Having a good laugh about something can lower blood pressure, exercise the lungs, pump more oxygen into the bloodstream and activate the endorphins that make us feel happy. Doctors report that patients who laugh recover quicker from serious illness. In addition, laughter strengthens your immune system, reduces stress and muscle tension.

If you don’t like asking for help at work, you’re not alone. Just the thought of it bring out the fear of being thought incompetent, being rejected, or looking silly. These fears can hamper us badly – after all, we can’t be expert on everything and it’s almost impossible to work properly without assistance from others.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has recently allowed an appeal by an employee against the original tribunal’s decision to reject her claim for disability related discrimination even though her employer did not originally know that she was disabled.

Last month a client received the resignation of an employee who had been offered another job. He had been an unsatisfactory during his brief employment. The client was preparing to start the termination process, though the employee was unaware of that when he resigned. They accepted his resignation and duly completed a reference form from the prospective employer. The reference was quite balanced, and in my view, they erred on the side of generosity.

One of the unavoidable facts of life is that we all get older and eventually – even in the fittest - there are changes in the mind and body Now that the default retirement age has gone, employers must manage more age-related illness in the workforce.