A series of diary entries BY our fictional colleague, Liberty Raffles Ah Monday, you giveth and you taketh away. Arrived at 8am following an arctic bus journey. Logged in and then received three calls in as many minutes from temps letting me know they’d been struck down by ultrasonic swamp flu and couldn’t go to work. Frantically hit the phones and managed to replace them all. Sense of victory was quickly nullified by a colleague…
From today’s Guardian… https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/14/what-is-wrong-with-ai-try-asking-a-human-being Amazon has apparently abandoned an AI system aimed at automating its recruitment process. The system gave job candidates scores ranging from one to five stars, a bit like shoppers rating products on the Amazon website. The trouble was, the program tended to give five stars to men and one star to women. According to Reuters, it “penalised résumés that included the word ‘women’s’, as in ‘women’s chess club captain’” and marked down applicants who…
There was once a time when English cricket arranged itself along social lines instead of pure skill. ‘Players’ were professionals, often from humble backgrounds, who were paid for their work at the crease or in the field; ‘gentlemen’, on the other hand, sprang from privilege and were strict amateurs who received no payment since they had independent means. Eventually this system was abolished, largely due to amateurism being a poor recipe for competitive sport; the instinct…
As the British summer continues to heat up we discover three ice-cream meccas that are sure to cool you down and excite the taste buds: Chin Chin Labs – this creative ice-cream lab whips up the smoothest flavours (made-to-order) using liquid nitrogen. Found in Camden Market, with a new outpost in Soho, it is a great place to get your summer fix. The sundaes are decorated with wonderfully wacky toppings like grilled white chocolate and…
How are those New Year’s resolutions going? If one of yours was to eat well whilst reducing your carbon footprint, read on: Mildreds This friendly restaurant has four branches across London, in Soho, Kings Cross, Dalston and Camden. The kitchen prepares vegetarian and vegan food inspired by cuisines from all over the world. The food is full of flavour and flair. Roganic Roganic is the newest opening from star chef Simon Rogan. The restaurant…
VWA Search ran a very successful competition on social media, which resulted in a high number of new followers and fans on our different SM platforms. The lucky winner of the meal at Elystan Street was Ben Hubert, the VWA Consulting career coaching went to Charles Frost, the wine selected by James Hanford went to Sally Irving, and ten lucky others received goodie bags with Percy & Reed hair treats and VWA merchandise. Look out…
As April 5th approached, the media was awash with shocking statistics illustrating just how ‘wide’ the gender pay gap in the UK is. Not to be confused with unequal pay, whereby two people are paid differing amounts for the same role, the pay gap refers to the overall difference in pay between men and women. The gap stretches across multiple industries in both the private and public sector including tech, media, construction, insurance and of…
We all have different communication styles. Some of us even “think out loud” in the office. We are also, at times, guilty of inefficient use of email – basically, we waste each other’s time by needlessly emailing each other. How so? The main culprit is the “cc” field. Our instinct is to “cc” our colleagues/ subordinates/ managers, for a multitude of reasons: keeping them informed, showing that we are working hard, insuring against later reproaches…
Like a lot of people stabled in this glorious metropolis, I’m not originally from here. I hail from outside and have slowly become “Londonised”. This accounts for certain alterations to my character, such as a marked frustration with pedestrians who meander all over the pavement. It’s also thrown up the need to readjust whenever I return to my native Sussex, for London attitudes don’t necessarily travel well. A good example of this culture clash occurred…
Following his first Cabinet meeting after having become First Lord of the Treasury, the Duke of Wellington opined that he “gave them their orders and they wanted to stay and discuss them.” Such was the reaction of a man used to being in total command succumbing to the realisation that power in civilian life isn’t wielded nearly as straightforwardly as on the battlefield. Humans often overestimate the impregnability of their position. Whether it’s thinking themselves…
