial position has greatly improved, we’re still disadvantaged by the grooming gap and costly beauty standards. The grooming gap...