No Smoking, it's Stoptober

For the last few years, since the UK smoking ban in public buildings, smokers have been banished outside when they wish to light up.  Often in the winter I see them huddled together outside of buildings, discussing business, office politics or just generally gossiping.  They appear not to be feeling the cold.  As a non-smoker I often wondered if smoking in some way made you forget the cold temperatures by building up some sort of endurance within you body.

Fortuitously, there may be an alternative for smokers who are banished outside!  The electronic cigarette or e-cigarette or vaporiser, are becoming ever more popular for smokers who wish to reduced their nicotine intake or give up completely.  Whatever your choice of name, the e-cigarette which was meant to help smokers is now as controversial as the regular cigarette.

Since e-cigarettes do not give off any smoke, should employees and visitors to public buildings be allowed to use them inside? The main reason for non-smoking in public buildings was due to the passive smoking risk element.

If e-cigarettes are banned inside public buildings, what is a reasonable justification for this?  Reasons given by some companies who have banned the use of e-cigarettes inside are around the fact that it is not the impression they wish to portray as a company or, it is difficult to distinguish between e-cigarettes and normal cigarettes and therefore a ban on all types of cigarettes is warranted. As PAs do you agree with these reasons?  Would it bother you if you went to the bank/post office or some other public building and were served by staff using e-cigarettes? What are the rules in your office?

In addition to the views as to their use inside or outside, there is now the argument over their safety from a health perspective.  Manufacturers, distributers and marketers have promoted e-cigarettes as being the healthy alternative to cigarettes.  However, research is now showing that some e-cigarettes contain carcinogenic chemicals that make some as harmful as normal tobacco.  This is a claim made by a new study in France.  The French Government have announced plans to ban e-cigarettes in public places.  Should this happen here?

Whatever your views on smoking, e-cigarettes appear not to be as safe as originally thought and further research is being carried out into their safety.

For smokers who are trying to give up, it’s not too late to register and take part in the “Stoptober” campaign which is a UK-wide initiative in October each year, encouraging smokers to give up.  It provides resources, advice and support.  The link to the official website: https://stoptober.smokefree.nhs.uk/

Yvette Squire FAPA

office* 2013: Katie Piper confirmed for headline Keynote

Charity campaigner, TV presenter and bestselling author Katie Piper will host a headline Keynote at this year’s office* show, which returns to London’s Olympia on 8-9 October. 

As the UK’s leading annual event dedicated to meeting the business, training and networking needs of Britain’s PAs, office managers and executive support professionals, office*’s free Keynote programme is renowned for attracting a host of ‘inspirational’ names.  Previous headline Keynote speakers include Deborah Meaden, Karren Brady, Michelle Mone and Jacqueline Gold – and this year it’s Katie Piper’s turn to draw in the crowds. 

Having successfully rebuilt her life after surviving a horrific sulphuric acid attack in 2008, Katie has been a familiar face on UK television – first appearing on Channel 4’s Katie: My Beautiful Face, which won best documentary at the 2011 Broadcast Awards.  In 2009, she set up The Katie Piper Foundation to improve rehabilitation facilities for burns survivors, providing support and information on burns, scars and treatment. Winner of countless inspiration awards, including the 2011 Women of the Year ‘You Can’ Award, Katie’s office* Keynote (taking place at 1pm on Wednesday 9 October) promises to be the most thought provoking speech of the show.  Sharing the title of her second book – Things Get Better – her true story of triumph over adversity shares the inspirational message that no matter what we face, things really do get better.

 “I’m so excited to be speaking at this year’s office show,” says Katie Piper, “it’s great to be involved in the UK’s leading event for the modern-day office professional!”

 “Katie Piper is an inspiration to all those lucky enough to hear her story and we are delighted to welcome her to office* 2013,” says David Maguire, event manager of office*.  “We’re anticipating a capacity crowd for her session at this year’s event.”

Gareth Osborne said: “I agree with David, Katie will add great value to the show and prove an invaluable draw for attendees. She is a personal hero of mine and I will enjoy hearing her speak.

 

APA

Craving inspiration and leadership

Britain’s female workforce is craving inspiration in the workplace to empower them to break away from traditional expectations, according to new a new study on flexible working released by O2.

As the role of women in the workplace becomes increasingly more prominent, the research reveals differences in the way that men and women like to work and the things that motivate them when it comes to job satisfaction and well-being.

