Monthly Archives: September 2008

I missed this piece from John Kay, a former director of the Halifax, in the FT last week. He traces the disintegration of the demutulaised building societies, the last of which disappeared yesterday, to the deregulation of the1980s. The business I … Continue reading →

The Government Equalities Office has launched its Post Your Pay Gap initiative. The idea is that companies use the online system to calculate the gap in pay between men and women then post it on the web-site. It’s a bit like a … Continue reading →

Up until the past few weeks, conventional wisdom has held that financial institutions gravitate to those areas where regulation is lightest and that any attempt to impose tighter controls risks a mass exodus of these firms to a city with … Continue reading →

Sorry folks, I’ve been on an NLP course these past few days hence the lack of posts. And once I have completed the course, I will be able to lie to you and you will be none the wiser. Only joking! … Continue reading →

Carl Mortishead, writing in today’s Times, blames the working-class rather than the City bankers for the current financial crisis. No, really, he’s serious: This is not a tale of City greed v the downtrodden working man. It is the triumph … Continue reading →

Hooray, today has been the busiest day ever on Flip Chart Fairy Tales and I haven’t even posted anything. Thanks to Personnel Today, Chris Dillow and the Bloghounds crew for all the recent links and to everyone who has commented. Keep it … Continue reading →

This story from the Evil HR Lady reminded me of my time as a line HR manager. This week, I had an employee come to me and complain about other employees not washing their hands after using the bathroom. They wanted me … Continue reading →

A local paper reports that the London Borough of Harrow wants to recruit some of the 4,000 Lehman’s employees laid off last week. I’m not sure how well this would work. I have, perhaps, a rare CV in that I have worked … Continue reading →

Heard yesterday at Canary Wharf: What’s the difference between a Lehman’s trader and a pigeon? A pigeon can still leave a deposit on a Ferrari.

HBOS, we were told, could not be allowed to fail because it held a fifth of the country’s mortgages. The answer, it seems, is to waive the rules on corporate takeovers to create a bank holding….erm…. a third of the country’s savings.  Presumably, … Continue reading →