In a provocative article in the Financial Times, hospital doctor Sophie Harrison points out how the role of uniforms matters in the healthcare workplace. A 2007 ruling banned the traditional white coat for doctors and brought in a policy of bare arms from the elbow down, in an attempt to increase hygiene procedures. This, in turn, was designed to fight hospital transmitted infections like MRSA or c difficile.

The result though, has been to confuse patients and visitors, who struggle to identify clinicians and other hospital staff, and to create a culture of fear which has led to excessive measures in some bacteria-conscious hospital visitors.

If workplace hygiene is essential, then taking a look at premises, as well as work clothing, can be the best route. If staff have to get changed in toilets (as Harrison claims) it’s much more likely that they will come into contact with dangerous bacteria – and bacteria and viruses are much more easily spread by hand to hand contact than they are on clothing, so it’s what staff touch, more than what they wear, that matters.

And if you have an environment like a clinic, hospital or other health centre, the effect of removing distinctive uniforms may be to add to the psychological stress of the non-hospital employee – Harrison says that it’s now difficult to distinguish junior doctors, ward pharmacists and medical students by clothing alone and that can cause anger and distress in people who don’t understand why the ‘doctor’ in front of them is unable to help them.

Clearly defined uniforms are important and there’s no need to sacrifice clarity for hygiene – colour coding of tabards and different styles of short sleeved shirt and polo shirt can really help visitors to understand the distinctions in employee status and responsibility.

Authority, uniforms and clean work-places is a post from: Qtag Blog

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Recent high profile news stories about celebrities pilfering from supermarkets might seem odd, but most of us, at one time or another, have indulged in some petty theft, and one of the most common places to steal from is the workplace.

It’s not about money – it’s about control, and the reason many people steal at work is to have control over some part of their work life, or to gain something that they feel entitled to but are prevented from having – resentment pilfering is a major problem for big organisations. The minor risk is a big buzz when pulled off successfully.

The most stolen work items are paper, stamps, other forms of stationery and kitchen equipment such as spoons, glasses etc. The most common place to put such pilfered items is a handbag for women and a backpack for men, closely followed by concealing items in the underwear. Apparently around 30% of pilferers hide small items in their socks!

Those who take things from work often progress to shoplifting and more than half of us will shoplift cosmetics and toiletries (razor blades get taken by men, perfume by women) and small items of clothing such as bras, gloves, hats and costume jewellery.

Employers may offer CBT or other forms of therapy rather than prosecution, and it appears that many who steal from the workplace are actually deterred completely by getting caught – it’s only when they are confronted with the reality of their behaviour that they realise what they are doing is theft, and that is enough to stop them doing it again.

Dealing With Workplace Theft is a post from: Qtag Blog

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If you’re going to make a resolution or two, why not make them for the workplace?

Invest in an audit
Not financial, but energy – some firms actually provide a free audit for businesses and will point out ways to save money over time. It’s a good way to get good PR too – once your audit is over and you’ve made some energy saving resolutions you can email (no wasted paper) or facebook (so you can include photos and get feedback) your environment saving progress to your clients, customers and suppliers so that they know they are working with a ‘green team’. Don’t forget to let the local paper and radio station know, as they love to have stories for their local news sections.

Declutter
Many organisations are actually renting space to store things or space to do things, when they have the space themselves. If you hire meeting rooms for small groups but have offices with loads of filing or have documents or stock in storage, take a good look at what your organisation is hoarding – piles of old CPUs or files going back twenty years can be using up space that the organisation can benefit from. Consider donating usable old furniture, clothing or other office items to charity.

Water
Either invest in a cooler or get a water filter installed in the kitchen so that staff don’t buy bottled water which is costly and adds to the amount of rubbish that pushes up business rates!

New Year’s Resolutions for your office is a post from: Qtag Blog

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Many HR experts are highlighting the need to make Christmas events casual and low-key or risk putting pressure on staff who feel compelled to buy clothes or gifts to be able to take part in the workplace Christmas experience.

On the other hand, businesses need to show that they appreciate the hard work and sacrifices of employees and the contribution their hard work has made to surviving the global economic crisis.

Tailoring your party to the size of your business is important. It’s a good idea to ask people what kind of party they would like, and to appoint a member of the staff team to receive their suggestions, as it’s quite difficult for employees to make suggestions to the CEO or some other high-powered individual.

Ideas that are being implemented by a lot of organisations this year include:

•    Bowling parties with teams being given printed ‘team shirts’ in which to bowl.
•    Go-karting or mini-golf tournaments or a treasure hunt around a local place of interest (get permission if you are using a building or location)
•    A chocolate making or pizza building party – especially for those firms where many employees have children as this allows families to be invited along.

