Careers Life at CIPFA with our Mentor of the Year; Agony Aunt Karen Young’s career advice; and our book review

Ask PQ’s agony aunt Karen Young when you need expert advice. Email your dilemma to graham@pqmagazine.com, and he will pass on the best ones to Karen

THE QUESTION My manger has volunteered me to work on an extra project, alongside my current workload. I am really struggling to complete my main tasks as the project is very time consuming. How should I approach this with my employer and let them know the extra work assignment is getting in the way of my main responsibilities?

KAREN’S RESPONSE Firstly, you should be proud, as you have proved to your manager that you are very competent at your job. Recognising that you can’t complete the extra workload on top of your usual tasks is a good sign that you are aware of your time management and are keen to complete the task to the best of your ability.

Before raising the issue with your manager, determine how much time you can realistically spend on the project each day/week. It is important that you can show to your boss that you are able to track your time, as well as being honest and upfront that you have concerns about the extra workload.

Arrange to speak to your manager to explain how many hours you can allocate to the project. If they are still happy with you continuing on with the specific number of hours you have stated, then ensure that you have a thorough understanding of the deadlines and make sure to keep your manager updated as you progress. You are not complaining, but simply requesting a bit more clarity. • Karen Young is a director at Hays. She is passionate about helping people to find the right job, and companies to find the right person Tim Jones is a fully qualified CIPFA, who now works as a Work Based Learning Coach and Associate Trainer with the institute. He has a modern langauges degree and is the current PQ Mentor of the Year

What time does your alarm go off? Never – I’m always awake in time in the morning. What is on your desk? A mug of coffee or herbal tea and a radio. How long is your commute to that desk and is it better now? It’s 30 seconds, but I used to work from home in my previous roles so I’m used to it. Do you have a favourite lunch? Cheese and tomato sandwich – even better with some chilli in the cheese. What can you see when you sit at your desk? The end of our culde-sac and a small tree with frequent birds visiting. What are your favourite websites? BBC Sport, The Guardian, Cricinfo. How many hours a week do you spend in online meetings? About 10 hours. Are you spending more time working now than normal? Just the normal ebb and flow of associate work. How do you relax? Watching and playing cricket, a good TV crime drama and satirical comedy. What is your favourite tipple? A cold lager on a hot day. What’s your favourite TV show? At the moment it’s Meet the Richardsons. What is the best film you have watched recently? The Graduate (a bit retro). Summer or winter? Summer definitely! Pubs or clubs? Pubs! Do you have a hero? Jack Leach, for scoring one not out in a partnership of 73 with Ben Stokes to win a Test against Australia. What is the first thing you are going to do when lockdown is fully over? Play cricket and socialise afterwards, if it ever stops raining! If you had a time machine where would you go? To see what it’s like 50 years from now.

In brief

Pap Two in five board seats must go to women

Public companies are being told that if they have fewer than two out of five female directors on their boards they will have to explain why in an annual statement to investors. The Financial Conduct Authority has said one of the key positions of CEO, chairman, FD or a senior independent director should also be held by a woman under the ‘comply or explain’ rule. Further proposed changes to the listing regime would also require companies to have at least one director from an ethic minority background. The proposed changes are now ‘out for consultation’.

Pap Bonus based on diversity

Santander has told its managers they will receive bigger bonuses if they hire more women and ethnic minority staff. The bank’s vice chairman, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, revealed the Spain bank is introducing a new ‘score card’ in 2022 that directly links senior executive pay to diversity targets. He explained: “If businesses want to be responsible, they need to align their financial incentives with their corporate objectives.”

Pap Belgium most inclusive for

LGBT+ professionals

Belgium has been named the best European country for LGBT+ workers, scoring 8.7 points out of 10 in figures compiled by Reboot Digital PR Company. Luxembourg came second and Denmark third. The UK didn’t make the top 10, and its score of 5.3 put it 12th. Bottom of the pile were Cyprus and Lithuania with 1.7 points. Reboot said although Cyprus has changed some human rights legislation since joining the EU, the zero points for workplace equality suggests that LGBT+ Cypriots still face discrimination in the workplace. Likewise, Lithuania received zero points for workplace representation, reflecting limited rights for LGBT+ Lithuanians. The country does not recognise civil samesex partnerships or marriage.

The PQ Book Club: books you should read

Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of Spacex and Tesla is shaping our future, by Ashlee Vance (Virgin Books, £10.99) As we started to review this ‘new updated edition’ Tesla was reporting a record quarterly headline profit of $1.1 billion. Revenues more than doubled to almost $12 billion, as it delivered some 201,304 vehicles. It also booked a $23 million impairment related to its holdings of bitcoin. But let’s get back to the book…

Born in 1971, Elon Musk grew up in Pretoria. In his teens he designed a video game called Blastar, and we discover an influential books for him was ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. Space was in the blood.

At university he viewed the internet, renewable energy and space as the three areas where he could make the most impact. He vowed to pursue projects in all three and has lived up to that promise.

Musk is a hard man to like. When he turned 30 he said: “I’m no longer a child prodigy.” However, if you want to understand the man then there’s an email he sent to a friend years ago. It reads: “I am by nature obsessive-compulsive. In terms of being an asshole or screwing up, I’m personally as guilty of that as anyone, and am somewhat thickskinned in this regard due to large amounts of scar tissue. What matters to me is winning, and not in a small way. God knows why… it’s probably routed [sic] in some disturbing psychoanalytical black hole or neural short circuit.” PQ rating: 4/5 There is a reason why this is a New York Times bestseller!