Contractors might be interested to learn that UK workers do not have quite such a strong sense of work ethics as some of their global counterparts.
Jobs board Monster questioned employees around the world asking if they would engage in unethical behaviour in order to advance their career. Taken overall, 86% said they would not indulge in this sort of behaviour. However, in the UK the percentage was 83%, indicating that more people would consider behaving unethically.
Internationally, 6% of respondents said they might breach company policy, the same percentage would engage in underhand behaviour and 4% went as far as to say they would break the law in order to get ahead professionally.
8% of UK respondents would do underhand things and 5% would break the law to get ahead, but only 4% would break company policy.
Mexico appears to have the most trustworthy workforce. Only 12% of those questioned said they would engage in illegal, unethical or underhand behaviour to further their career.
Meanwhile, contractors concerned that somebody might steal their ideas might be interested to learn that a new service is to be set up to help SMEs protect their copyright, designs and trademarks.
The small claims service is to be introduced into the Patents County Court and will limit fixed costs as well as allowing damages up to a maximum of £5,000.
Recent research has discovered that 17% of SMEs gave up trying to enforce their intellectual property rights because of high court costs. Hopefully, small businesses will find the new system easier to use and more cost effective.
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Image: Steal by Daquella manera
