• How can I resolve a very personal work relationship? • I’m being excluded from management meetings At the start of each week, we publish the problems that will feature in this Saturday’s Dear Jeremy advice column in the Guardian Work supplement, so readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy’s own insights. Here are this week’s dilemmas – what are your thoughts? Problem one: How can I resolve a very personal work relationship? Several years ago we hired an employee. I thought we worked well together and we became friends. Over the course of five years I loaned him a large sum of money, he lived with us, and I arranged for him to take a two-year sabbatical while he finished his professional qualifications. He is 10 years younger than me and I viewed him like a younger brother who I worked with. I have always made it clear that if he needed anything he should ask me and, if I could, I would help him out. I admit I have done several things that, in hindsight, were poorly judged. I tried to take a step back, but at that point he had another major personal issue and I stepped forward again. The issue affected his mental state and his work suffered badly. I was very much out of my depth and I was becoming depressed about my inability to help him. We knew he was tight for money after being a student and gave him a large pay rise and a long holiday. However, when he returned he was still clearly depressed, very distant and, on several occasions, snide and insulting. I then found out he had also started to do work for a former employee of mine. When we discuss any of this it brings out new grudges, including him telling me that he never liked me and only went along with all this because I was his boss. I feel deceived and, increasingly, very angry. However, the more antagonistic things become between us the better focused he is at his work. My business partners have offered to mediate, but given the personal nature of this I am reluctant to take them up. Can you offer any advice? Problem two: I’m being excluded from management meetings I recently started a new role having spent the past few years as a successful self-employed consultant. A key part of this role is membership of the management team, confirmed to me in writing prior to my joining. However, for the eight weeks since joining I have not been invited into any weekly management meetings, despite reminding the MD (it is always “come in next week”). I have also had no participation in our merger with a sister company, something which will certainly affect me, my team and my part of the business. Throughout my boss has told me that he wants me as part of the management team, that I will be participating in planning the merger and that I would lead part of the merged business. However nothing has happened. What should I do? Every time I raise the issue I get more promises but no action. It does feel as if I’ve been recruited under false pretences. What are your thoughts? • For Jeremy’s and readers’ advice on a work issue, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@guardian.co.uk . Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or reply personally Work & careers guardian.co.uk
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Singer tweets new album cover, featuring her head built into a motorbike, and causes a stir among her Little Monsters When historians look back on the rise and fall of Lady Gaga, they may pin the beginning of her descent to the day she morphed into a motorbike and made it her album cover. The fashion-forward singer has unveiled the artwork for her third LP – and it looks more like a cheap Photoshop job than the most anticipated album of the year. “Can’t believe it’s here!” Gaga announced on Saturday. “So happy+free to finally share this w you.” But when the Poker Face singer finally revealed the cover for Born This Way , it provoked more horror than adulation. Gone are the futurist sunglasses , the asymmetrical haircuts , even Gaga’s newly touted magic horns ; instead, a mutant motorbike with Gaga’s arms and head, plus a cheesy chrome typeface. The special-edition version zooms in on her face, evoking a crazed Barbie doll – or perhaps an Irvine Welsh dust jacket. Gaga’s Little Monsters were not happy. “WTF NO,” wrote one fan on the singer’s official message board . “[SHE'S] A FUCKING MOTORCYCLE,” shrieked another. “This better be fake. Because I’m not OK with it.” Others devised convoluted explanations for why the cover could not be real . But over the weekend, Gaga’s tweets confirmed the artwork is genuine. “It’s here to stay,” said one fan . “Now stare at it and cry.” Until now, Gaga’s Born This Way aesthetic seemed to involve eggs , space opera and 80s glam. But road hogs are apparently at the heart of the forthcoming album, due on 23 May. On Twitter, the singer quoted from one of her new songs, whose title suggests a Charlie Sheen outburst: “Get your hot rods ready to rumble, cause’ were gonna fall in love tonight,” runs Highway Unicorn (Road to Love). “Get your hot rods ready to rumble, cause’ we’re gonna drink until we die.” Lady Gaga’s Born This Way single was the fastest-selling track in iTunes history. Lady Gaga Pop and rock Twitter Sean Michaels guardian.co.uk
