Stone Workers

In this age of building castles and cathedrals, there are plenty of vacancies in the stone business. For the less artistic, there is plenty of work at the quarry. This involves dangerous wedge and lever work to remove blocks directly from the rock and the more precise, measured cutting by delving with splitting wedges. If you chose to become a stone carver, you might be able to create gargoyles in the images of your bosses.

General hard labour is always available in the transport section, while those with innate skills can gain training and promotion to become a mason. But that's more likely if you are a member of the middle class and have a talent for funny handshakes.

Even masons are occasionally required to work in dangerous conditions on unsafe scaffolding at a great height - in 1178, master mason William of Sens fell off the scaffolding of Canterbury Cathedral and was paralysed. However, the rewards are top rates of pay and the benefits of enjoying the community that gathers in support around your building project, not to mention shouting abuse from the scaffolding.

Lime Burner

Do you like to live on the edge? How about creating and handling an extremely nasty chemical agent to make a vital component of mortar?

Running a lime kiln requires you to supervise the heating of chalk - or, near the coast, oyster shells - until they start producing incredibly toxic carbon monoxide. This can easily make you drowsy or even paralyse you before you suffocate. Don't worry, though - you only have to sit with the kiln for 48 hours at a time.

If you really like a risky challenge, the next process could be for you. The hard cake of quicklime (calcium oxide) is taken from the kiln and added to water. It immediately reacts, producing intense heat and a shower of caustic, agony-inducing specks of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide). These crumbly grains are then crushed into lime powder, which will be added to sand to make mortar. You obviously don't need safety goggles because they haven't been invented yet.

Treadmill Worker

With so much work in the building trade, you know that this is the career for you. A vacancy has arrived following the tragic collapse of the crane at your local cathedral. Now a new one has been made, taking all the design faults of the original into account.

To operate this latest technological marvel, you'll be expected to walk the treadmill to provide the power for lifting blocks of stone weighing up to two tons. Preference will be given to the blind - they have proved great treadmill walkers in the past due to their lack of fear of heights.

Taking control of underperformance

The problem of poor performers is not unique to businesses of specific sizes and sectors; all businesses can suffer. Indeed, half of employees say that they work directly with someone who fails to do their fair share.

However, problems arise when employers fail to do anything about it, an issue highlighted by an Investors in People survey. It uncovered the dangers for employers who adopt a head in the sand approach and fail to act.

In such cases, employees cited having to work longer hours and feeling undervalued as being the most damaging aspect of having a poor performer on the team; problems that could in turn lead to the decision to start looking for a new job

Racial discrimination

Could you be forced to pay compensation for racial discrimination?

Angus Council has been ordered to pay £26,000 after a tribunal ruled they racially discriminated against a candidate. Ahsan Khan applied for a role and met all the job specifications, however during the short listing the criteria was changed. The job was then given to someone who did not meet the original specification and was personally known to at least one Council official.

The Council was found to have not followed the Statutory Code of Practice issued by the Commission for Racial Equality, as applications were not anonymised, so it was obvious who was applying and what racial background they might have.

What you need to do

When recruiting, it is important that you select purely on the grounds of ability and not on a person's race. You should also ensure all your employees are familiar with relevant legislation and best practice guidelines.

No-one can deny the dramatic affect social networking sites are having on modern society in recent times. Only a few years ago such sites did not exist but now, almost half of the people in the UK have some form of on-line profile. Sites such as Youtube, Facebook and MySpace have firmly cemented themselves into our everyday language and woven themselves throughout our social fabric.

Opinions on the subject can be as varied as the sites themselves, ranging from outright damnation by technophobe zealots to profound acclamation by those that genuinely depend on such sites to express themselves and communicate with others. Irrespective of if you have a strong opinion on the subject or treat it with complete nonchalance, social networking sites are here to stay.

In today's society, this phenomena has taken such a hold that it is now entering the workplace as a matter of routine and for millions of employees such sites form a systematic part of their day. Some organisations became early adopters of the sites, embracing the potential opportunities that could be derived from such a concentrated mass of individuals. Many organisations have grown using social networking sites as a principal market place, from your large computer manufacturers selling PCs directly to individuals to on-line dating sites luring new members.

There is also another use for social networking sites other than direct commerce and marketing of products and that is recruitment. Some companies, such as Barclays and Microsoft, recognised this early on and launched full recruitment advertising campaigns on the social networking sites including recruitment videos. This has become even more sophisticated in the fact that these sites have common interest networks (geography, skills, hobbies and employers etc.) so recruiters can target even more focused demographics to maximise the quality of their response.