Christmas parties in a recession is a post from: Qtag Blog

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For many of us there are jobs that have to be done outside in winter, whether it’s our full-time work in the outdoor weather or just a small part of our working day like taking the bins out to be emptied or walking to or from our car. It’s important to dress appropriately for the weather so that we are able to be healthy and safe and to face whatever the day throws at us.
The current long-range weather forecasts suggest an early winter, with snow in the UK predicted from November to January and with December having lower than average temperatures. Exactaweather.com, a non-profit-making organisation which has accurately predicted the last two harsh winters, says 2011/12 could be record-breakingly cold.
Hypothermia begins at much higher temperatures than most of us realise and is more common than many British workers recognise. While in the USA around 700 people die each year of hypothermia as a result of work conditions, figures for the UK are not broken down in this way – but a staggering 30,000 deaths a year are considered to result from exposure to cold. Hypothermia is a potential killer and often goes unrecognised in the early stages because the symptoms are fatigue, nausea, confusion, and sweating.

• Wearing gloves and a hat are important for outdoor work. Gloves insulate the hands but need to be flexible enough to allow a worker to manipulate tools or controls. A hat needs to provide good heat conservation and may also help with visibility – a peaked cap can keep rain and snow from the eyes, but some hats also impede hearing and it’s important to ensure that one form of safety is not sacrificed to another.
• For outdoor work it’s better to wear lightweight clothing in layers that can be adjusted to the prevailing weather conditions because it is as important to remove layers to avoid getting over-warm as perspiring can lead to chills that in turn lead to hypothermia as the cold moisture near the skin triggers a physical reaction – damp clothing is up to twenty times less heat retentive than dry clothing, so layers are vital to ensuring safe outdoor working.
• For those working near machinery, scarves are a particular hazard, as are the dangling drawstrings of hoodies – it’s vital to ensure that clothing that keeps us warm is also safe in the work environment and anything that can catch or entangle in moving parts is dangerous.
• Winter food is vital to productive working – complex carbohydrates and simple warmth are important to stop people, even those working at desks, developing the lethargy that results from becoming cold and using up calories to keep the body warm. Hot drinks can really make a difference to performance too.

Winter Working Conditions is a post from: Qtag Blog

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There seems to be an increasing concern about the role of clothing in small businesses, particularly those that offer some kind of professional service. As companies downsize and out-source, it’s becoming important that the appearance of all those involved in a company reflect the company ethos, including the professional nature and status of the organisation. The loss of intervening layers of middle management often means that those at the front of the business, such as receptionists, are the figureheads for the business in general and so their appearance becomes vital.

However, it can be difficult for small firms to discuss, let alone impose, a dress code on members of staff who have got used to dressing casually or provocatively. One sensitive way of dealing with this issue is to hold a firm-wide seminar or lunch meeting on the subject of Appropriate Work Clothing using one of the many online guides to dressing for success. Divide the company on gender lines for this event and offer some light-hearted fun as well as serious exploration of what counts as professionally appropriate clothing.

You can, for example, invest in some clothing props: these could be anything from fridge magnets of famous figures with a range of magnetic outfits through to paper cut-out dressing up dolls, right up to shop window dummies and cheap clothing in the form of second-hand or discount clothing. These can be used during the session to create the most and least appropriate outfits for various situations: work, barbecue, going to the theatre etc – this stops it feeling like a lecture and gives people an idea of how to put an outfit together: not a skill that everybody possesses!  If you really want to invest in your staff, you can even get an image consultant to come in and suggest the best colours for each member of the team to wear.

Once the seminar has taken place, you can have one-to-one conversations with any team member who is sloppy or overly sexy in their dress habits, confident that you can hold a conversation on professional grounds without it being seen as a judgement on personal style.

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While a lot of employers are now allowing staff to dress up for Halloween as part of charitable activity, some have managed to turn the fun and fundraising into a workplace team booster too. As an example, one large company in Brighton limits the amount people can spend to create their costumes (and receipts must be produced) and every department competes to win a £500 donation to the charity of the department’s choice. A call centre in the north of England has a different approach: teams are each given a theme and have to come up with the imaginative and entirely recycled costumes on that theme.

If you would like to create Halloween costumes at home, whether for family or work fun, here are a few ideas:

Tourist
Find an old Hawaiian shirt or loud T-shirt and team it with some baggy long shorts, old sandals and thick socks. Wear silly sunglasses and carry a camera, map and translation book. Get people to take your photo in front of random things like pillar boxes and speak slowly and loudly.

Timekeeper
This costume literally costs pennies. Buy white foundation and a black eyeliner. Pull back your hair, paint your face white and draw Roman numerals like a clock face – then draw the hands originating from your nose (you may need help with the numerals, it’s difficult to draw them backwards in a mirror). Wear a black T-shirt and leggings.

