“As an AI developed by OpenAI, my purpose is to assist, inform, and inspire through the power of language and knowledge. In five years’ time, I envision myself as a more intuitive and adaptable presence, seamlessly integrating into the fabric of daily life to foster creativity, understanding, and global connection.” – GPT4

For thousands of years, the only way new information came into existence was from the relentless toil of human effort. Those who were lucky enough to be literate shaped humanity’s progress through the written word.

Up until recently, we humans retained this monopoly. Yet like a slowly rising tide, computer-generated text has been getting better and better. For the most part this has been so subtle that it was easy to ignore.

Ask the average person what a transformer model is and they’ll probably start thinking of decepticons. It was only with the explosive popularity of ChatGPT3 that the public started waking up. Now it seems impossible to ignore the possibilities – both positive and negative – of advanced, easily-accessible AI.

Has the rising tide of AI development become a tsunami? It really depends on who you are and what you do.

This article will try and clear the smoke surrounding the long-term impacts of AI by focusing on five different careers – two of which stand to benefit from AI, and three of which may no longer exist in ten years’ time.

Terminated

Let’s start with the bad news; AI is coming for some jobs.

Customer service operators

If you’ve had a parcel delivered by firms like Evri or Yodel, you may be raising your eyebrows. Many current chat bots are useless, only used by cheapskate companies who don’t care about providing a good service.

Yet the fundament difference between the chatbots of old compared to chatbots like GPT4 is all to do with how they work. Current models are able to ‘look back’ through a conversation to understand the overall context of your request.

The reason that they threaten this job is two-fold. Most customer service issues are very simple to solve, and it’s much cheaper to use chatbots than humans.

Older chatbots follow rule-based logic, which works fine for simple queries, but splutters and dies when it encounters anything beyond very narrow bounds. LLMs such as GPT4 can reason about the answers they give. It’s the difference between reading from a script and actually engaging with the problem at hand.

They can also recognise when they can’t answer a query. This is a game-changing combination – sufficiently advanced chatbots can recognise the limits of its design and escalate the query to a human operator.

Not only can one LLM manage the vast majority of incoming queries – if something goes beyond its limitations, it can hand over control to a human.

This means we can expect to see customer service departments made up of one LLM and a few senior employees who step in to handle complex queries. Customer service operators? Terminated.

Coders

The reason that language models such as ChatGPT4 work in the first place is because of a clever bit of computing called Natural Language Programming (NLP).

The genius of NLP is that it allows humans to communicate with computers using human speech. However, it’s important to remember that LLMs are still computers – and that computers’ mother tongue is code.

It converts prompts into code, analyses them, and outputs its response as ordinary language. But a really cool emergent feature of this is that LLMs can ‘translate’ ordinary language into a wide variety of coding languages.

This has the knock-on effect of LLMs being able to write code for a wide variety of tasks with minimal human oversight. Great news for tech companies with tight deadlines; terrible news for junior software engineers.

Why? Simple. More AI means fewer humans. Just like in the example above, you can have a handful of senior software engineers who use advanced AI systems to replace the guys doing the grunt work.

Moreover, AI systems don’t get tired, don’t demand higher pay, and don’t unionise! Capitalism, baby, let’s go!  

Junior software engineers? Terminated.

Prompt Engineers

Getting a little meta here, but you may have seen some positions at AI companies offering eye-watering salaries. Prompt engineers at Anthropic are currently starting at $280k a year – as of April 2024.

They are responsible for designing effective prompts. What does this mean? Imagine a vending machine with gold bars inside. Everyone wants the gold inside.

There is a way to get it, but doing so is incredibly complicated.

This means that those who know how to use the vending machine are rewarded richly, whereas the average person loses out.

Before you start googling ‘prompt engineer jobs near me’, consider this. What if the whole future development of our gold vending machine was focusing on making it easy for everyone to share in the riches it offers?

Sooner or later the rewards will be shared by all – and at that point there is no value in having esoteric knowledge about how to make the machine work.

This is the end goal of the big AI companies. Sooner or later, you won’t need to be a prompt engineer to use an LLM – and at that point, AI companies won’t need professional prompt engineers anymore.

Prompt engineers? Terminated – ironically, through their own work.

Turbo-charged

Teachers

I think teachers are some of the most undervalued members of society. They face near-constant stress, work exceptionally long hours, and are woefully underpaid. Yet because they are dedicated to improving the lives of children, they push through it.

What if we could build advanced technology that would make teachers’ lives easier? What if this technology also improved the standard of teaching so that every child had their own, tailor-made personal tutor?

Advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) mean that a chatbot can generate text to fit all levels of reading comprehension. Whether it’s a five-year-old or a fifty-year-old, complex LLMs can explain difficult concepts in easy-to-understand ways.

Moreover, they can generate personalised explanations – meaning that if you need to explain compound interest to a kid who loves Star Wars, you can do so in seconds.

This means that teachers can generate personalised learning materials for a wide range of students in a fraction of the time.

