Welcome to this week’s edition of Working It! The highlight of the week is the announcement of the long list for the FT/Schroders Business Book of the Year Award. Personally, I always gravitate towards business books that read like thrillers, such as my all-time favorite “Bad Blood” which won the prize in 2018. This year, I’m excited about “Unscripted”, a captivating story about the battle for succession to Sumner Redstone’s media empire. It delves into the scandalous aspects of Redstone’s obsessions in old age and his complex relationships. In this edition, we also explore the increasing undergraduate job opportunities and discuss office therapy for a remote worker whose boss refuses to turn on his camera. Do you have a favorite book from the 2023 long list? And what classic business thriller do you recommend? Share your thoughts with me at isabel.berwick@ft.com.
For those who haven’t graduated, there’s no need to worry. As A-level results are released, many young people may find themselves without the qualifications needed for university. However, there’s a growing trend of reputable employers offering job opportunities that don’t require a degree. The number of these job offers in the UK increased by 90% between 2021 and 2022, according to LinkedIn data. This shift in hiring practices is moving away from qualifications-based hiring and focusing more on skills and potential. Big employers like Kellogg UK have already embraced this change, no longer requiring a degree for certain roles.
On the Working It podcast this week, we dive into the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies. Lily Zheng, a renowned US DEI consultant, shares insights on why diversity strategies often fail and how to fix them. We discuss the gap between leaders committed to structural change and those who view DEI as merely a “nice to have” policy without real impact. Despite the challenges posed by polarizing politics, there’s still room for optimism and progress in the field of diversity.
In office therapy, we tackle the issue of a remote worker whose team leader refuses to turn on his camera during virtual meetings. Viv Groskop, an expert in “presence”, provides advice on understanding the boss’s perspective and encourages looking beyond immediate frustrations to find a potential solution. It’s crucial to approach the evolving dynamics of digital relationships in the workplace with an open mind.
In other work-related news, we explore the right to disconnect in the workplace and the performative aspects of policymaking. Additionally, MIT economist David Autor discusses the future of jobs in an automated world and highlights reasons for optimism. We also delve into the economy of subscriptions and the profits generated by inertia. The growing concern for climate change among Gen Z workers and the importance of companies incorporating climate strategies are also discussed. Lastly, we explore the lessons that bosses can learn from failure and the importance of preventing recurring mistakes.
To unwind after work, I recommend checking out the Australian TV series “Fisk” if you enjoy workplace-themed shows. It’s a brilliant and entertaining choice.
Thank you for joining me in this edition of Working It!
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Hello and welcome to Working It.
The highlight of this week has been the announcement of the long list for the FT/Schroders Business Book of the Year Award. My votes, not that they count, always go to books that read like thrillers. My all time favorite in this genre is Bad blood (2018)the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos (that one did win the prize).
This year my hot ticket is unscripted, about the battle for succession to Sumner Redstone’s media empire. The FT’s Christopher Grimes describes it as “the scandalous story of how Redstone’s obsessions in old age – sex, power and an apparent belief in his own immortality – drove him to the brink of handing over control of his empire to his two girlfriends.” internal”. .
I mean, what’s not to like? 🤷♀️
Read on for a glimpse into the booming world of undergraduate job opportunities, and at Office Therapy we mentored a remote worker whose boss refuses to turn on his camera.
Do you have a favorite on the long list of 2023 book awards? And what’s your recommendation for a classic business thriller book? Email me: isabel.berwick@ft.com.
Not graduated? No problem
When the A-level results are released tomorrow, thousands of young people are predicted to lose the qualifications they need for university. That’s heartbreaking, but once the shock has worn off, the traditional next steps are often to pass college or retake tests. This year, there may be a third viable option: start working at a reputable employer. (Also, this last option comes without tens of thousands of pounds of debt attached 🏧).
The number of UK job offers that don’t require a degree increased by 90 per cent year-over-year between 2021 and 2022, according to new data from LinkedIn, and globally, recruiters are five times more likely to search.” skills” rather than grades than they were at the beginning of last year.
Job watchers know that a trend only becomes a movement when big employers join it. In this case, the first to move was Kellogg UK (he describes himself as “the giant of cereals and snacks”, which I find very nice 🥣). In June, the announced company that “having a degree will no longer be a requirement for those who want to work at Kellogg in the UK.”
This week, I asked Chris Silcock, vice president and general manager of Kellogg UK and Ireland, how that announcement was received. It’s a big change. Have people been receptive? “The answer [on LinkedIn] it was amazing in terms of shares and reposts and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We are a very inclusive employer and it is very important to us that you come from different backgrounds,” Chris told me.
The few negative comments came from “people who had earned degrees and felt we were not valuing them. We go out of our way to say that we still accept and appreciate grade marks. What we are saying is that in many roles and in many instances, your attitude and application are just as important as your qualification.”
The opening of more jobs for undergraduates is part of a broader movement away from old-fashioned qualifications-based hiring, focused on educational attainment of all kinds, to recruiting people on the basis of their skills. and potential.
Josh Graff, LinkedIn’s managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, points out that when recruiters look at skills and potential, it opens up many career paths traditionally closed to undergraduates (and he’s one of them: Josh dropped out of University).
His advice to school leavers who decide to get a job over higher education is to “think about the skills you already have and don’t underestimate them. For example, if you have a part-time job at a coffee shop or McDonald’s, wherever you are, chances are you’ve gained critical skills: communication skills, customer service skills, and these are really important to employers 🍟.”
