2018 has generated more astonishingly unreasonable, greedy and generally toxic employees than I have encountered at any time in my previous 30 year HR career. In the year since the tribunal fees were repealed, numbers of applications to tribunal have exploded. Massively. Applications are up 165% on last year’s figures. The bad, mad, cynical and frivolous claims are back with a bang.

September 2018 is the twentieth anniversary of starting my HR business. A celebration is due, I feel! I am incredibly proud to have achieved this milestone. On average 56% of business start-ups close within five years. So keeping going for 20 years is quite something.

Employment terms can be varied in a number of different ways. Custom and practice is one of them. For an employment term to become implied by custom and practice it must be “reasonable, notorious and certain”.

Fatigue is not only bad for people, it’s also bad for business. Give yourself a break (literally) and take some time out. One way to reboot is to have a holiday. It doesn’t have to be a long one to get real benefit. Last year I got married. As usual business was busy so my husband and I had a “mini-moon”.

Helping employees overcome their feelings of isolation is important because loneliness is potentially very harmful to health. It can lead to lower immunity, high blood pressure, raised cortisol level and increased rates of depression and anxiety. Employees who feel isolated may become unwell, come to believe they aren’t worthy of attention and develop strong feelings of dissatisfaction with the organisation. This in turn can reduce employee commitment and increase their chances of leaving.