An ancient book in the CERN library captivated two scientists. It told of a place at the end of the world, where the sky touched the earth and they would find the answer to all their questions.

Martina¹ comes to see me, rather put out: “My boss has landed me with a “fair²”. I’ve had it now!”

“My supervisor is getting angry more and more often: he loses his temper with us, shouts at us and throws things across the room,” Dimitri*, a CERN fellow, tells me.

Taking on new tasks or responsibilities may sometimes be challenging, as they require us go beyond the familiar or ‘comfort zone’ and expose ourselves to scrutiny in an area where we are not immediately at ease.

Mindfulness in the workplace: what possible relevance could an ancient Buddhist practice have in today’s busy professional world?

The winter break is a vital opportunity to leave behind the end-of-year workload stress, compounded by the rush to complete tasks in preparation of the year ahead, and focus on some genuine rest and recuperation.

Do you get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee? Do you sit down to meals with your mobile phone next to your plate? Do you get an awful feeling of complete disorientation and not knowing what to do with yourself when you disconnect from the Internet?

Some people call it “motivation”, others “recognition” or “success”. For all, feeling happy at work is an important contributing factor to feeling good about life. How much of it is in our own hands and how much depends on the Organization’s ways of working?

Contracts come to an end, projects move from one phase to another, hierarchy changes… in the 21st century, things have the tendency to move very quickly in the work environment.

Most of the people coming to the Ombuds sincerely believe that the conflict they are in is due to the other party. They do not see that they play a key role in creating the external circumstances which lead to such a conflict.