And I've been working like a dog

By anyone's standards today was a very busy day. You know one of those days when you start running about 10-15 minutes late and never quite catch up with yourself. Anyway much of today exemplifies how difficult it is for a local voluntary organisation to become an employer and have all the things in place to be legal and "good practice". Today I dealt with three employment related issues on behalf of HVA members in quick succession. Although HVA don't really offer an employment law service my previous experience as a legal practitioner in this field (a veteren of over 80 employment tribunal cases) means that this is an area I sometimes get involved with. We began the day with a TUPE (transfer of undertakings protection of emloyment) issue and how the transfer of a contract needs to be accompanied by the transfer of staff from one organisation to another. The next group had a performance management issue and we discuss the most appropriate ways of measuring and evaluating team performance. We then move on to a restructuring issue and what happens in employment law terms when organisations need to fundamentally cut their coat according to their funding cloth. A quick dash back to the office and catching up with the outcome of meetings yesterday and a discussion about the volunteering project (which I am late for). Then a quick discussion about the team away day before I dash off to the University of Brighton. Here we discuss the supervision of disssertations. It is sometimes strange moving from an environment which is exceedingly practical into a more academic arena but I enjoy the challenge and really like supporting community work students at the end of their degree course. I have two students to supervise both of whom I know and thankfully have topics which are interesting. Back home about 7.00pm. Anyway the lyric reference is - as if you hadn't guessed the Fab Four and here they are singing it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Gl3i6qAYo must say I am glad to be back home and writing this with a glass of wine at my side.