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Victory in West Bengal for the maverick railway minister Mamata Banerjee would give her more influence over the government Voters are streaming into polling stations in India’s West Bengal state in a local election that could see a populist maverick unseat the world’s longest-serving democratically elected communist government. After 34 years of communist rule, the federal railway minister, Mamata Banerjee, a firebrand orator known as Didi or elder sister, looks set to overthrow the party blamed for leaving West Bengal and its capital Kolkata in a timewarp of Soviet-era state control . “I promise to turn north Bengal into Switzerland” she told supporters with characteristic populist rhetoric at the weekend, referring to a plan to transform the area’s railway network. The remote northern part of the state goes to the polls on Monday. Results for the month-long staggered election will be known on 13 May. Banerjee’s Trinamool party is allied to India’s ruling Congress party and her victory would give the national coalition a morale boost at a time when it has been battered by rising food prices and graft scandals. A victory for the 56-year-old would also seal her position as one of India’s most powerful regional politicians with the ability to influence the government, which is dependent on her party’s 19 seats in the 545-member national parliament. Banerjee would join a group of often fickle state chiefs – including the “untouchables” leader Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh – that often demand concessions such as extra infrastructure and social spending as a condition for support. While her victory would strengthen the coalition of the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, it would also make it more vulnerable to pressure from her. “Her attentions will be focused on West Bengal, as it is in a state of economic decline,” said Ramachandra Guha, a fellow at the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata. “But she will certainly have an eye on the centre, and she will want to make sure she can still extract concessions for her state.” Singh’s ability to revive stalled economic reforms even after a victory for Banerjee is seen as limited because the coalition remains preoccupied with fighting off an opposition onslaught on the graft charges. Congress has 207 seats and depends on regional allies such as Trinamool to reach the 272 halfway mark in parliament. Banerjee, with her trademark white sari and bathroom slippers and spartan lifestyle, has won support with firebrand speeches and aggressive leadership against the communists that saw her once severely beaten up by a communist mob. She shares her home in Kolkata with her mother in a poor neighbourhood close to a crematorium. She is widely seen as honest in contrast to perceptions that most politicians are corrupt. Her statement on Switzerland was the kind of rhetoric that her critics say highlights her lack of real policy beyond criticising the communists. She is also seen as a fickle government ally, often refusing to attend cabinet meetings to protest against fuel price hikes and high food prices. She is also criticised for what many see as an autocratic style and for discouraging the development of new leaders in her party. As dawn broke on Monday, scores of voters formed queues outside one unopened booth, excitedly showing their identity cards to security personnel in Siliguri, 370 miles (600km) north of Kolkata. “There are no predictable results in India’s politics, but if there were, then this would be the most predictable of them all,” the Indian Express said in an editorial on Monday. Once one of the richest cities in Asia and the capital of the British empire in India, Kolkata has become a byword for poverty that has stumbled behind the new modern India of IT cities such as Bengaluru and Hyderabad. West Bengal has reflected wider issues in India. Banerjee’s popularity soared after she overcame communist plans to develop a Tata car plant on farmland – a battle reflecting a wider conflict between farmers and industry that has cost at least 14 lives in the state. Her party has also benefited from millions of disaffected urban voters who feel the communists have largely helped farmers at the expense of city dwellers who are demanding new jobs and better services. The communists won praise for raising the living standards of poor farmers, their voter base, when they came to power in 1977. They have a strong grassroots organisation that could upset predictions of a sweeping victory by Banerjee. Banerjee is criticised for standing more against the communists than standing for anything. She has called for industrialisation and better infrastructure in West Bengal. As railway minister, Banerjee refused to raise fares despite criticism that the network’s finances were shaky. Banerjee has also been criticised for introducing new passenger trains even though such crowd-pleasing measures strain the railways’ finances and derail freight growth. “She has promised so much to so many that following through on any of it will be problematic,” the Indian Express said. India Communism guardian.co.uk
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Transport plan aims to reduce carbon emissions from sector by 60% over next 40 years Short-haul flights across Europe could be replaced by high-speed rail under ambitious European Union proposals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transport by 60% over the next 40 years. According to the EU, Heathrow’s congestion problems could be eased by cutting domestic and European flights, while demand for new runways can be suppressed by building new rail networks. The EU transport commissioner, Siim Kallas, has announced a series of green transport goals, including shifting the majority of flights longer than 300km to rail and phasing out the use of petrol cars in city centres by 2050. “At Heathrow there are no new runways, but we desperately need to increase capacity and you can do this if you reduce short-haul flight connections,” said Kallas. The commissioner added in an interview with the Guardian that the UK should look at the example of Spain, where high-speed rail has hit demand on a previously popular flight corridor. “This has happened in Madrid and Barcelona, where 50% of the market has moved to high-speed rail. It is comfortable for everybody. Airlines can put emphasis on long-haul flights, which is better for their business.” Noting the ongoing debate over expanding London’s squeezed airports, he added: “If we are successful in creating new railways they can take over short-haul airline connections. It makes it easier for the runway issue.” Kallas hit the headlines this month when he declared a target of phasing out petrol and diesel cars from city centres by 2050. The commissioner said he was unfazed by criticism of the benchmark. “If you don’t like the idea of reducing the use of conventional cars in city centres, what are your proposals?” Kallas said EU countries need to reduce the “mass need” to use petrol and diesel cars for short journeys. “It is a desirable goal to phase out conventional cars,” he said. However, Kallas added that mass-adoption of electronic cars also posed problems because major city roads will continue to be clogged by traffic. Speaking after a meeting with officials at Transport for London, Kallas said the capital’s congestion charge will be copied by other conurbations around Europe. “The congestion charge is a step that many cities will follow,” he said. Kallas’s 2050 targets include connecting all hub airports to high-speed rail lines and connecting majors ports to rail networks in order to reduce dependency on road freight. Air transport Rail transport Transport European Union Europe Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk
