Chronic workforce shortages have put nursing staff under unbearable pressure, says union chief

Nurses in England took an average of a week off sick last year because of stress, anxiety or depression, NHS figures reveal.

The disclosure has prompted concern that the intense strains nurses face in their jobs, including low pay and understaffing, are damaging their mental health and causing many to quit.

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Research recommends bonus to help retain staff and make up for lack of hybrid working opportunities

Teachers should be given a pay bonus to compensate for their inability to work from home and stop the rising numbers attracted away from the classroom for better working conditions elsewhere, according to a report.

The research by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that very few teachers in England were able to work remotely, putting them at a disadvantage compared with the nearly 50% of their peers in other graduate-level professions who say they regularly do.

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Long hours spent at desks and sofas leads to 21,000 deaths a year in the Netherlands from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer

The Dutch are perceived as a nation of healthy giants, leaping on their bikes to cycle energetically across flat lands. But new research suggests they are in fact the “sitting champions of Europe”, with a sedentary lifestyle that causes thousands of early deaths.

Health experts are calling for urgent action to stop so-called “chair-use disorder” spreading across western countries. A report by the research organisation TNO, published on Friday, found too much sitting costs the Netherlands €1.2bn (£1bn) annually and leads to 21,000 premature deaths a year from cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. It is riskier, researchers found, to be a lawyer than a lorry driver.

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From lunch in the mid-afternoon to restaurants open at 1am, our working hours and eating habits are sparking bitter political debate

Spain’s employment minister and deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, described the late opening hours of restaurants and bars, earlier this month, as “madness”. “A country that has its restaurants open at one o’clock in the morning is not reasonable,” she said . Hospitality industry figures and conservative politicians responded with outrage. “The deputy prime minister thinks she lives in Sweden instead of Spain,” a furious restaurant owner in Barcelona told El País , pointing out the late sunset in her city. That day, 6 March, the sun set in Stockholm at 5.29pm, and in Barcelona at 6.48pm. In Stockholm, restaurants typically close at 11pm; in Barcelona, restaurants and bars are allowed to open until 2.30am on weekdays , and until 3am at weekends.

Spain is not Sweden in many ways. In 2022, in Sweden, the GDPvalue of a worker’s hour was $75, compared with $53 in Spain, which is below the European average. GDP per capita is almost double in Sweden . The standard working week in Sweden is one hour longer than in Spain . Overall life satisfaction is higher in Sweden.

María Ramírez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain

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Record numbers are off sick, many others are on strike. But there is a way to turn the miserable business of working on its head

• James Timpson is the CEO of Timpson

Looking around at the state of businesses in Britain, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the way we work now isn’t working. According to the Office for National Statistics, 2.8 million people in the UK are off work with long-term sickness – 700,000 more than before the pandemic. Employees at Deliveroo and Uber Eats are striking over pay and conditions. Teachers complain that the hours of unpaid overtime they are expected to work amount to “daylight robbery”. In February, the government responded to a huge trial of reduced working hours by 61 organisations by saying, “We have no plans to introduce a four-day working week,” regardless of how successful the pilot had been. It seems that, across sectors, many workers are feeling disrespected and burnt out, and neither bosses nor policymakers can imagine doing anything differently. But in my experience, work doesn’t have to be this way.

Timpson, the business I joined in 1995, is both successful and takes care of its employees. In fact, I’d argue that we are successful precisely because we take care of our employees. This year we will open 50 new shops, on high streets and in retail parks, recruiting an extra 160 colleagues. I believe that in any business, if you have a strong culture and keep investing in your colleagues, you can survive disruptive times.

James Timpson is the CEO of the five-generation, family-owned company Timpson and the author of The Happy Index: Lessons in Upside-Down Management

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Wim Wenders’ film Perfect Days is on to something with its depiction of main character Hirayama’s calm, habitual life

Hirayama loves his routine. The protagonist of Wim Wenders’ transcendent new film Perfect Days wakes up each morning and follows the same ritual. He makes his bed, trims his moustache, shaves, waters his saplings, and gets a can of coffee from a dispenser just outside his apartment before he enters a small blue van to head to work as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo.

On his way to work, he fits a cassette into his tape-player and listens to a range of popular musicians – from Lou Reed to Van Morrison, Nina Simone to the Animals. After his shift, he sits alone in a park with his milkshake and sandwich, and takes a picture of the trees and the sky.

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China’s brightest minds, including tech professionals, are emigrating, but many are not heading to America. We spoke to them to ask why.