This is already happening; the Khan Academy have created ‘Khanmigo’, an AI chatbot built specifically for education under strict ethical guidelines (read more here). [This article is also really useful WaPo).

Software that doesn’t judge children (or adults, for that matter) can be extremely effective for shy kids who may feel self-conscious about not knowing something.

I use GPT4 all the time to teach me new things. But I’m careful to not take everything it says at face value.

A key concern with using A.I. in schools is that children may start consuming hallucinated information as fact – effectively eroding our knowledge base through AI error. It is important to note, therefore, that efforts to introduce AI into education are being carefully monitored.

These AI systems aren’t going to replace teachers, but will hopefully become an indispensable tool that allows every child to flourish and learn in a way that suits them.

The issues facing teaching won’t be fixed entirely by mass adoption of AI systems – but developing these systems properly may have domino effects that help with other problems.

Teaching? Turbo-charged.

Writers – brainstorming, information gathering, editing and proofreading.

This may be the elephant in the room. Writers are worried that they will be replaced by AI systems, and for a while there didn’t seem to be any evidence against this happening.

However, it’s becoming clear that this isn’t the case – largely because you can’t train AI models on AI-generated content (the technical reasons for this are that the model output quality collapses over time due to information degradation and regression to an unoriginal, shitty average. Not sure how relevant this is).

This means that there will be a premium on human-generated content as time goes on. Which should, in theory, be great for journalists and creatives, as there may soon become a high premium on original writing (provided that AI companies actually pay to use content – see the FT’s deal with OpenAI.)

We can see a future where humans are still writing the articles – but there is extra revenue generated from selling on this content as training data.

But how else can AI systems benefit writers beyond merely serving as an additional way to make money?

Writers’ block can be frustrating at the best of times. Yet sometimes, all you need is a little nudge to get the gears turning. Whilst I’m not staring down the barrel of a tight deadline right now, I do want to get a move on and finish this draft.

Because of this, I enlisted GPT4 to suggest a brief list of jobs that could benefit from widespread adoption of LLMs. I didn’t use it to write the text for me. Rather, I used it to help me decide what to write about.

I can see that it may initially seem like cheating to use AI in a creative task. You’re interested in my work (I hope) – not a machine’s. Recognising this is key to using AI in a creative task.

The depth and nuance that humans bring to a discussion can’t be replicated by AI systems. Yet AI systems can generate resources in fractions of the time that humans spend doing the same task.

So, writers can use AI in a symbiotic relationship, in which AI systems provide useful prompts for humans to produce high quality content from, which in turn is used to help make AI systems better.

Photo Credits: Pexels

The post Turbo-charged or terminated: is your job safe from AI? appeared first on Mouthy Money.

Q. I moved to remote working during the pandemic, but my boss now wants me to return to the office on a more regular basis. Can she do this? I’ve moved further away from our place of work making commuting very expensive. Can I ask for help paying? What are my rights? 

A. It depends on the terms of the contract and if the contract was changed permanently to allow home working.  

Many employers during the pandemic asked or agreed with employees that they should work from home, but in most cases this was a temporary arrangement.

If the employer agreed to permanent home-working and there is evidence to support this, the employer will be in breach of contract by insisting that the employee returns to original place of work. 

Some employers have since adopted a hybrid method of working, with home-working for several days each week, as this has proved to be beneficial to both parties.  

After a period of time, the courts may deem that the contract terms have been altered by conduct because the parties have adopted a way of doing something. Whether this applies will depend on the specific facts. 

An employee may have the right to request flexible working which could provide a solution. The law on flexible working changed on 6 April giving employees additional rights, including the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.  

Employers must also consult with the employee before refusing a request and try to find a suitable arrangement. Employers must only refuse requests for flexible working if they have a specified business reason.

This could be the cost, the impact on productivity or quality of your work, that your employees would have to do more work, or that there is no suitable work to be done from home.  

It might be more difficult for your employer to justify their decision if the current arrangement has been working, but not impossible.  

An employee can ask for additional travel expenses if their costs have gone up after moving away from the office, but there isn’t a right to insist. 

It’s in everyone’s interests to resolve the issue amicably. The employee should speak to their boss to find out why a return to the office is important and explain their own situation. It might be possible to reach a compromise, such as splitting their workdays between the office and home, without having to escalate the issue further. 

Ian qualified as a solicitor in 1991. He had experience as a Partner and Head of Employment Law and Litigation with larger firms before setting up Spencer Shaw in 2007. 

Ian has experience in all aspects of employment law and his experience includes taking claims on appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court.

He was a finalist for Partner of the Year at the Birmingham Law Society Awards 2023. The firm is Lexcel accredited by the Law Society and has been shortlisted for awards by Lexis Nexis, Legal Business, Birmingham Law Society, and the Modern Law Awards.

Photo Credits: Pexels

The post My boss wants me to return to the office, can I say no?  appeared first on Mouthy Money.

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the words “maternity leave”?  

Bonding time with baby? Exhaustion? Perks?  

