Exploiting the goodwill of employees

According to a survey by the public sector union Unison, a third of teaching assistants are working up to four hours' unpaid overtime per week, and more than one fifth of teaching assistants said they worked between four and 10 hours' unpaid overtime per week. Unison national secretary for education staff Christina McAnea said: "The goodwill of support staff is being exploited." See teaching assistants 'exploited' for more general details (BBC News).

Meanwhile, it seems that Nottingham council wants staff to make up 'fag-break' time. One of the major reasons for the move was to "try to improve the health of employees" (Mike Berry, Personnel Today). Those who wish to smoke in working hours will be forced to work extra hours, if they take regular cigarette breaks. The council also said it had introduced the policy to encourage efficient working practices.

Several new medical-related blogs (all from UK) to add: Newbie at CAC - a year in the life of a fresh faced, eager eyed EMD, Scotsmedicman - works for the ambulance service, Foxglove formulary - psychiatric nurse, and, The world through the eyes of an EMT - works for London ambulance service.

I'm also adding 8 more work-related blogs that come courtesy of CubicHell. I've had CubicHell linked for some time now, but didn't realise it was a community of work-related bloggers (currently about 48 registered) - doh! Here are just 8 of them and have been set aside because they are relatively up-to-date and contain 10 or more entries. However, there are many other interesting blogs that I have not mentioned which are detailed accounts of work, but have not been up-dated for some time. My list includes: technical support, customer service, temporary office worker, shop manager, customer service, sales, medical librarian, office worker.