Author: master

These are Odyssey birthdays!

Kris

We always look forward to celebrating a birthday here at Odyssey and one of those reasons usually revolves around the fact that we have a chance to eat cake, guilt free. So a special gift from the directors each member of staff receives a carefully thought out bespoke birthday cake encompassing one of their specific interests. It was therefore no surprise when we saw SIP specialist, Kriss Sowerby’s cake it revolved around food as Kriss’ love and interest for food is by no means a secret to the rest of the Odyssey office. Im sure you will agree this absolutely fantastic “cake take” on Steak and Chips looks as good as the real thing. This delight was whipped up by the Magic hands of Kathryn Hardy from Much Ado About Muffins, based in Stockton on Tees, and we were told it was absolutely delicious.

Andrew

Not one to make a huge fuss about his Birthday, Andrew normally manages to avoid the Odyssey cake ritual by taking a strategic day off and not mentioning a word about the big day until after the event. This year we were wise to his actions, although Andrew did take the day off for his birthday we surprised him a day later with this truly fitting cake. As Odysseys accountant the cake made by Karen at The Cake Works in darlington encompasses everything that Andrew loves, including spread sheets, cricket and cycling. One staff member did however joke that the cake maker had been generous with the amount of hair they had placed on Andrews head, Happy Birthday Andrew.

Richard

A big Happy Birthday to Richard Finn, part of the Odyssey Accounts Team. Richard was nice enough to share his “car breakdown” inspired cake with the rest of the team,  so we have all sat down with a nice cup of tea and slice of cake. But I hear you asking “why a car breakdown cake?” Well it has something to do with Richard’s amazing luck with cars. Happy Birthday Rich!

Paul

We would like to say a big Happy Birthday to Odyssey Engineer Paul Concannon. It couldn’t be more fitting that out ‘phone loving’ engineer had a cake made by The Cake Works in the shape of the same thing.
Paul didn’t mention his age, but I think we can safely assume the era of the phone style has no direct correlation with Paul’s age.

This week Google made an astonishing admission that gmail users and people that email Google shouldn’t expect privacy.

The company claims ‘all users of email must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing’

A brief for Google commented ‘just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipients assistant opens the letter, people who use web based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipients email provider in the course of delivery.

Last week, Google’s android phone operating systems revealed a feature that will scan for networks and track use’s location even when WIFI has been turned off.

Nick pickles director of privacy group Big Brother Watch said ‘Google has repeatedly put profit in front of user privacy and the way the company ignored the concerns from regulators around the world when it changes its privacy policy showed just how little regard it had for the law.

Just because Google is big business does not put it above the law. The company has ignored the authorities and refused to make any meaningful changes to how it collects and uses people’s data.

Consumers are increasingly concerned about how their data is being used and it is essential that those breaking the law are properly punished. It is essential regulators find a sanction that is not just a slap on the wrists and will make Google think twice before it ignores consumer rights again.

Mike Odysseas managing director of Odyssey Systems said,” we respect our customer’s privacy, Details shared between businesses and their customers over email are highly confidential, it would be unethical to ‘snoop’ in on people’s private conversations. This is why we never read any of our customer’s emails and we do not keep a hard copy of them, we believe that a private conversation should be exactly that”

In a 21st century economy, it’s almost unbelievable that one in four working mothers feel discriminated against at work.

Although usually a subject that is rarely spoken about openly, a survey by law firm Slater and Gordon, which saw almost 2,000 women talk candidly about their real feelings on the subject, made sobering and shocking reading.

According to the figures, about half of those questioned thought their chances of career progression had been halted, while the same proportion felt attitudes of bosses and colleagues changed towards them once they announced their pregnancy.

And while the Government used the revelation to remind employers that discrimination against women who are pregnant or on maternity leave is illegal, there is clearly a huge cultural problem with UK employers in helping parents work flexibly.

Part of the issue is that it’s a taboo subject – nobody wants to talk about it. This survey has opened up the debate, which is a positive step, but more needs to be done. Business cannot simply keep writing off the considerable talents and experience of thousands of women, simply because they become mothers.

As well as being wasteful, illegal and morally abhorrent, employers who discriminate against working mums are extremely short sighted. Failing to help your employees gain a good work-home balance makes absolutely no business sense whatsoever.

Employers should try to accommodate staff as much as reasonably possible because it’s the right thing to do, but also because happy workforce is a productive workforce. And replacing employees who leave because they are unhappy is an expensive business. It costs, on average, about 30 to 50 per cent of an entry level salary to replace an employee, with this figure rising to 150 per cent for middle management. As well as keeping the business stable, low staff turnover costs the company less in the long run.

I offer any member of staff who needs to work flexibly the opportunity to do so and will help in any reasonable way to accommodate each and every employee. With modern communications, there really is no reason why employees in the vast majority of industry sectors can’t work flexibly or from home. I am more than happy to allow my hard-working and highly-skilled team members to work from home when a child is ill or to help with childcare arrangements. If staff need time off to take a child to the doctors, I don’t see this as a problem, because I know my staff are happy to go the extra mile when I need them to. It should be about give and take.

Employees are a business’s biggest asset. I would much rather offer a highly skilled and experienced employee the chance to work flexibly than see them walk out of the door because of a poor work-life balance. Extra efforts to accommodate the employee will, in the most part, be rewarded with a commodity that you can’t put a price on – loyalty. Companies in the UK need to wake up to this, start to think creatively about flexible working and stop writing off working mothers.

Odyssey Systems Mike Odysseas took part in a Live Q & A session with readers from the Guardian Newspaper, Mike discussed the hot topic of deciding when to take on more employees.

Mike gives his tips on when to take on staff, and the best time to do do it.

To view the article and the full discussion Click the image below:

It’s been just over a year since Odyssey Systems had its first success story from its stop smoking campaing. Mike catched up with BBC radio Tees to talk about the success and challenges behind the Odyssey Systems Stop Smokin Campaign. We also hear from Linda Cairns the first successful quitter, and talk about her life after smoking.