On one occasion I investigated the alleged gross misconduct of a senior manager, Peter. He had gone from being an exceptionally diligent, high-performing employee to a major problem. During the course of the investigation several people said things like: “it’s completely unlike him. It’s as though a switch had flipped”.

It’s the time of year when everyone’s thinking of their holidays so I’m getting lots of requests for help in working out holiday pay. One of the most frequent queries is: “How do you work out what to pay employees who work irregular hours throughout the year?” These atypical workers may be casuals, employees or workers on zero hours contracts or part time employees with variable hours.

Here’s a joke for you: The rain fell, the floodwaters were rising. A religious man (could be Christian, Muslim, Hindu – doesn’t matter) retreated anxiously to the top floor of his house. A boat came along and offered to rescue him...

There are distinct signs that summer is here. The smell of barbecues pervades the air. Prosecco vendors are enjoying excellent sales. Trains are late because the rails are buckling (probably the wrong sort of sunshine) and the chat radio stations are getting over-excited about wearing shorts to work. The UK is enjoying quite a good summer this year and the predictions are that it will last until September. Maybe. We’ve all heard optimistic predictions of a good summer before. Let’s keep the brolly handy along with the factor 30.

All managers want to recruit great new employees, build a fantastic team, suffer minimal employment issues, increase productivity and generally have a wonderfully smooth work life?