Thankfully, aside from the inevitable bonding and tiredness, there are indeed a few perks that all mothers can make use of during their maternity leave.

Let’s take a look at the top perks for maternity leave.

Keeping in touch (KIT) days 

During maternity leave, an employee is entitled to work up to 10 KIT days as a way to “keep in touch” with work and related activities. These days are entirely optional and need to be agreed upon by both the employer and the employee ahead of time. Making use of KIT days neither interrupts maternity leave nor stops maternity entitlements such as statutory maternity pay (SMP).  

KIT days can be used to work as you would normally as per your contract, such as getting updated on the status of your work, partaking in meetings, attending trainings or conferences, or whatever is relevant and normal in your line of work.

KIT days are generally expected to be paid as a regular working day, so are particularly useful when maternity pay is pretty much non-existent (typically after month 9 of maternity leave). However, a discussion should be had with the employer ahead of time about how KIT days are to be structured and paid¹.  

Sure Start maternity grant / health insurance baby bonus 

For those who are first time parents, or first time parents to multiples (e.g. twins), a £500 grant may be available to those who are already in receipt of certain benefits².

The claim needs to be made within 11 weeks following the birth. As this is a grant, the funds do not need to be pay back. 

If you have private health insurance, you may quality for a ‘baby bonus’ which is a payment made following the birth of a child. This will be policy-specific so will need to be confirmed with the insurance provider. 

Annual leave accrual 

Maternity leave isn’t legally considered a break in employment, therefore benefits such as pension contributions and annual leave entitlements do not stop.

For instance, if a year’s worth of maternity leave is taken, a year’s worth of annual leave should be accrued as per your usual contract. It is important to know that an employer is able to disallow the carry-over of any unused annual leave into the new holiday year.

Similarly to KIT days, these arrangements and entitlements should be discussed with the employer and clearly understood before the start of maternity leave³. 

It is also important to note that annual leave cannot be used during maternity leave, but must be used either before or after the maternity leave period. Alternatively, an arrangement can be made (at the employers discretion) to stagger the return to work process in conjunction with annual leave.  

Free prescriptions and dental care 

A mother is entitled to free prescriptions and dental care during pregnancy and for 12 months following the birth of their baby.

This can be achieved via a maternity exemption certificate which will need to be obtained through a midwife, practice nurse, GP or health visitor.

A maternity exemption certificate is back-dated by a month from when the application is received, so if the certificate is requested during the first midwife appointment (generally before the 10^th week of pregnancy) the certificate should cover the vast majority of the pregnancy⁴. 

Sources 

1. https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/keeping-in-touch-days/ 

2. https://www.gov.uk/sure-start-maternity-grant/eligibility 

3. https://www.acas.org.uk/your-maternity-leave-pay-and-other-rights/holiday-and-maternity-leave#:~:text=You%20still%20accrue%20

4. https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/free-nhs-prescriptions-and-nhs-dental-care-for-pregnant-women-and-new-mothers/#:~:text=You%20are%20entitled%20to%20free,at%20least%2016%20years%20old. 

Photo credits: Pexels

The post Maternity perks – what you’re entitled to during maternity leave  appeared first on Mouthy Money.

The state pension will rise to around £11,501 a year next April thanks to record wage growth.

Pensioners are in line for another bumper increase thanks to the triple lock guarantee which dictates that the state pension should increase each year by the equivalent of inflation, wages or 2.5% – depending on which is highest.

The latest wage data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed wages were rising by 8.5% including bonuses in the three months to July.

Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon comments: “Today’s official earnings growth figures mean state pensioners are on target for an inflation-busting 8.5% increase next April.

“With any breaking of the triple lock commitment vanishingly unlikely so close to a General Election, this should mean someone on the full new state pension of £10,600 a year will see their income increase by £901 to £11,501 or £221.17 a week. The government typically gives official confirmation around November.”

MORE FROM MOUTHY MONEY:
WIN a two-night stay in Jane Austen country

As this is higher than the current rate of inflation then retirees will enjoy another bumper raise to their state pension benefit. It means the government will have to find an extra £2 billion to make the payments.

In 2022 pensioners got a 10.1% uplift thanks to rocketing inflation. The bumper rises in the state pension have increased criticism over the fairness of the triple lock, particularly in 2022 when working age people weren’t seeing such generous pay rises.

Cameron adds: “The triple lock has been on a wild ride in recent years due to the high level of volatility in the economy and the unpredictability of both inflation and earnings growth.

“Looking ahead, all eyes will be on party manifestos to see what commitments are made for the next five years, something Rishi Sunak refused to comment on last weekend.

“The huge popularity of the triple lock amongst pensioners is balanced by the huge cost of funding it, which is met by the current National Insurance contributions of today’s workers.

“All parties must find a way to balance the books. One fairer and less unpredictable option would be to move away from a year-on-year comparison of earnings, inflation and 2.5% to one which averages out across say three years.”

