A salutary warning for the overworked

Bill Chalmers, a fictional junior partner in an IT firm in Boston, is in crisis. Overloaded by emails, his energy sapped by pressure of work and traffic jams, and unable to spend any time with his family, he breaks down on the way to work and suffers temporary amnesia. The Diagnosis captures far better than any report the angst of white-collar life. Apart from being a good read it underlines the fact that this issue wont be solved by simple measures. Ironically, HR directors, responsible for devising policies on the work-life balance, seem to be under more work pressure than ever. I asked a senior HR director recently which conferences she liked to go to and she looked rather startled before saying she simply never had the time. And I shall never forget the frenzy with which HR people clung to their mobiles at the US HR Forum on the QEII two years ago. Indeed, I was reliably informed that there was panic whenever the ship was out of satellite range. As a response, Human Resources will be running a regular agony column. Send your problems to: mary@imageworksuk.com.

One person who seems to be very much in control is the prisons boss, Martin Narey. Our interview with Narey follows the equally impressive public sector profile of the RUC chief constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, two issues ago. As Narey tells some irate cons in Parkhurst prison, his 100,000 salary is nowhere near what he could earn in the private sector. Yet he has taken on one of the most hair-raising jobs in the country. And he does it in a manner and with a modesty that would put many CEOs to shame. This is the view of Hugh Dehn, the BBC TV producer of Back to the Floor which featured Narey last year. And he should know. As Dehn says, You do virtually everything with the boss apart from sleep with them. More Back to the Floor programmes are planned.

Following our HR study of William Hague in the last issue we look this month at Tony Blair. Peter Oborne, political columnist at the Daily Express, does not paint a pretty picture. Indeed, Blairs allegedly autocratic style would make Sir Richard Greenbury blush. At the very least it has prevented the PM from making the most of the talent in his cabinet. Indeed one minister tells Oborne that he has spoken only twice in cabinet in three years. Our article suggests that if Blair does not reform his man management style, he may achieve far less in a second term (that the pollsters predict) than he wishes.

Readers seeking examples of companies that have built a truly creative culture would do well to look to the ad agency HHCL. And finally, we introduce a foreign correspondent column in which Cassandra Stout will report from different parts of the world during the year. In this issue she writes from Greece where she discovers some unsavoury employer attitudes towards Albanian refugees.

Morice Mendoza

Editor