The Paula Principle

Month: January 2014

all round competences

I'm normally a bit sceptical about international business survey results.  but Business Insider recently produced a set of findings which I found really interesting. They come from pulling together the results of an enormous number of '360o ' appraisals. These are where you as the appraised person get the views of all those you work with - above, alongside and below.  So as well as your boss, you get the views of your colleagues who operate at the same level - and those who work to you. BI pulled together results of 360o appraisals of 16000 'leaders', about one third of whom were women and two thirds men.  The average number of…
Read More

MBAs, fingers and legs

  3 adverts from the same page in a recent Economist. See next blog for Business Insider results on leadership competences!!                                                  
Read More

How big is the gender pay gap?

I'm taking part tomorrow in a Women's Hour discussion on part-time work, so I thought I'd use this post as a way of clarifying for myself what the position is on the gender pay gap, using the recent ONS report on earnings.  For the mathematically challenged such as myself some of the figures need a bit of puzzling out, but don't switch off - I think it's worth persevering. First, the 'headline' figure which has attracted attention is the increase from 9.5% to 10% of the median hourly earnings of full-time employees.  It's right, of course, that we should be emphatically reminded that progress towards equality is by no means guaranteed.…
Read More

whose jobs?

There's a long-running debate about what the impact of new technology is on skills at work.   Routine  jobs are liable to automation and/or outsourcing to countries where labour is cheaper.  But how far are less routine jobs beaching vulnerable to the same processes? Which kinds of jobs get automated is obviously relevant to the PP.    Will they be in the occupations where it's mostly women that work?  What will happen to the kinds of jobs that women mainly do?   I've been reading (parts of) a pretty strenuous piece on this by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne from the Oxford Martin School, called The Future of Employment:  how…
Read More

Attention on part-time work

I gave a small - very small, attendance about a dozen - seminar  on the PP recently at the Institute of Education.  A clever press release, not written by me, gained a lot of coverage - including the illustration below for the Peter Principle, which made me chuckle. What captured attention was the argument that only if more men work part-time  will part-time work become more recognised as a legitimate career option.  Is this a pessimistic argument, or a realistic one?   I know that friends of mine firmly believe that the only way to go is full-time.  But my argument is that the progress towards greater equality at work…
Read More

all round competences

I'm normally a bit sceptical about international business survey results.  but Business Insider recently produced a set of findings which I found really interesting. They come from pulling together the results of an enormous number of '360o ' appraisals. These are where you as the appraised person get the views of all those you work with - above, alongside and below.  So as well as your boss, you get the views of your colleagues who operate at the same level - and those who work to you. BI pulled together results of 360o appraisals of 16000 'leaders', about one third of whom were women and two thirds men.  The average number of…
Read More

MBAs, fingers and legs

  3 adverts from the same page in a recent Economist. See next blog for Business Insider results on leadership competences!!                                                  
Read More

How big is the gender pay gap?

I'm taking part tomorrow in a Women's Hour discussion on part-time work, so I thought I'd use this post as a way of clarifying for myself what the position is on the gender pay gap, using the recent ONS report on earnings.  For the mathematically challenged such as myself some of the figures need a bit of puzzling out, but don't switch off - I think it's worth persevering. First, the 'headline' figure which has attracted attention is the increase from 9.5% to 10% of the median hourly earnings of full-time employees.  It's right, of course, that we should be emphatically reminded that progress towards equality is by no means guaranteed.…
Read More

whose jobs?

There's a long-running debate about what the impact of new technology is on skills at work.   Routine  jobs are liable to automation and/or outsourcing to countries where labour is cheaper.  But how far are less routine jobs beaching vulnerable to the same processes? Which kinds of jobs get automated is obviously relevant to the PP.    Will they be in the occupations where it's mostly women that work?  What will happen to the kinds of jobs that women mainly do?   I've been reading (parts of) a pretty strenuous piece on this by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne from the Oxford Martin School, called The Future of Employment:  how…
Read More

Attention on part-time work

I gave a small - very small, attendance about a dozen - seminar  on the PP recently at the Institute of Education.  A clever press release, not written by me, gained a lot of coverage - including the illustration below for the Peter Principle, which made me chuckle. What captured attention was the argument that only if more men work part-time  will part-time work become more recognised as a legitimate career option.  Is this a pessimistic argument, or a realistic one?   I know that friends of mine firmly believe that the only way to go is full-time.  But my argument is that the progress towards greater equality at work…
Read More

all round competences

I'm normally a bit sceptical about international business survey results.  but Business Insider recently produced a set of findings which I found really interesting. They come from pulling together the results of an enormous number of '360o ' appraisals. These are where you as the appraised person get the views of all those you work with - above, alongside and below.  So as well as your boss, you get the views of your colleagues who operate at the same level - and those who work to you. BI pulled together results of 360o appraisals of 16000 'leaders', about one third of whom were women and two thirds men.  The average number of…
Read More

MBAs, fingers and legs

  3 adverts from the same page in a recent Economist. See next blog for Business Insider results on leadership competences!!                                                  
Read More

How big is the gender pay gap?

I'm taking part tomorrow in a Women's Hour discussion on part-time work, so I thought I'd use this post as a way of clarifying for myself what the position is on the gender pay gap, using the recent ONS report on earnings.  For the mathematically challenged such as myself some of the figures need a bit of puzzling out, but don't switch off - I think it's worth persevering. First, the 'headline' figure which has attracted attention is the increase from 9.5% to 10% of the median hourly earnings of full-time employees.  It's right, of course, that we should be emphatically reminded that progress towards equality is by no means guaranteed.…
Read More

whose jobs?