Women want to be inspired by their environment and leaders, rating an inspiring working environment and clear leadership as more important than traditional benefits, such as healthcare or a pension — compared to men, who place more importance on these.

Women also want their bosses to do more to empower them in new ways of working. More than half say that their boss should make it clear that working flexibly won’t have a detrimental effect on their career (56%) and make them feel more trusted to work from home (52%), compared to less than half of men who say the same.

“The digital world offers huge opportunity to suit the demands of different people in the workforce — whether through flexible working policies that empower staff to shape their own working day, to creating an inspiring workplace that breaks down barriers across teams. To create a truly flexible working culture, actions speak louder than words — and employers must lead by example to ensure that every member of staff feels empowered to shape their own definition of the 9 to 5,” Ben Dowd, O2 Business Director, commented.

APA supports the call for employers to liberate their workforce to maximise their own work effectiveness. An inspiring environment and great leadership are at the heart of the APA Diploma in Personal Assistance (DipPA) and support a PA role in that culture.

APA

APA welcomes increase to the national minimum wage

APA welcomes the planned increases to the national minimum wage, set out recently by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Gareth Osborne said: "The announcement to increase the minimum wage for adults by 1.9% and to increase the youth and apprenticeship rate by 1% is a welcome one. APA believes that most employers support the concept of the minimum wage and support increasing it to boost the living standards of lower paid workers*. This is particularly important given the Government's efforts to reform the benefit system and incentivise work, especially for the long-term unemployed.

"We also welcome the announcement that there will be a stronger set of measures put in place to enforce the minimum wage. Many employers already pay more than the minimum wage but it is good to see that more will be done to ensure that the small minority of rogue businesses, who are exploiting their workers by not acting within the law, will be brought to book."

APA

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

On the day of the funeral of The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher LG OM PC FRS it seems only right that we pay tribute to this indomitable woman; the first female Prime Minister, who led in a male-dominated world.

Upon moving into 10 Downing Street in1979, Mrs. Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an on-going recession. [Sounds a little like today]. Combined with her mission to tame the Unions she set a tough agenda and stuck to it – even though it led to her ultimate rejection.

Gareth Osborne (himself non-political) worked closely with her in her first 3 years in office said: “She had a way of talking down to everyone but once you got to know her I found her warm, engaging and amazingly inspiring. She strived to support business; especially the entrepreneurial spirit in Britain, for that passion I thank her. To me she was a great leader. Mrs. Thatcher should have and could have done wore for women but alas she missed that opportunity – it may have been a strategy that could have saved her political career; we’ll never know.”

She was always a topic for graffiti from the whit who wrote: “Get Maggie Thatcher, before she gets you” to the recent addition that “Iron Lady: Rust in Peace.” All hail a legend.

APA

We're back!

The APA website is live again. Not fully, and it is not the full re-launch, but the technology is up and finally under operational testing as we speak. Members can’t yet get in as we will be sending them all new entry details but it’ll happen in the next 10 days. It’s time to draw breath, recover posture, regain our composure and start again. It feels like one of those unbelievable American disaster movies where the heroes XXXX wide-eyed into the brave new world after the nuclear/alien/viral attack (choose any one). Excuse the melodrama but I’ts been quite a ride!

I would of course like to thank each and every APA Member for being so tolerant. We have had nothing but message of support, massive understanding and sympathy and warmest wishes from you all. To Sarah from Norwich who sent flowers on our lowest day, thank you , you saved us all..

In truth, we did have a few who mumbles and grumbles but we apologised (which we do to everyone) and hoped they will stick with us.

 To vent my spleen I have to share with you all my feelings:

“In my time I’ve been cast adrift in the treacherous and icy-cold Atlantic (and I can’t swim), I’ve had two engines fail on a two engine aeroplane and had a brain tumour but none was as gut-wrenchingly scary and beyond my control as the hacking of our system was. It amounted to total violation of our business – it must pale against personal violation but it makes me even more sympathetic. I have nothing but rage and violent imaginings for the perpetrator of this heinous commercial sabotage.  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon are for the rest of their lives we will work to find out who did it (or commissioned it).”

To all those new members who still chose to join when we told them the website was down and all those wonderful people who found a route to booked training and qualification courses, well done. Now we take no prisoners.

 

APA