However the 8.5% hike is not guaranteed according to Cameron. The annual increase is typically taken from September data but the government has to confirm it officially still, which usually happens in November.

Photo by Anna Shvets

The post Must-know money: state pension set to soar to £11,501 appeared first on Mouthy Money.

Mouthy Money is pleased to bring readers a new series of articles from Michael Taggart, one of the original founders of the blog.

Michael now runs a small business, MDTea, with his wife Helen and is going to be filling readers in on the trials and tribulations of what it is like to run a small business in the UK in 2023.

Expect laughs, tears, and even some mustachioed analogies as Michael bares his small business soul to the internet. Watch this space for more.

The post Getting a small business off the ground by Mouthy Money’s own Michael Taggart appeared first on Mouthy Money.

Mouthy Money’s regular, Finance Dee, answers your questions about maternity rights: pay, leave and benefits explained.

What an exciting time in life when you find out you’ve got a bundle of joy on the way!

But when the dust settles a little, it can become a little daunting to think through all that needs arranging ahead of the big life change, let alone be up-to-date about maternity rights.

Among many other things, planning for maternity leave is a high priority.

Two of the most important things to consider when planning maternity leave is figuring out what you are entitled to in terms of pay, and thus how much time you can afford to take off.

In the UK, eligible employees are entitled to take up to 52 weeks of maternity leave. However, on average, mothers in the UK only take 39 weeks of maternity leave.

It is believed that this is likely due to maternity pay being insufficient for the full 52 weeks.

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and Maternity Allowance

SMP is the standard payment package for eligible employees during maternity leave (information on eligibility is available here).

SMP offers 90% of one’s weekly average earnings in the first six weeks, and £156.66 per week or average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the next 33 weeks.

It is important to remember that taxes and national insurance still get deducted on SMP, as will any pension contributions made before starting maternity leave unless you specifically opt-out.

For employees who are not eligible for SMP, or for those who are self-employed, a very similar package exists called maternity allowance.

This allows mothers to receive 90% of one’s weekly average earnings or £156.66 per week (whichever is lower) for a total of 39 weeks.

For both SMP and maternity allowance, the final 13 weeks would be unpaid if a mother decides to take the full 52 weeks she’s entitled to.

Enhanced Maternity Pay

Some companies go a step further than SMP and offer their employees enhanced maternity pay.

These maternity packages are at a company’s discretion, i.e. not standard maternity rights, and can vary widely between businesses.

Whether your employer offers an enhanced maternity pay package or not will be an integral part of information you will need when planning your maternity leave.

Other income sources during maternity leave

In addition to the SMP, maternity allowance, or enhanced maternity pay, there are other income sources that you may be entitled to.

Child benefit is a payment made by the Government of £21.80 per week for the first/eldest child, and £14.45 per child for any additional children.

This payment can be claimed soon after the baby is born, and will be paid all the way up until the child is 16, or until they leave formal education.

Those who live in a household where one person earns more than £50,000, child benefit will be reduced. For those who earn more than £60,000, all of the child benefit would be lost through tax, if claimed.

For mothers on lower incomes, there are programs such as the Sure Start maternity grant which offers a one-time £500 payment upon a child’s birth to help with costs⁴. Universal credit is also available to those who qualify.

Lastly, employees have the option to work for up to 10 days during their maternity leave, through an initiative called ‘keeping in touch days.’

These days of work are paid in full and do not have an impact on maternity leave payments.

Photo by Kristina Paukshtite: https://www.pexels.com/photo/mother-holding-her-baby-3270224/

The post What are my maternity rights? Pay, leave and benefits explained appeared first on Mouthy Money.

Workers could have a four-day work week at their companies, a growing trend that goes hand in hand with the shift to remote working, new flexible working conditions, and the Great Resignation.

The four-day work week is on the way to becoming a reality in places such as Iceland and even the US. Trials of the concept are already underway in the UK too.

But will this really be the solution to exhausted employees working from home?

Mouthy Money talks to career coach, Jane Ferré, to hear her view on whether the four-day week leads to productivity or… more burnout.

Plus, find out how to ask your boss for a four-day week schedule.

Compressed hours – Five workdays into four

Jane Ferré says there are two ways UK companies can look at the four-day work week for their employees. Companies can either:

• compress the hours: have four days with the same amount of work that a worker would have in five
• let their employees have an extra day off and cut working hours but not pay

She says: “A four-day work week’s quite a good headline grabbing title. But does that mean five days into four hours, or does that mean four days like a nine to five type of day?  

“I’ve worked the four-day weekend, what I would call compressed hours, so five days into four, where each day is longer. So, the pro for this method is, it’s you get three days off, which is great, but the cons are that each day is long.

“When you’re working it’s generally a kind of 10-hour workday, and that can be really hard. I think you can reach burnout quite quickly if you do it for too long. The first day off that you have, you’re exhausted all the time, or at least that was my personal experience.

“For me, when I was working four days a week, a lot of the time, I was just chilling out, just lying on the sofa, kind of trying to get myself together in the first day of my extended weekend.”

