FEAST OR FAMINE

    In the centre of Strasbourg is the Anticafé – a large co-working space for creatives, entrepreneurs, tourists, and anybody else – to to work together and to have a coffee.   Christèle & Thierry had a vision for their Anticafé – to create nooks, crannies, conferencing and meeting spaces adapted to nomadic workers and creatives, where people can feel part of the same community.   Anticafé tackles the loss of social ties, the isolation of (tele)workers, whether self-employed or salaried, because the duo and their team believe more in human relations than digital communications. They are convinced that the future will be resolutely turned towards others and not devices and machines, and that the future will be optimistic, participatory, and creative.   MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite    I     Rainy Day Healing    I    Martinasblogs    I     Publications     I     Facebook ...

The International Workplace Group (IWG), a British organization, conducted a global workplace survey in January 2019, releasing the results in March 2019. IWG canvassed the opinion of more than 15,000 people across 80 nations.  The study’s respondents define flexibility as work options outside 9:00-5:00 working hours, combinations of in-and-out of main office locations, workers being able to manage their own workloads, and being able to choose the type of work location. Eighty percent (80%) of survey respondents said that, given two similar job offers, they would reject the job that did not offer flexible work options.  IWG found that 62% of businesses worldwide currently have a flexible workplace policy, with 85% of respondents indicating that productivity has increased in their business as a result of greater flexibility.  IWG lists the following countries with flexible workplace policies, in order of responding businesses: Germany (80%), Netherla...

On 7 June 2018 AgriFutures Australia announced its pledge to support women in agriculture in leadership roles.  In what has been described as a ‘watershed moment’, 11 leading agricultural bodies have pledged to ensure more women take on leadership roles within their organisations. AgriFutures Australia and 10 other leading bodies have pledged a commitment to support women in agriculture to take on positions of influence. The pledges are a part of the  Diversity in Agriculture Leadership Program , led by the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF). President of the NFF, Fiona Simson said, “It is an extremely powerful message delivered by these leading bodies within our industry. ”  AgriFutures Australia’s pledge: Currently at AgriFutures Australia: 42% of our Board members are women; 50% of our leadership team are women; 30% of our AgriFutures’ Advisory Panel members are women.   Our pledge is to support women in agriculture develop their lea...

Plan to Thrive is an activist health and wellbeing blog – a collaborative project to encourage and support the health and wellbeing of people and groups engaged in working for social and ecological justice. Plan to Thrive (plantothrive.net.au) is a spin-off project from Plan to Win, a social movement support project based in Melbourne, Australia, to assist individual, groups, and campaigns to develop the skills to win change in the world. Plan to Thrive published my article on ‘Planning for aid workers to thrive’ on Friday 12 May 2017. The article appears below: Humanitarian aid workers are at significant risk of burnout and trauma. Martina Nicolls explains the challenges unique to aid workers and the fight for recognition and effective change so far. Humanitarian aid workers worldwide want better work conditions and improved wellbeing in the workplace. Aid workers often work in high-stress situations and environments, including conflict zones. They are expected to...

The UK Mirror published an article on 6 May 2016 with the headline: ‘Worker buried underneath 55,000 tonnes of cheese escapes after eight hours in a pickle.’ What does ‘in a pickle’ mean and how are pickles related to cheese? The Free Dictionary of idioms and the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs define ‘in a pickle’ as ‘in a mess’ or in trouble or ‘experiencing a difficult situation.’ A pickle is ‘a worrisome or awkward situation’ according to Dictionary.com. A pickle is a plight, a quandary, a bind, a jam, or a scrape. The food, pickle, is a cucumber that has been preserved in salt water or vinegar. The article states that a forklift driver was feared dead when 18-metre high metal shelves carrying slabs of Cheddar cheese and Red Leicester cheese, weighing 20 kilograms each, collapsed onto him. Other workers said that the noise was deafening – like a sonic boom or an earthquake. Rescue teams involving 13 fire crews of 70 fire fighters from...