There's a long-running debate about what the impact of new technology is on skills at work.   Routine  jobs are liable to automation and/or outsourcing to countries where labour is cheaper.  But how far are less routine jobs beaching vulnerable to the same processes? Which kinds of jobs get automated is obviously relevant to the PP.    Will they be in the occupations where it's mostly women that work?  What will happen to the kinds of jobs that women mainly do?   I've been reading (parts of) a pretty strenuous piece on this by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne from the Oxford Martin School, called The Future of Employment:  how…
Read More

Attention on part-time work

I gave a small - very small, attendance about a dozen - seminar  on the PP recently at the Institute of Education.  A clever press release, not written by me, gained a lot of coverage - including the illustration below for the Peter Principle, which made me chuckle. What captured attention was the argument that only if more men work part-time  will part-time work become more recognised as a legitimate career option.  Is this a pessimistic argument, or a realistic one?   I know that friends of mine firmly believe that the only way to go is full-time.  But my argument is that the progress towards greater equality at work…
Read More

all round competences

I'm normally a bit sceptical about international business survey results.  but Business Insider recently produced a set of findings which I found really interesting. They come from pulling together the results of an enormous number of '360o ' appraisals. These are where you as the appraised person get the views of all those you work with - above, alongside and below.  So as well as your boss, you get the views of your colleagues who operate at the same level - and those who work to you. BI pulled together results of 360o appraisals of 16000 'leaders', about one third of whom were women and two thirds men.  The average number of…
Read More

MBAs, fingers and legs

  3 adverts from the same page in a recent Economist. See next blog for Business Insider results on leadership competences!!                                                  
Read More

How big is the gender pay gap?

I'm taking part tomorrow in a Women's Hour discussion on part-time work, so I thought I'd use this post as a way of clarifying for myself what the position is on the gender pay gap, using the recent ONS report on earnings.  For the mathematically challenged such as myself some of the figures need a bit of puzzling out, but don't switch off - I think it's worth persevering. First, the 'headline' figure which has attracted attention is the increase from 9.5% to 10% of the median hourly earnings of full-time employees.  It's right, of course, that we should be emphatically reminded that progress towards equality is by no means guaranteed.…
Read More

whose jobs?

There's a long-running debate about what the impact of new technology is on skills at work.   Routine  jobs are liable to automation and/or outsourcing to countries where labour is cheaper.  But how far are less routine jobs beaching vulnerable to the same processes? Which kinds of jobs get automated is obviously relevant to the PP.    Will they be in the occupations where it's mostly women that work?  What will happen to the kinds of jobs that women mainly do?   I've been reading (parts of) a pretty strenuous piece on this by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne from the Oxford Martin School, called The Future of Employment:  how…
Read More

Attention on part-time work

I gave a small - very small, attendance about a dozen - seminar  on the PP recently at the Institute of Education.  A clever press release, not written by me, gained a lot of coverage - including the illustration below for the Peter Principle, which made me chuckle. What captured attention was the argument that only if more men work part-time  will part-time work become more recognised as a legitimate career option.  Is this a pessimistic argument, or a realistic one?   I know that friends of mine firmly believe that the only way to go is full-time.  But my argument is that the progress towards greater equality at work…
Read More

all round competences

I'm normally a bit sceptical about international business survey results.  but Business Insider recently produced a set of findings which I found really interesting. They come from pulling together the results of an enormous number of '360o ' appraisals. These are where you as the appraised person get the views of all those you work with - above, alongside and below.  So as well as your boss, you get the views of your colleagues who operate at the same level - and those who work to you. BI pulled together results of 360o appraisals of 16000 'leaders', about one third of whom were women and two thirds men.  The average number of…
Read More

MBAs, fingers and legs

  3 adverts from the same page in a recent Economist. See next blog for Business Insider results on leadership competences!!                                                  
Read More

How big is the gender pay gap?

I'm taking part tomorrow in a Women's Hour discussion on part-time work, so I thought I'd use this post as a way of clarifying for myself what the position is on the gender pay gap, using the recent ONS report on earnings.  For the mathematically challenged such as myself some of the figures need a bit of puzzling out, but don't switch off - I think it's worth persevering. First, the 'headline' figure which has attracted attention is the increase from 9.5% to 10% of the median hourly earnings of full-time employees.  It's right, of course, that we should be emphatically reminded that progress towards equality is by no means guaranteed.…
Read More

whose jobs?

There's a long-running debate about what the impact of new technology is on skills at work.   Routine  jobs are liable to automation and/or outsourcing to countries where labour is cheaper.  But how far are less routine jobs beaching vulnerable to the same processes? Which kinds of jobs get automated is obviously relevant to the PP.    Will they be in the occupations where it's mostly women that work?  What will happen to the kinds of jobs that women mainly do?   I've been reading (parts of) a pretty strenuous piece on this by Carl Frey and Michael Osborne from the Oxford Martin School, called The Future of Employment:  how…
Read More

Attention on part-time work

I gave a small - very small, attendance about a dozen - seminar  on the PP recently at the Institute of Education.  A clever press release, not written by me, gained a lot of coverage - including the illustration below for the Peter Principle, which made me chuckle. What captured attention was the argument that only if more men work part-time  will part-time work become more recognised as a legitimate career option.  Is this a pessimistic argument, or a realistic one?   I know that friends of mine firmly believe that the only way to go is full-time.  But my argument is that the progress towards greater equality at work…
Read More