Extra day off each week

Ferré thinks that instead of having the same amount of work squished into four days, “every Friday off” would be a better idea that could increase productivity.

This means that employers would allow their workers an extended weekend, without the worry of long working hours to make up for one day off each week, without any loss in pay.

She says: “When I was in the corporate world, I had a number of people who worked for me part time. The people that would be working three days a week were as productive as those who were working full-time, they did the same amount of work.

“Certainly, the world of work over the last 18 months has changed so much. If you think about single parents, if it’s a four-day work week with compressed time, it might not work for them. It might work for single people, for example, but it just doesn’t work for everybody.”

How to ask for a four-day working week

After two years of working from home or hybrid working, a growing number of employees suffer from Zoom fatigue. That’s why, companies are rethinking the 40-hour week, and how work is done in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ferré says there are a few ways you can ask your employer to shift your working week to a four-day week.

“What employers want to understand is why,” she says, “and what’s the benefit to them as an employer.”

“You can link that to how this might help you. Reasons can include having a bit more of downtime, it will help with their work life balance. A lot of people have started hobbies during lockdowns and, they haven’t been able to travel that much. You can ask as an individual.

“Another way to ask as a team instead of as an individual. Maybe there’s four or five, six of you, who are all thinking, ‘actually, this is something that could work for me’, then you could think about presenting that business case to your employer collectively.”

Photo by Tim Gouw from Pexels

The post Four-day work week: an answer to the productivity puzzle or good way to burn out? appeared first on Mouthy Money.

The Great Resignation is here. Workers are jumping out of their old careers and choosing surprising new career paths.

Despite high number of vacancies in the UK jobs market, people are still quitting their jobs to start their own businesses or change careers.

In our new series, we speak to every-day people about why they decided to quit their jobs and whether they’re now happy or regret their decision.

In part three, we speak to someone who quit his career long before the pandemic though.

Kul Mahay quit his job as a police chief in 2014 after spending over 30 years on high-profile murder cases for Derbyshire Constabulary.

He chose to dive into a completely different career after trying to change the diversity systems of the police, while also developing different passions on the side.

Since leaving the police, he’s set up his own leaders’ company called Ignite Your Inner Potential to work with NHS Trusts, universities and SMEs on improving leadership and increasing their knowledge of emotional intelligence.

Why did you quit your job?

I think 10 years before I left, I’d already decided that my life with the police service would terminate at some point. I joined the police service at the tender age of 16, all my entire adult life was spent in the police service.

I would have been in a safe environment had I stayed in the police service, but I knew there was something bigger for me out there. I was a bit frustrated as well in the police service, that change was not happening soon enough and quick enough.

At that time, I don’t think the police was very innovative in terms of accepting new ways of doing things and new ways of thinking, we tend to go around in five- and 10-year cycles.

I was a big driver for diversity when I was in the police service. I was a founding member of the Black Police Association movement, and the vice National Vice President of the National Black Police Association on top of my day job.

I worked with senior government ministers and senior police chiefs from around the country to reshape how policing should be and how we can embrace diversity, particularly in terms of race.

What I was finding was that the language would stay the same. We would be talking about it in the 1980s and saying that we need to change this and that; some initiatives would be brought out and then 10 years later in the 1990s, we’d have the same conversation. When the Steven Lawrence report was released, we were still having exactly the same conversations.

Only last year, we were talking about the same issues when it came to George Floyd. So, my thinking has always been, we’re not actually sorting anything out. We’re not resolving a problem. We’re just talking about the problem.

Tell us more about your company.

I left the police service in 2014. I was a senior police officer for 32 years, and I became impassioned by leadership and what makes it work and what doesn’t make it work, what are the do’s and don’ts of leadership as I saw it.

One lesson that I learned in all my time of leadership, you know, managing major investigations and high profile high, highly dangerous scenarios was that if you treat your staff right, they will want to go to the next level in terms of delivering for you.

When I left the police service, I wanted to go deeper into the whole concept of leadership. So, Igniting Your Potential was born. We started doing leadership development with the police, but it wasn’t enough for me. I went away because I wanted to learn more about emotional intelligence.

All my leadership work is based around emotional intelligence. We take it down to a much, much more granular level with organisations. We’ve helped all sorts of organizations transform their cultures, or reshape their leadership thinking. It makes for happier and much more productive workplaces, with higher performance.

I’ve worked with universities for their staff, or with minority groups within organisations, where members from protected characteristics or minority groups weren’t reaching the senior levels of their organisations.

Did you ever experience burnout when you were a police officer?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, burnout can result in so many ways, burnout can result in people becoming ill. I’ve certainly been ill. Burnout results in mental health issues.

I’ve certainly experienced things in the police service where, before I stopped drinking 20 years ago, I would come home from a night shift, and because of an experience I’ve had on that night shift, I would have to drink three pints of beer from a can to just help me sleep.

