Points of view
Measure What Matters
How women being thought of as ‘small men’ lead to a work health gap
When you are working and raising young children, you have little time to think about your own health or your physical and mental needs. It is an oversight that is reinforced by social and cultural messages that encourage women to subsume their needs for others. We...
Childcare in Ireland: ‘Even as well-paid professionals, it was an exhausting struggle. The numbers never added up’
Childcare is Ireland’s impossible equation. No matter how much you try to solve for X – working from home, asking relatives for help, using crèches, childminders and availing of State subsidies and payments – it seems designed to break you financially and emotionally....
How to make the most of your financial power at every life and career stage
Women are financially disadvantaged throughout their lives. From paying the 'pink tax' – more for similar clothing and toiletries compared to men – to the gender pay gap, pensions and inheritance gaps, it’s much harder for women to attain and maintain personal wealth....
Manager vs leader: You finally got that promotion to the top tier, now what?
Congratulations! You got the big promotion you’ve always wanted. It was a hard slog, but you were focused, worked hard to meet the company’s goals and directed your team well. You’ve made the great leap from manager to leader. Now what? If you’re a new leader or...
What’s The Point Of Meetings Anyway?
The eyeroll says it all. You’re in another meeting with that manager who loves meetings about meetings. She’s waffling on again, and your colleagues are failing to contain their disdain; it’s all nail-biting, clock-watching, side-eye glancing and leg jiggling. As...
Gender pay gap: Women seethe quietly with rage at performative nonsense
Many moons ago, I worked at a place that had a novel way of celebrating women. The top guy wore pink socks (possibly the same pair) for a week. To be fair, the company was raising funds for a women’s charity, but as a woman, I would have preferred better working...
‘There’s a war on academia’: US faces brain drain of its brightest and best teachers and students
“We used to be known as the land of the free and the home of the brave; and now we’re the land of the fearful and home of the hateful,” says Jim Noone, who works at a research university in the United States. Like many working in American academia, Jim and his wife...
‘Incivility is a bug’: Bad manners at work are bad for the bottom line
Bad manners at work are bad for the bottom line. Minding your Ps and Qs, or your manners, is more than a quaint fad from the past. Research shows that businesses and organisations that allow rudeness and disrespect are likely to have lower profitability, poor staff...
Life-changing reading lists
The clock has gone back, the mid-term is over and the big save is on for Christmas. So how are you going to pass the dark evenings between now and party season? For anyone who has watched the new Netflix show Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, you'll know that...
The future is flexible
The future is flexible If you believe the headlines, soon we’ll only have to work four days a week and robots are going to take most of our jobs. Predicting the ‘future of work’ is a difficult task, as most futurists, business journalists and industrial designers will...