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True Finns quadruple share of vote in Finland elections, as party leader says he expects EU to change Portuguese bailout plans The cost of insuring Portuguese debt against default rose on Monday after a strong election result in Finland for a party opposed to a bailout of Portugal . The True Finns, the anti-euro party, more than quadrupled its share of the vote to 19% and finished a close third in parliamentary elections at the weekend. The party expects to hear later this week about joining talks on forming a coalition, which could turn Finland’s traditionally pro-EU politics on its head. The party leader said he expects the EU to change plans for a bailout of Portugal. “Of course there will have to be changes,” Timo Soini said. Portuguese five-year credit default swaps climbed 26 basis points to 625bps this morning, according to data monitor Markit. The cost of insuring Greek debt also soared after a newspaper report that the country had asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union to restructure its debt, although this was later denied by Greece’s finance ministry. Furious Greeks are urging their government to default on its debt as the country struggles to dig itself out of its crisis despite a €110bn (£97bn) bailout. Five-year credit default swaps on Greek government debt surged by 84bps to 1220bps. This means it costs €1.22m to protect €10m of exposure to Greek bonds. Irish and Spanish credit default swaps also rose. It remains unclear to what extent a new coalition, which could take weeks to form, will incorporate True Finns’ ministers or their views on EU support for heavily indebted member states. But the rise of the True Finns seems likely to shift the debate. “This is a big, big bang in Finnish politics. This is a big, big change. This will change the content of Finnish politics,” Jan Sundberg, a professor at the University of Helsinki, told Reuters. Unlike others in the eurozone, Finland’s parliament has the right to vote on EU requests for bailout funds, meaning it could hold up costly plans to shore up Portugal and bring stability to debt markets. The strong showing for the populist True Finns reflects growing public frustration in some EU states about footing the bill for weaker economies such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, said at the weekend that Europe needed to come up with a more coherent plan to deal with government debt following the bailouts of Ireland and Greece. He criticised piecemeal attempts to resolve individual countries’ debt problems. He also criticised Britain’s refusal to support a funding package to tackle the eurozone crisis. European debt crisis Europe European Union Portugal Financial crisis European banks Global recession Europe Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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Collapse of Woolworths has helped cut-price chains move from the high street and into shopping centres Pound shops, budget chains and fast-food outlets are moving into shopping centres in increasing numbers, changing the face of Britain’s malls. Poundland, Peacocks and bakery chain Greggs are among those showing the fastest growth in tenancies since 2008, according to a report from retail consultants Trevor Wood Associates. The report, which monitors tenancy changes in 500 shopping centres, shows that a host of discount retailers are spreading from the high streets into shopping malls. They are benefiting from the collapse of Woolworths in 2008 , with Poundland – now the fastest-growing retailer in malls – taking over many of its shop units. A report last year showed pound shops had snapped up the biggest tranche of the Woolworths estate . “Retailers and shopping centre owners are simply providing what the public wants,” said Trevor Wood, senior partner of the firm behind the research. “What we’re seeing reflects what’s happening in the wider market.” While middle-market names still dominate shopping centres, budget fashion retailers Peacocks and H&M are among the top 10 fastest-rising stores. Shoe Zone, the budget footwear chain, and Wilkinsons, the discount household retailer, are among the top 20. Retail industry Woolworths Poundland Greggs Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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Former global leader hopes joint venture with Hong Kong’s TPV Technology will stem heavy losses Dutch consumer electronics group Royal Philips Electronics said it is to hive off its loss-making television arm into a joint venture as it reported a fall in quarterly profits. Philips, the world’s biggest lighting maker, is handing most of the TV arm over to Hong Kong’s TPV Technology. The monitor maker will own 70% of the venture, operating the business in most markets outside the US and China, with Philips owning the rest. Philips has an option to sell its 30% stake to TPV after six years. Once a global leader, Philips’ TV arm has been hit by fierce price competition from low-cost rivals and has run up losses of nearly €1bn (£880m) since the start of 2007. “Finding a solution for our television business was our top priority and we strongly believe that the intended 30%/70% joint venture with TPV that was announced today will