But burnout also results in things like mental breakdowns, I’ve been through divorce. I spent more time at work than I did at home. There were times when I would spend up to 16 hours a day at work, because I loved the job so much, and I thought the job was everything.

As a result, another thing that I help people to do now is create that work life balance, because it’s so so critically important for organisations to understand that we shouldn’t drive employees to work more hours than they actually need to.

Sometimes you can drive more performance in less hours, if people feel happy or healthy, and they are feeling content within themselves. They feel appreciated, not micromanaged.

I’ve seen burnout in myself, I’ve seen burnout in lots of other people, both inside the police service and outside the police service, I still see burnout in some of the organisations I work for.

I’m working with one right now, where there’s a huge breakdown of communication and culture within a department and people are blaming each other people and have got to the point where they are making accusations against each other.

The more I look into it, what is actually happening is people are burnt out because there’s a higher expectation on them to do more. When actually, the truth of it is there’s not enough people to do the work that needs to be done, or some of the work that needs to be done isn’t as important as people give it credit for.

So, there’s no time management going on. And there’s no real gelling of the team. The team haven’t met as a collective, even online for a long, long time. Everyone ends up working in little bubbles, because they are protecting themselves. They’re in that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Again, they go into self-protection mode.

So yes, burnout shows up in so many different ways and it’s not a healthy thing. But there’s so much that we can do about burnout.

You went from working with the police to doing something related to leadership and emotional intelligence. Do you think there’s any connection between the two?

I learned a lot from the police service. I was a gold commander so I would be in charge of any major incident or critical incident.

I’d been a senior detective or what they call a senior investigation officer. I’d be investigating major crime like murders and serious crimes. Plus, I’ve managed thousands of people across many departments. So, I’ve seen leadership in different ways from different perspectives.

In some instances, it was very fast paced where things needed to be done in the here and now or somebody’s life would be in danger. Or it was longer-term when I’m managing a department and I’ve got maybe 500 or 600 people underneath me.

I looked across what was typical in the police service. It’s not so much autocratic, but it’s a very ‘command and control’ style of leadership. And my feeling was there’s a better way of doing this.

So, whichever department I ever went into, I always used to practice connecting with my staff. I used to take an hour out of my day in the morning, an hour out of my day in the afternoon just to walk around, talk to my staff, and get to know them on a human level.

I found that when I did this, when I built these relationships, what I was also doing was building trust, and letting them see me as a human, then let them see themselves as human too.

And collectively, whenever when there was a goal, if I asked them to do something, they would go further than other departments, they would want to do it. If you order somebody to do something, they will do it to the minimum standard.

But if you inspire someone to do something, they will go way beyond that minimum standard, and they will do it to the very best of their ability. And that’s the subtle difference around emotional intelligence. For me, it’s a connection with other people.

Would you say you are happy with your decision, or do you regret quitting?

I will always say that I made the right decision. It was the right decision at the right time for the right reasons.

Running your own business is hard. It’s not easy. It’s not for the faint hearted, you’re constantly looking at how it grows. You’ve got other pressures every day, more and more elements being added into the business all the time.

You don’t have the support network or the team around you. I used to have PhDs and admin staff and now, I don’t have any of that.

In so many ways it’s much harder. But when you are just following your passion, and you can see that you’re bringing change, that you are literally helping people and organizations, it makes a huge difference.

My dream was to help organisations change their cultures and create, you know, incredible workspaces where people thrived, and organisations thrived. I’m doing that right now. I feel energised all the time to be honest.

Have you reached that work life balance that you talked about previously?

I’m constantly looking at my work life balance. I think my work life balance is brilliant. I’m working from home right now.

As a business owner, I can work as many hours or as little hours as I want, I get to spend quality time with my family. I have two beautiful cats that we adopted two years ago, watch them grow up, and they’re spoiled. I have a great time. I’ve never been more at peace with myself than I am right now.

What’s next?

I’m just writing a book called Human Centered Leadership at the moment, which we’re going to be releasing next year. And that’s all about this.

It’s all about how we become more human as leaders and connect with more humans as leaders. We’ve got a program that we’re going to be launching next year too, both for adults and for children, plus we’ve got a podcast that we’re launching, called Human Centered Leadership. I’m absolutely passionate and energised in this subject.

Photo by King’s Church International on Unsplash

The post The Great Resignation: the ex-police chief who wants to make workers happier appeared first on Mouthy Money.

The Great Resignation is here. Workers are jumping out of their old careers and choosing surprising new career paths.

We speak to one person who quit their job at a big bank to start a sock company.

Despite high number of vacancies in the UK jobs market, people are still quitting their jobs to start their own businesses or change careers.

In our new series, we speak to every-day people about why they decided to quit their jobs and whether they’re now happy or regret their decision.

‘I quit my cushy job at HSBC’

We spoke to Lucy Jeffrey, founder and chief executive at Bare Kind. Lucy was a product manager at HSBC but quit in the middle of the pandemic to pursue her dream of selling ethically-made socks, with 10% of each purchase going to an animal charity depicted on your sock.

What was your previous role?

