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Strange kind of capitalism (20 July 10:05) |
| "Merve should get a medal!" wrote a reader on The Times website last week on hearing that the governor of the Bank of England had turned down a £100,000 pay rise. Others agreed: "Well done ... |
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My guide to snoopology (13 July 07:35) |
| Easily the most satisfying job I've done in two dozen years as a journalist was writing a series of articles describing the offices of famous chief executives. I used to ring them and try to... |
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Board battles won on playing fields of youth (06 July 08:00) |
| Last Monday, after three hours and 57 minutes on the centre court at Wimbledon, a victorious Andy Murray flexed his bulging biceps at the crowd and pulled his mouth into an oblong grimace of... |
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Shock of BPC: before personal computers (29 June 09:00) |
| I am writing this column with a silver fountain pen. I had planned to bang it out on a manual typewriter, but I threw away my old Olivetti a long time ago and don't know anyone who still has... |
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When complaining to the wrong person is right (21 June 12:35) |
| Not long ago, a friend opened a can of Heinz baked beans to feed her children for supper. As she poured the orange slop into a bowl she spotted two brown beans among the hundreds of orange o... |
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A bouquet of office barbs (15 June 11:55) |
| Last week Sir Alan Sugar said "you're fired" to three of the last four candidates in The Apprentice and 8.9m people sat on sofas all over Britain gawping at the expressions of bitter disappo... |
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Joys of haircare and soldiery (08 June 09:00) |
| When we were at primary school, my sister and I used to steal our mother's rollers and nail varnish and curl each other's hair and paint each other's fingernails. My brother, meanwhile, woul... |
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Marriage demands due diligence (18 May 10:10) |
| Every year 1m married couples in Europe decide that they cannot stand the sight of each other and split up. |
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Aim low to find meaning at work (11 May 10:55) |
| At a party last week.I met a man who until recently was a government minister. We chatted about this and that, and he said how much he was enjoying his assortment of sinecures - non-executiv... |
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Decade's spaced-out legacy in business (04 May 09:10) |
| In May 1968 I had my first sexual experience. I was almost nine at the time and that afternoon had been practising French skipping in my bedroom with my best friend, Tabitha. When we had tir... |
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We'll never know how women would run the world (27 April 10:25) |
| What would it be like if women ruled the world? Over the past 10 days, the question has been put by newspapers and broadcasters to all sorts of people - and all sorts of answers have been pr... |
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With no losers, we wouldn't have any winners (21 April 01:35) |
| Last week a reader sent me an e-mail pointing out a mistake in my latest column. Blogs and posts, he explained, are not the same. A blog refers to the whole thing; a post is an entry on a bl... |
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Give managers the 'nanny test' (13 April 10:50) |
| Rob Lowe and his wife Sheryl have been having bad luck with childcare recently. The actor, who played the gorgeous Sam Seaborn in The West Wing, has just filed lawsuits against two ex-nannie... |
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Seven types of rot that appeal to big cheeses (30 March 08:55) |
| When financial markets are crumbling and banks are crashing, the natural response of people in positions of authority is to talk rot. |
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Trapped workers develop a line in doodling (17 March 12:40) |
| I draw boxes. I draw them carefully in 3D and then put a little circle at each corner. My husband draws arrows. A line, then a triangular head at one end followed by a similar one at the oth... |
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Why trapped workers develop a nice line in doodling (15 March 12:10) |
| I draw boxes. I draw them carefully in 3D and then put a little circle at each corner. My husband draws arrows. A line, then a triangular head at one end followed by a similar one at the oth... |
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Put an end to the trauma of the telephone (10 March 04:05) |
| I punched in a London number and far away in Singapore the phone rang twice. |
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Green holiday that makes me see red (02 March 11:20) |
| Last Friday, when others were toiling away as usual in the office, the 5,000 employees of the National Trust were at home changing light bulbs and making compost toilets on their allotments. |
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Rekindling a 25-year bond (24 February 09:05) |
| In my head is a dull ache and in my handbag a stack of business cards. One is from an acupuncturist. Another from a racehorse trainer, and further cards from asset managers, venture capitali... |
