Latest news with #NicolaHorlick
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Should I pitch my innovative product to my employer - or keep it for myself? NICOLA HORLICK replies
Working life today is full of constantly evolving challenges and pitfalls. When is it OK to date a co-worker? Can you tell your team to get back into the office five days a week? Whether you're a baffled Boomer, a muddled millennial, or a confused Gen Z-er, our brilliant columnist Nicola Horlick can help. Dear Nicola, I have devised a product, working mostly in my own time, which is the kind of thing my firm sells. I suspect it could do rather well. Friends have tried it and rave about the results. Am I obliged to give my employer first refusal on this? I have created it using my savings, but with skills acquired at work. If I do go it alone, can I offer it to my employer further down the road? Also, if I do take that step, where should I start to find support and funding? Yours, Paul Dear Paul, You haven't given any information about what the product is, so it is hard to give a complete answer. For example, if it is a better version of a computer game sold by your employer, there will be issues around intellectual property (IP). Even if it is a manufactured item based on something your employer sells, there could be IP issues or patent infringement, if the firm owns patents for similar products. Also if you've developed it partly in working hours, your employer may have some rights over it. It's great your friends tried the product and liked it. This suggests you will earn a great deal of kudos and possibly some financial benefit if you go with it to your employer. If you did set up your own business, you would need capital, and this can be very hard to acquire for start-ups. You may have further savings and your extended family might help, but any new venture carries a lot of risk. Even though the product sounds as if it has real promise, you and your fellow investors could lose all your money. I suggest that you talk to your employer to see if the product could be added to its range. I once had a colleague who developed a computer system widely used in our organisation. When I joined the firm, no one had considered that he owned the IP and that, if he had left the company, he could have turned the system off. As manager of the business, I tried to negotiate to buy the product. Strangely, he refused to sell, so I had to engage an external firm to build something similar so we weren't at risk. This illustrates the issues when creative employees come up with innovations. If you are still keen to set up a business, it is vital to take legal advice on the position of your employer, its IP and any patents first. The last thing you need as an entrepreneur is to find yourself embroiled in a costly court case.
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Should I try to speak to my boss on the train? NICOLA HORLICK replies
Working life today is full of constantly evolving challenges and pitfalls. When is it OK to date a co-worker? Can you tell your team to get back into the office five days a week? Whether you're a baffled Boomer, a muddled millennial, or a confused Gen Z-er, our brilliant columnist Nicola Horlick can help. Dear Nicola, Every day I travel to work on the same train as my boss and I have no idea whether I should strike up conversation or leave him alone with his phone or his tablet. On the one hand, I might be able to impress him in the hope he'll remember me during the next round of promotions. But on the other, should I respect his right to privacy outside the office environment? Would it play against me if I approached him on the train? Yours, Simone Dear Simone, THIS is a really difficult question. The one thing I have found as a 'boss' in a large organisation is that it's very lonely. This is because, in order to be the best boss you can, you need to keep your distance and ensure that you treat all team members equally. It's a bit like being a parent of more than one child – you can't have favourites. On the other hand, looking at it from your point of view, it would definitely be helpful if you were able to interact with your boss on a regular basis and let him know what you're working on and how you are helping the organisation to progress. In order to determine whether there's an opportunity to talk to your boss on the train, you need to try and catch his attention with a nod and a smile and see how he reacts. If he nods back and then returns to his reading, then that will be a signal that he wants to retain his privacy. If he greets you and invites you to sit with him, you will have the opportunity to chat. If this does happen, you will have to be careful not to presume that it will always be okay for you to sit next to him on the train. You could repeat the process of nodding and see how he reacts after a decent interval. It is undoubtedly the case that if you want to be promoted, you need your boss to know what you have achieved and appreciate that you are ambitious and want to take your career to the next level. But there's a fine line between coming across as confident and enthusiastic, and being too pushy. The one thing that is certain is those who sit in the corner, work hard and don't make senior team members fully aware of what they have done will not get promoted. It is important to sell yourself. So, next time you get on the train and your boss is there, take a deep breath, nod and smile and see if he is open to having a chat.
Daily Mail
26-04-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
NICOLA HORLICK: I admit it - I AM the office slacker - do I say sorry to my boss or just change my ways?
Working life today is full of constantly evolving challenges and pitfalls. When is it OK to date a co-worker? Can you tell your team to get back into the office five days a week? Whether you're a baffled Boomer, a muddled millennial, or a confused Gen Z-er, our brilliant columnist Nicola Horlick can help. Dear Nicola, After some conflict, I realise that I have been behaving rather badly in the office lately. I've come to the conclusion that if I do not get my act together there could be consequences in this job and others. I have been the slacker in my department. I don't rate some of the bosses, so I have been doing the minimum, gossiping and never volunteering. It's not been so much 'silent quitting' as 'noisy doing next-to-nothing'. It dawned on me over the Easter Bank Holiday that none of this is making me feel better about myself. I have been letting my colleagues down, and some senior people who have been trying to help me. I think I've been ruining my chances of promotion – which I care about. Should I apologise to my manager? Or would the best thing be to be super keen, turn up early, put myself forward and so on? I am hoping that there's a way back. Yours, Marina Dear Marina, Well, the good news is that you have a high degree of self-awareness. Believe me, that's unusual. The perennial problem for managers is dealing with team members who are convinced that they are doing a good job when they really aren't. I think the best route back is to show that you have changed your attitude. You need to prove to your boss that you are totally committed. You should also make sure that you have an unofficial 'sponsor' – someone in a senior position who has your interests at heart. A sponsor is different to a mentor. It's someone with influence who believes in you and can speak up for you in management meetings. Anyone who really wants to progress in their organisation needs one. It may be that it will take some time for your boss to fully appreciate your change of heart and the good work that you are doing. But if you are sure that you are in the right job and you want to give it all you've got, then you should be prepared to wait. Given we spend a good chunk of our waking hours working, I think it's important to enjoy the job and to aspire to greater things within the organisation. Now that you have realised that you do want to do better, I am sure that you can turn things around. I wish you the very best of luck.