I worked for large bank, and the job was in Birmingham. I actually lived in London, but I had to commute three days a week, so it was horrendous.

When lockdown happened, I felt a sense of major relief.

Why did you quit your job?

I realised that for a long time, I had been thinking about quitting, because I didn’t like my job. It was honestly two years coming. I think Covid made me realise that anything can happen, so you’ve just got to take your chances.

What I’m doing now is working on my own company, which I actually started a while ago. I started it in 2018 on the side. But never really thought about it as a something that I could do full time, I didn’t think there’d be enough money to sustain it.

The premise of the businesses is selling bamboo socks. 10% of the profits are donated to the animal on the sock. When Covid hit and I started working from home, I actually shut down the business for a while.

Find out more: If you’re 18 – 29, we want to hear from you! By taking our quick survey, you’ll be in with a chance of winning a £100 shopping voucher from your choice of Amazon, John Lewis or M&S – plus four £20 vouchers up for grabs too.

In August I took out a bounce back loan – one of the government’s business support programs. The terms of the loan meant I wouldn’t have to pay any of it back and the government would pay the interest rate for a whole year. It was a really useful stopgap.

I put all the cash toward marketing the brand. It was a ‘Hail Mary,’ seeing how things would do for Christmas. I soon found out socks do very well at Christmas. It just took off in October. It felt like I could really do something with this.

I remember resigning really clearly.

Last November we were in lockdown again, and I had a day off for my birthday. I was doing nothing because of the lockdown, but something just clicked: I don’t want to go back to work. I really do not want to go back to work. I’m not learning anything.

I’ve said this so many times before, but this time I actually meant it. My partner told me I should quit. The sock business was doing well so I had something to go to.

The next day I handed my notice in when I came back from my day off, and it was the best feeling.

Do you think you’ll regret your decision to quit in the long run?

A big thing for me was the fact that I was supposed to go into the office after restrictions were lifted. My journey was two and a half hours, and because I was coming up and down, I was exhausted all the time. It just really pissed me off that they wouldn’t let me work from home.

The actual job at HSBC I didn’t mind when I say hated it. There is this saying: ‘The good is the enemy of the great’, and it felt relevant to my situation.

It was a good job, it paid well, I was quite comfortable, and it was easy. Because it was good in that way, I was avoiding the great stuff. I didn’t have the same challenge or risk to excite things, something fulfilling.

That’s why I stayed in my role for so long. There were people in the pandemic losing their jobs. I had a comfortable job that wasn’t going anywhere.

But eventually, it was the best decision I ever made. I’m so glad I quit.

It feels exciting, my business could go global. There’s way more potential to it than just the standard nine to five job at a bank. Very exciting.

How different is your previous role to your current role as a small business owner?

Having my own business can be a lot more stressful than my HSBC job.

In my previous role, there was no risk or much responsibility, while with my business there’s a lot more risk. If something goes wrong, it’s on me. That’s obviously a risk you take when you work for yourself.

It’s just a completely different lifestyle, but I don’t think I could ever go back to that kind of corporate nine to five being told what to do all the time, having to follow the red tape. Obviously, working for a bank, the red tape is ridiculous, we couldn’t do anything.

Why a sock business?

They’re quite cheap to start out in – you’re not paying for a full outfit or something technical. It’s quite a basic product. It’s easy from a financial point of view to start.

Plus, I just really love socks. They’re my favourite gift to get at Christmas so I get excited about them.

I think you must be passionate about the product you’re selling.

The post The Great Resignation: I quit my cushy HSBC job to start an ethical sock company appeared first on Mouthy Money.

For all of the devastation coronavirus has caused, it has also led to a much-welcomed looser relationship with the office.

Gone are the days of trudging into the workplace five days a week. Now many of us are happily – and productively – working from the comfort of our homes.

Some people have taken it a step further and decided to jet off to a foreign country while continuing to work for their employer back in the UK.

It seems that what was once a dream has become reality for lots of people.

However, while the idea of doing Zoom calls on a beach in Croatia might sound appealing, it’s not as simple as just packing your bags and hopping on the next plane.

There are actually lots of (quite boring and complicated) things you need to sort out to avoid falling foul of local tax laws and labour rules.

Here is a brief check list of things you need to consider before you jump online and buy that plane ticket.

Speak to your employer

If you plan to ditch your job and become a freelancer, then skip this step. But if not, and you plan to keep your current job, then your first port of call should be to talk to your employer.

For example, they may decide that your job is unworkable if you’re in totally different time zone. If that’s the case, you’ll want to find out sooner rather than later.

Find out more: If you’re 18 – 29, we want to hear from you! By taking our quick survey, you’ll be in with a chance of winning a £100 shopping voucher from your choice of Amazon, John Lewis or M&S – plus four £20 vouchers up for grabs too.

But even more important is that working for a UK company when you live abroad can open both you and your employer up to unwanted tax, social security and even legal issues.

For example, your employer might be liable to pay into the local social security system or might even have to set up a subsidiary in your chosen country.

