162: Working long hours, Doris F Fisher & Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Difficult People

Big Business Briefs

Working long hours, Doris F Fisher & Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Difficult People According to the World Health Organization long working hours caused 745,000 deaths per annum in 2016 so this week we spend some time discussing this story and the implications for the business community and how working patterns might impact on our health. The BBC published an article on this article and as with so many statistics, the deeper you delve the more the story unfolds. In any case the story reminds us that the shift towards better work life balance has significant benefits for our workforce. We also check out what gov.uk has to say about the working time directive here in the UK to give us some context to the bigger picture. Our review this week offers us insights and suggests phrases and appropriate language to help us deal with difficult people. Powerful Phrases for Dealing With Difficult People by Renee Evenson explores some of the day to day situations that many of us have encountered in the work place and provides a format that structures our conversations in a concise and productive way without finger pointing. From conflict resolution to handling challenging bosses and dealing with difficult co workers and customers. For our profile this week we focus on the co-founder of the huge clothing retailer GAP or The GAP inc or in this country GAP UK if you prefer. Doris Fisher started the business with her husband Donald Fisher in 1969 and the business remains in family ownership until this day. However, like so many retail clothing stores GAP has experienced considerable decline on the high street. For the year to February 1, 2020, Gap’s UK retail sales fell by 9.5 per cent to £195.1 million that year, while it produced operating losses of £40.7 million. We really do have to watch this space as currently they are considering becoming an online only operation in Europe. If you like what you hear then perhaps you would considering buying us a coffee (we love coffee!), or a book (we also love books!) www.buymeacoffee.com/tbcpodcast