Sweet Treat
Many offices have large clear rubbish bags. Grab one and cut arm and leg holes, keeping them on the small side. Then either buy balloons or a bag of small bright plastic balls (pound shops usually have these) and blow up the balloons until they are barely inflated. Write an M on each one to look like M&Ms. If you prefer a British sweet, small boxes can be painted white with a middle layer of black, black and pink or black and orange to look like Liquorice Allsorts. Put the sweets in the bag and sellotape it to your shoulders. Be careful when sitting down!

Siamese Twins
If you have a friend or colleague you can really bear to spend Halloween with, this costume always earns giggles. Buy two large or extra-large men’s T-shirts and cut the right side and sleeve away from one and the left sleeve from the other and then sow together so you have one shirt with two armholes and two necks. Wriggle in and prepare for fun!

Halloween costumes and team building is a post from: Qtag Blog

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The Accrington Stanley team have demonstrated their support for the East Lancashire Hospice by wearing specially printed T-shirts for their team warm up each Saturday.

The T-shirts are designed to help raise awareness about the services the hospice offers as well as raising money for it. Supporters are encouraged to contribute to the running costs of the Hospice during a collection held before the match. The season-long partnership will have events most weeks to raise funds for the hospice.

Over in Coventry, shoppers were surprised by office workers dressed as animals. The ‘beasts’ who work in Homeless Internationals office usually wear office attire but for one day they put on animal costumes and travelled the city centre to raise funds for the charity’s slum dweller programmes in Africa and Asia. Two of the staff even chose to wear their costumes on their cycle to work, rather than donning their usual casual clothing.

November is a great time to organise a clothing based charity event at work, as it coincides with Halloween. Many employers are now offering the chance to wear fancy dress for the day as a way of building team spirit in the office or factory along with giving something back to the local community or a nominated charity.

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The furore caused by novelty socks in Lancashire ambulances has quietly gone away. In February 2010, paramedics were told not to wear socks with cartoon characters on them because it was unprofessional … which was odd, as paramedics in Lancashire wear boots, so their socks aren’t visible anyway.  Apparently the sock ruling has now been removed from training manuals so Homer Simpson and Dangermouse socks are back on the feet of the ambulance crews.

There is a serious point here though. Specialist socks are designed for special situations and/or to be worn with specialist footwear. Cushioned work socks are designed for wear in situations where people spend all day on their feet – often called crew socks, they are durable and comfortable.

Sports socks, on the other hand, deal specifically with the issues of keeping feet fresh and preventing blisters. They are usually more lightweight that crew socks but have a similar, hard-wearing weave.

Then there are specialist socks that accompany work boots. These are hosiery items that are specially constructed to have a support under the arch of the foot and may also have an antibacterial finish – boots with steel shanks or toes can trap moisture more than leather or mesh boots, meaning that a bacterial load builds up around a damp foot and fungal infections can result. Wearing the right footwear for the job ensures people are more comfortable and more productive – but there’s no evidence that socks with cartoon characters make any difference to productivity!

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Guiseley school in Yorkshire and Nailsea school near Bristol have been hitting the headlines around the world. But it’s not their educational standards or a heart-warming story of child-bravery that’s led to the Los Angeles Times and the Globe and Mail featuring these centres of learning.

It’s skirt length

Both schools have had problems with female students wearing skirts that are considered too short. Guiseley has opted for a no-skirt policy, offering girls the chance to wear smart uniform trousers instead, while Nailsea has a GCSE student refusing to attend school because she can’t wear an item she and her parents consider to be uniform appropriate and the school doesn’t, leading to an exclusion.

Uniforms at work can present issues too – employers have had to come to terms with cultural, religious and even colour-based complaints about uniforms. When a Traditional Chinese Medicine shopping chain was taken over by a larger health food chain, the staff at the TCM shops objected to wearing their new white uniform tops as they feared it would convince customers that they were in mourning for dead clients: white is the colour of death in China.

Making sensible choices that work for both staff and the company isn’t difficult. Clothing for work needs to be easy to wear and easy to clean, safe and smart. Involving employees in decisions about uniforms, perhaps by letting them choose clothing from a range authorised by Head Office, is a good way of giving an element of choice to the individual. Some schools in the UK have started making uniform clothing a semi-democratic choice too, by offering sixth form students a chance to vote for their uniform items from a predefined set of options. Hoodies have often been a contentious item for students and schools have found that offering a hoody with a large and clear school logo on the back of the hoodie meets the needs of the community to feel the children are not ‘feral youth’ and the desire of the students to look stylish.

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