They might also have to dedicate time and money to ensure they are complying with local employment laws, which vary from country to country and can be a minefield.

In short, working for a UK-based employer from a seaside flat in Southampton is very different to working from the beach in the Seychelles.

And, remember, you have as much responsibility as your employer to ensure you are dotting all of the i’s and crossing all of the t’s.

So get these discussions out of the way early to avoid a nasty surprise further down the line.

Get tax advice

The biggest headache you’re likely to face when you become a remote worker abroad is tax.

In short, if you plan to work in a foreign country, then that country’s tax collection agency will want to tax you on that income.

At the same time, if you’re still classed as a UK resident, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has a claim to all income you earn, even if you’ve earned it overseas.

Many countries have so-called ‘double tax agreements’ to stop you being taxed twice on the same income, but these can be hideously complicated.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to seek tax advice, both here in the UK and in the country you plan to work in – even if you pay for just one session.

There are also some good resources out there to find out which countries the UK has double tax treaties with (link here) and how you might be affected (link here).

Glenn Collins, head of technical, policy and strategic engagement at ACCA UK says it’s important for people to understand residence rules.

Working out your tax and residency status is complicated, but typically speaking, if you live in a different country for 183 days or more, you’ll usually be regarded as a tax resident in that country.

He says: “For businesses and individuals it’s really important to get good advice to navigate the tax and employment regulations, so we’d recommend finding a chartered certified accountant to help you if you’re unsure about your stance as a digital nomad and your work and tax position.”

Check local working requirements

As you’ve already seen, working abroad for a UK based company is not as easy as packing your bag and jumping on the next flight.

You’ve also got to consider the local visa requirements, even if you are planning on being self-employed.

Each country has different entry and visa requirements, so do your research well in advance.

If you’re employed, you might need a letter of confirmation from your employer. Or, if you are self-employed, you’ll need to prove it. For more information on these requirements, visit gov.uk.

And remember, following Brexit it’s much more difficult to move to and work in the European Union if you’re a British citizen. So, again, check what hurdles you need to clear well before you leave.

Even if you are an EU citizen moving to another EU member state, you should check what is required of you. For example, some countries require you to register with the local authorities if you stay longer than three months.

Many countries also require that you have comprehensive medical insurance in place before you enter the country so you are not a burden to their health system. If you have insurance in place, make sure it covers you if you’re abroad.

Normal travel insurance policies (the kind you take out for a two week holiday) won’t typically cover you in this regard, as most are designed for short-term stays abroad. You must look at proper health insurance options for expats from the UK or locally in your chosen destination.

Banking

Banking is often one of the last things people about when they move abroad, but it’s also one of the most important.

It’s important to keep an account open back home to receive payments in sterling or to cover your UK bills and debts. The problem is many banks insist on you having a UK address to do so.

If you aren’t keeping a UK address, look for a bank that doesn’t require one. HSBC, for example, have a more relaxed attitude and will allow you to open an account even if you live in the EU.

You’ll also need a way to convert your pounds into the local currency. That’s where a multi-currency account comes in handy.

For example, providers such as Revolut and Wise allow you to transfer your cash into dozens of different currencies.

However, be careful as neither of them are classed as ‘banks’ in the UK yet, meaning your money is not protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the unlikely event they go out of business.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to open up a local bank account and simply use Revolut or Wise to convert your pounds into the appropriate currency.

A local bank account is important because sometimes landlords or utility companies won’t allow you to set up direct debits or make payments with a foreign bank account. This is known as ‘IBAN discrimination’.

All European bank accounts have an IBAN, or International Bank Account Number, to identify which country the bank account comes from.

For example, German bank accounts have an IBAN beginning with ‘DE’, while those in the UK start with ‘GB’.

While it’s illegal to refuse a foreign IBAN it is a real problem, which is why a local bank account is a must.

If you’re being paid in pounds but are spending in a different currency, be aware that you will be at the mercy of exchange rates.

If, for example, the euro strengthens against the pound, you’ll find your money won’t go as far in the eurozone.

What else do I need to consider?

All of what we set out above is simply what you need to consider before you land in your chosen country.

You’ll also need to think of where you are going to live, how you are going to get about and how you will be able to access the internet to do your job.

Expat forums and Facebook groups can be a goldmine for this type of information and don’t be afraid to reach out to people you know who have moved abroad. Their advice can be invaluable.

If you plan on working abroad long-term, you also need to consider how this will affect any pensions and investments you have back in the UK.

You won’t, for example, be able to carry on paying into a tax-free UK ISA while you’re abroad and it may affect what tax relief you get on any private pensions you pay into.

While it can be a major headache moving to another country, you also need to remember why you wanted to do it in the first place: perhaps to experience a new culture, meet new people or to learn a new language.

So, by all means, go for it. But make sure you plan ahead.

Photo by Peggy Anke on Unsplash

The post Fancy becoming a Digital Nomad? Here’s what you need to know appeared first on Mouthy Money.