My commitment to a different path for youth after the age of 18 is personal: my son is not going to college. This still seems radical to me, it’s such an ingrained aspiration of the middle class, but it’s certainly the right thing to do for him.
Are titles really necessary for most jobs? Does your company follow a skills-based hiring process? — and works? Email me at isabel.berwick@ft.com.
This week on the Working It podcast
There is so much hot air around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategies, but what really works in the long run?
Discover, this week in TrabajandoI speak to a high-profile US DEI consultant, Lily Zheng, on why diversity strategies fail and how to fix them. We discuss the emerging gap between leaders who are committed to structural change and those who see DEI’s policies as “nice to have, they don’t really accomplish anything,” as Lily puts it.
At a time when progress on diversity is threatened by polarizing politics, in the US and beyond, there is still plenty of room for optimism and change.
office therapy
The problem: I work for a company that works primarily remotely. Although I miss face-to-face interactions, virtual works well for the most part. However, our team leader rarely turns on his camera. We’ve told him we’d like him to turn on his camera, but he doesn’t understand why it’s important. We do not feel that we are being led. To do?
Elizabeth’s advice: I’m with you on this, as I get irritated by “cameraless” people in small gatherings, but that’s a minor annoyance: your problem runs much deeper. I recruited Viv Groskop, author of Happy High Status: How To Be Effortlessly Confident and expert in “presence”, both virtual and real. Here is Vivi:
The three questions you should ask yourself are these:
(a) Does the boss not understand what he wants? If possible, try again.
(b) Does he not care? In which case you are wasting your time.
(c) Does he disagree with you? You may not agree that being able to see someone’s face is correlated with leadership strength.
Viv continues to look behind the immediate problem, to what lies below:
Ask yourself, ‘What if he’s right and we’re wrong? What if his behavior is okay? Can we work with him? might help unlock a solution.
That changes everything in an interesting way. And Viv points out that it’s still too early for this kind of interaction in the workplace:
In the long run, we will all need to be as open-minded about what constitutes a healthy digital working relationship as we are about what constitutes a healthy face-to-face professional relationship. I suspect it will be a very wide range of behaviors and not a ‘one size fits all’.
Do you have a question, problem or dilemma for Office Therapy? Do you think you have better advice for our readers? Send it to me: isabel.berwick@ft.com. We anonymize everything. His boss, colleagues or his subordinates will never know.
Five outstanding stories from the world of work
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The right to disconnect and performative policymaking: Several countries now have laws that give workers the right to time off from communication in the workplace. How’s that going? Sarah O’Connor discusses the performative aspects of policy making.
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‘We have a real design choice for how we implement the AI’: An in-depth conversation between David Autor, an MIT economist, and the FT’s Delphine Strauss about the future of jobs in an automated future, and he’s optimistic, for once.
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The (not) surprising economy of subscriptions: Not strictly about work, but I bet a lot of readers have a ton of work and home subs that they’ve forgotten about. This type of “inertia” generates huge profits, as this investigative analysis from the FT Alphaville blog shows.
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How to manage the climate conscious worker: As more Gen Z workers enter employment, the climate crisis is becoming a top concern in many workplaces. Attracta Mooney writes about companies that make climate central to their strategy.
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Why bosses should take the time to learn from failure: Embracing failure is very fashionable. But too many CEOs and their teams don’t learn the right lessons or how to prevent things from happening again, says Anjli Raval.
One more thing . . .
Fisk at work © Rebecca Bana Photography
If you like to relax after a day of work with . . . a television series in the workplace, try fish (Broadcast in the UK on ITVX/Netflix). He’s from Australia, where they’re brilliant at dark and transgressive comedy*.
Helen Tudor-Fisk (Kitty Flanagan) is a middle-aged former lawyer whose marriage and career have collapsed. She is forced to accept a position with a small probate firm, and the politics of the small office, strange clients, and Helen’s own often clumsy interactions are genuinely laugh-out-loud fun.
*Test A: ‘Colin of Beads’.
Hours after we sent out last week’s newsletter, “Five days? No way”, it was reported that Amazon has been tracking assistance in the US personnel office and focused on those who did not comply with their three days a week policy.
A “lively” debate 🍪 among FT.com readers includes this (edited) comment from Parking Officer Steve Grabowski (Not his first name, I’m assuming), who disputes a survey finding I cited: that most financial services professionals would quit their job if asked to come into the office full-time:
“Industry standards are more important than individual company standards. If a bank requires 5 days a week in the office, you may switch to another bank. What happens when all banks demand 5x days a week in the office? Do people go to work for the local council?
And someone who wants to remain anonymous raised this interesting point in an email:
“In my view, one dynamic that is not openly discussed in the context of labor issues (although it is discussed elsewhere) is the effect that new labor practices have on the value of commercial real estate and endowment funds. related investment. It is not unlikely that many employers have additional motivations for encouraging an RTO policy in addition to immediate employment/productivity/relationship-building concerns. There needs to be some transparency around this issue.”
This one will run and run. Send your thoughts, theories and rants to isabel.berwick@ft.com
And finally . . .
This year’s FT Weekend Festival takes place at London’s Kenwood House on September 2 and features a host of FT writers and star guests, including Succession creator Jesse Armstrong and historian Simon Schama. We’re recording a live edition of Working It on midlife career change, and I’ll be joining Claer Barrett for a live recording of Money Clinic. Come say hi 👋. Can get £20 off an in person festival pass with the promotional code Podcast.
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