The propensity for openness has drawn some employers to utilise these sites as a means of investigating individuals as to their suitability as candidates for particular roles they are sourcing. After all, most seasoned interviewers have met candidates who, on the face of it, seemed straightforward and ideal for the role but have been taken aback once they learn of some of the "out of office" activities they partake in and if they had known that up front, perhaps they wouldn't have hired them. Even though the temptation and ability is there for employers, and in a large part Line Managers, to conduct clandestine searches on individuals it does not make it right, appropriate or legal in the context of the hiring and interview process as you may discriminate against the candidate based on information that comes to light.

One must assess the potential nature of the data that is likely to be accessed in the context of the UK Data Protection Act (DPA). The DPA draws a distinction between "sensitive" personal data and other, or "ordinary" personal data. "Sensitive" personal data means information "data" relating to individual's race, political opinions, religious or other similar beliefs, trade union membership, health, sexual life or criminal convictions; all of which can be highly visible on social networking sites and on individual's profiles. As such, any individual or organisation conducting these searches would require the express and explicit consent of the individual in question to search the sites. Even if the search was termed as part of a wider "internet media search" the DPA dictates that one has to divulge exactly where that information has been retrieved from and how it has been used and interpreted to the individual concerned if asked (which would certainly occur if anything adverse was identified and an offer was withdrawn).

To complicate matters further, some Data Protection Lawyers believe that strictly speaking, sites such as facebook, YouTube, MySpace and the like are in fact the acting data controllers under DPA therefore any third party looking to use this information in a commercial arrangement would also need the express and explicit consent of the site itself in addition to the consent of the individual concerned.

It is also common for individuals to place certain security protocols and viewing restrictions around their on-line profile to just allow their friends and family to view their details and by direct invitation only. ID fraudsters have created pseudo profiles and coerced individuals to accept them into their group or network and once achieved they would have full access to their personal data. Although effective, this practice should never be adopted by professional recruiters or pre-employment screening companies as this surmounts to the obtaining of information by deception and could lead to prosecution under the DPA and an employment tribunal.

There is also a moralistic issues. Even if this information can be obtained legitimately under the DPA, should an employer even be using that information when making hiring decisions? In the eyes of the DPA vetting should only be used as a means of obtaining specific information, not as a means of general intelligence gathering - the data controller (person collecting the data) should ensure that the extent and nature of information sought is justified.

If employers do have access to such open source information they are still bound by extensive discrimination legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act, the Race Relations Act, the Disability Discriminations Act, the Equality Act and of course the Age Discrimination Act. This clearly limits the type of information that could be used from social networking sites even if all DPA conditions are met. What may be evident are inferences to an individual's character based on comments made by other people, photographs placed on the profile page and other such indicative signs of conduct and integrity. Unfortunately under DPA the data controller can only use information that comes from reliable sources and matter of opinion from an associate of the individual can only be treated as unreliable and circumspect.

Irrespective of which way you approach the subject of utilizing social networking sites for the purposes of employment it is conclusive that aside from the moral issues Data Protection and anti-Discrimination laws are sufficient to discount the application of such personal sensitive information in hiring decisions, therefore including social networking sites in either recruitment or pre-employment screening activities is not only ill advised and limited but is also a high risk strategy and one that will ultimately invite employment and discrimination tribunals in their droves.

The Security Watchdog Screening Bureau is a market leading provider of pre-employment screening services across EMEA. Viewed as a Best Practice organization they offer the full outsourced screening service for a client base of over 150 household names and are the emerging force within the market. They offer the definitive answer to all regional and specific in-country questions pertaining Data Protection and give clear, accurate guidance on what screening measures can be taken across the globe.

onerous [own-er-uss] Adjective (of a task) difficult to carry out [Latin onus load] onerousness n.

Synonyms: burdensome, taxing

Usage: Preparing income tax returns is an onerous task, and many people resort to hiring professional accountants during tax season.

Adj. onerous - not easily borne; wearing; "the burdensome task of preparing the income tax return"; "my duties weren't onerous; I only had to greet the guests"; "a taxing schedule" burdensome, taxing heavy - marked by great psychological weight; weighted down especially with sadness or troubles or weariness; "a heavy heart"; "a heavy schedule"; "heavy news"; "a heavy silence"; "heavy eyelids"

Thesaurus

trying, hard, taxing, demanding, difficult, heavy, responsible, grave, crushing, exhausting, exacting, formidable, troublesome, oppressive, weighty, laborious, burdensome, irksome, backbreaking, exigent << OPPOSITE easy

Collins Essential Thesaurus 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2005, 2006

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http://www.5mi nutesaway.co.uk - A directory of services and facilities available for motorists within 5 minutes of each motorway junction.

http://www.multimap.com/ - Maps and routeplanners

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A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. - Herm Albright

Never face facts; if you do, you'll never get up in the morning. - Marlo Thomas

The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever. - Anatole France