Business

Image copyright Reuters Len McCluskey is general secretary of Unite, the UK’s biggest union and the Labour Party’s biggest financial donor. That puts him at the centre of the ideological battle that pits leader Jeremy Corbyn and his legion of grassroots activists against large numbers of the party’s MPs. In …

Image copyright iStock Image caption Students from Asian countries have dominated the top places in the latest Pisa rankings While the “American dream” of social mobility seems nothing more than a dream for many American students, it is emerging as a new reality in much of east Asia. The latest …

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Many people may overindulge at work parties, particularly when free alcohol is provided It’s office Christmas party season again, and many of us will be attending shindigs in the coming weeks. But do we appreciate these events or find them tiresome obligations? And what do …

Image caption Shop worker Svanhilden Hjaltadottir says Icelandic women are independent “like Vikings” It is not often that Iceland comes top of the global rankings in anything. So when they do score a significant victory they announce it from the rooftops. Few of us will forget the hilarious, ear-splitting screams …

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Most of us have had to put up with a difficult co-worker When Simon (not his real name) realised he had to deal with a “toxic employee”, he knew he needed to act fast. The boss of a small firm in New York, Simon says …

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Prince Charles and Ozzy Osbourne have more in common than you might think Consider Prince Charles and Ozzy Osbourne, even in a darkened room it would be difficult to mistake one for the other but by some measures they are uncannily similar. And for …

Image caption Sam Brown says she’s now more disciplined about taking breaks from the ‘perform, perform, perform’ culture of work There’s a frequently quoted statistic that one in four of us will suffer a mental health problem at some point during our life. But what does it mean to be …

Image copyright HULTON ARCHIVE Image caption The 1970 FA Cup final replay was watched by a TV audience of 28.49 million The days when 30 million people would gather around their TV sets to watch a football World Cup or FA Cup final are long gone, as the satellite and …

Vidal Sassoon, Trevor Sorbie, Charles Worthington. Just a few high-profile male hairdressers whose names will, more often than not, ring a bell, if only for their range of styling products that sit on the shelves of shops up and down the country. But, given that women make up 88% of …

Image copyright AFP / Getty Images Image caption Exxon Mobil chief Rex Tillerson has been appointed as the next US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, tipped to be President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state, runs the world’s most valuable, publicly traded oil company. The 64-year-old head of Exxon Mobil has …