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Happiness is finding your inner receptionist (10 February 11:15) |
| A couple of months ago a friend asked if I'd write her a job reference. She is bright and witty and sophisticated and for about 20 years has held a succession of powerful jobs in television ... |
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Unpolished exchanges put soul into shopping (04 February 03:45) |
| Let me tell you about two things that have happened to me in the past 24 hours. The first concerns a shabby pair of brown suede ankle boots. The second, a glossy lipstick called Nude Lips. |
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Accenture's next champion of waffle words (27 January 10:30) |
| When one door closes, another one opens. On Thursday the prison gates clanked shut behind Martin Lukes in Florida but, in London, the door of an office inside Accenture ACNswung ajar, reveal... |
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No way to manage a bleating luvvie (21 January 12:35) |
| A few weeks ago I had lunch with my brother-in-law. First we discussed our unseemly mid-life urges: his to do triathlons, mine to buy bright green shoes with six-inch heels. We then moved on... |
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Bonuses for the incorrigibly childish (13 January 11:25) |
| Normally, if someone was to give me a large sum of money, say £1m or so, I'd be quite pleased. But if I was an investment banker, I probably wouldn't be. Just like the thousands of them who... |
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A New Year's resolution that will last (06 January 10:45) |
| I may not be getting better at much else, but I am getting better at making New Year's resolutions. Mine for 2008 is the best I've ever made. It's positive, it's ambitious, it's inspiring bu... |
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Breakthrough thinking from top twaddlists (30 December 11:20) |
| There were two heady moments during 2007 when it seemed that the bull market in management nonsense, which has been on the rampage for as long as I can remember, might be flagging. In the mi... |
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Keep marriage counsellors out of the office (16 December 10:25) |
| Here is a game to play with your spouse one chilly evening. Sit yourselves down with some paper, Sellotape, string and a pair of scissors. Working together, construct a paper tower that is s... |
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Express your anger - it's all the rage (09 December 11:35) |
| Last week, for the first time in many years, I had a big, shouty, stand-up row with a colleague at work. It started off quite small, as these things often do. But then he accused me of being... |
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Leaders in need of a good idea (03 December 03:45) |
| First we were employees, plain and simple. Then we were knowledge workers. After that came "Brand Me" and the notion that we were all CEOs of Me, Inc. Now our taste for hyperbole in describi... |
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The headhunters' disease (25 November 10:35) |
| A few years ago I spent a day at Korn Ferry pretending to be a headhunter. I raced around London in taxis, sat in on interviews and drew up lists. When it was time to go home, I asked the wo... |
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Secret science of persuasion (18 November 11:50) |
| Before you read this, get yourself a double espresso. Or have a couple of Diet Cokes. Or a latte with an extra shot. Or a grande skinny soya macchiato with a squirt of caramel. It doesn't ma... |
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Reasons for being miserable at work (11 November 08:30) |
| Every unhappy family is unhappy in a different way. Every unhappy worker is unhappy in much the same way. |
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The battle is lost, going forward (04 November 08:15) |
| Going forward, I give up. Until a month ago I thought the way forward was to protest at the use of this horrid phrase. But now it is time to admit defeat. "Going forward" is with us on a go-... |
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The agony and the everyday (26 October 07:30) |
| Ialways wanted to be an agony aunt. There may have been a brief period when I was about nine during which I flirted with the idea of being an air hostess instead but, by the time I was 13, m... |
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Good reasons for effing and blinding at work (21 October 07:05) |
| This column contains strong language. More that that, this column is about strong language - which explains why it contains some. |
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Strap on the sensors and step out into the future (15 October 12:30) |
| One problem with studying management is that no one seems to know much about it. We don't have the foggiest idea of why good companies are good. We don't even know why individual managers ar... |
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The joy of fresh stationery, gossip and lattes with lids (07 October 07:30) |
| My favourite moment from my favourite film is when the skies open and the rain comes pouring down in The Sound of Music. Seven hostile children cower on the bed of their new governess, who g... |
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