Although much depends on the boss when it comes to performance appraisals, you can benefit from the process by preparing for it and taking initiative when necessary.

1. Make the most of it

In some companies, not much thought is given to what the goals of performance appraisals really are. Some bosses may have doubts over whether performance reviews really are fit for purpose and employees wonder whether the boss is actually listening to them and giving the discussion their full attention.

Many employees drag themselves to work even though they are feeling under the weather, suffer from insomnia and have aches and pains everywhere. They turn to medication for temporary relief.

Occupational health doctor and father to small children, Jani, 37, has suffered from depression, concentration problems and insomnia for several years. He has been to see a psychiatrist and tried depression medicines in various combinations to help him get through the day.

Last autumn, when Anna, 33, a team leader in the communications field, started showing signs of burn-out, her boss encouraged her to contact the occupational doctor, which Anna did. "The doctor said that the problem was that our whole work community was over-worked. I wasn't the first one at our workplace to suffer from burn-out."

The first question is: is there something like a Finnish working culture? And with increasing numbers of foreigners employed in Finland, what are the effects on the so-called Finnish working culture?

With the help of Helsinki times, itim International has conducted a study of Finnish organisational cultures and to which extent these assist Finnish organisations to work with foreigners (in Finland) and/or to compete globally. A total of 21 organisations participated in the research, spread out over six business areas:

An incompetent boss thinks the whole organisation revolves around him and can also get away with his behaviour as the top management is not aware of it, or only cares about the company's performance figures.

After taking up a managerial position in an expert organisation, Kai soon realised the firm was led by an incompetent boss, whose behaviour and management style were unpredictable and whimsical.

We work in an open-plan office, where some of the employees find the noise level distracting. Carrying out routine duties is not a problem but tasks that require more concentration and thinking often prove difficult. There are people in the office who do not see why they should restrict their conversation or control the sound level. One of the culprits is the boss. Any request to turn down the volume is interpreted as nagging. How to resolve this conflict?

Why are we paid holiday bonuses? Why do Saturdays take up vacation days? The origins of the annual holidays act date back to the 1930s.

Vacation is mentioned in the fourth clause of the first section of the annual holidays act. Law, labour market policies and social policy – these are what our yearly break is built upon.

This spring, on 31 May at 16:00, Leif Åberg, Professor of Communications at the University of Helsinki, will end his 41-year-long academic working career. Officially, at least. This is when Åberg retires at the age of 66.

Recent studies reveal that perception of stress plays an important role in its effect.

TIME pressure, tight schedules and the increase of pace at work might not be the only causes of stress-related diseases. New research suggests that stress can also have a negative effect just because people believe it does.

How relevant is the amount of time spent on your education to the wages you will receive?

A long training period should result in a good salary, at least if you are training to be a doctor. Still, a blue-collar worker may earn more than a woman with a university degree. That is worth thinking about when making decisions about your future career.