enable a return to profitability for the television business, and an increased portfolio focus for Philips in health and wellbeing,” said Frans van Houten, a restructuring expert who became chief executive on 1 April. The TV business made an €87m net loss in the first quarter, dragging down Philips’ profits to €138m. This was below analysts’ forecasts and compared with €201m a year ago. Group sales advanced 6% to €5.3bn. “We expect headwinds in 2011 due to the Japan tragedy, impacting our revenue and supply chain,” Van Houten added. Manufacturing sector Netherlands Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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Shareholders enjoy increased dividend payouts as UK companies return £15bn to investors in first quarter of 2011 UK companies returned £15bn to shareholders during the first quarter of 2011, putting investors on track to receive the highest level of dividend income since 2008, research suggested on Monday. Dividend payouts during the three months to the end of March were 10.3%, or £1.4bn, higher than during the same period of 2010, the fastest quarterly growth rate since the third quarter of 2008, according to Capita Registers. The group, which analysed data on UK dividends from Exchange Data International, estimates shareholders will receive a total of £64.2bn in dividend payments during the whole of 2011, 13.6% more than during the previous 12 months and the highest level since 2008. A total of 156 companies paid a dividend during the first quarter, 126 of which increased the amount they paid, or reinstated their dividend, while 10 held it level. Only 40 companies reduced the amount they paid or cancelled the dividend completely. The figures contrast with those for 2009, when the majority of companies reduced the amount of cash they returned to shareholders. Charles Cryer, chief executive of Capita Registrars, said: “2011 has got off to a very strong start, and underlying dividend growth will accelerate from here. Income investors are set to enjoy the best year since 2008, with an extra £7.7bn flowing from UK companies into their pockets. “Even though there are still uncertainties in the wider economy, the dividend recovery is very broadly based indicating companies are much more confident in their financial position.” The group said figures for the first quarter were boosted by International Power, which paid a large special dividend of 92p per share, accounting for more than a 10th of the total. BP paid the seventh largest dividend during the period, following its decision to reinstate payments to shareholders, although at a total of £900m, it was half the level seen before the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Underlying dividends rose swiftly among FTSE 250 companies, with payouts increasing by 25% after one-off factors were stripped out. But payments made by FTSE 100 companies actually shrunk slightly, once the International Power dividend was excluded, due to the lower payout made by BP. Financial sector Investing Stock markets Financial crisis BP guardian.co.uk
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Human rights group: There seemed to be “a continual expectation containment would be used” on London TUC march Senior officers policing protests in London last month focused too heavily on kettling to contain activists, Liberty says. The rights group, which had 120 observers, including two inside Scotland Yard’s special operations room (SOR), for the TUC march on 26 March, said the tactic was “under near constant consideration” when potential trouble emerged. “In the SOR, there seemed to be a continual expectation that a containment would be imposed at some point,” Liberty’s report said, adding that the tactic “does appear seriously to undermine the relationship of trust and confidence between peaceful protesters and the police”. The report added: “The possibility of mass containment of peaceful protesters has undoubtedly had a chilling effect on many people’s rights to freedom of expression and assembly.” Despite its criticism, Liberty added that the Met’s response was “on the whole proportionate” and found no need for further police powers to deal with violent groups who infiltrate demonstrations. Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens, of the Met, said: “We were faced with the difficult task of striking the right balance between ensuring the vast majority of people were able to peacefully protest whilst managing the small number of criminals intent on disorder.” Police Protest London TUC Trade unions guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Human rights group: There seemed to be “a continual expectation containment would be used” on London TUC march Senior officers policing protests in London last month focused too heavily on kettling to contain activists, Liberty says. The rights group, which had 120 observers, including two inside Scotland Yard’s special operations room (SOR), for the TUC march on 26 March, said the tactic was “under near constant consideration” when potential trouble emerged. “In the SOR, there seemed to be a continual expectation that a containment would be imposed at some point,” Liberty’s report said, adding that the tactic “does appear seriously to undermine the relationship of trust and confidence between peaceful protesters and the police”. The report added: “The possibility of mass containment of peaceful protesters has undoubtedly had a chilling effect on many people’s rights to freedom of expression and assembly.” Despite its criticism, Liberty added that the Met’s response was “on the whole proportionate” and found no need for further police powers to deal with violent groups who infiltrate demonstrations. Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens, of the Met, said: “We were faced with the difficult task of striking the right balance between ensuring the vast majority of people were able to peacefully protest whilst managing the small number of criminals intent on disorder.” Police Protest London TUC Trade unions guardian.co.uk
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