Attractions

           Workers at the United Kingdom's central bank, the Bank of England, have voted to stage a four-day strike in support of a pay claim. It will be the first walkout by staff from the bank in over five decades. Over 95 per cent of bankers who voted opted for strike action over what they deem to be an unacceptable pay rise offer. The Bank offered its workers a collective one per cent pay rise for its staff. The deal means that a third of staff could get no pay increase at all. The union that represents the Bank's workers said: "The result of the Bank's unwillingness to negotiate fair pay will be that the Bank's sites, including the iconic Threadneedle Street [premises] in the City of London, will effectively be inoperable."           The Bank of England was established in 1694. It is the second oldest central bank in operation today. Workers at the bank are suffering along with millions more public sector staff in the UK...

                New research suggests that using smiley face emojis in work e-mails could jeopardize your career. Researchers from a university in Israel report that people inserting emojis in work-related mail are likely to be deemed stupid and incompetent. The researchers conducted experiments on 549 professionals from 29 different countries to gauge their reaction to emojis. The professionals had to "evaluate both the competence and warmth" of the e-mail writer. Dr Ella Glikson said: "Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence." She added: "In formal business e-mails, a smiley is not a smile."                  Other research has also shown that emojis are often misunderstood. Some of this misunderstanding is related to how the reader or viewer interprets the emoji design...

             The boss of Europe's biggest low-cost airline has promised to increase the pay and working conditions of pilots to stop them leaving the company. Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, made a personal pledge to the budget carrier's 4,200 pilots to address concerns that pilots are dissatisfied and want to quit the company. Pilots have been offered salary increases of up to $11,700 and loyalty bonuses of $14,000. A long-serving pilot told the BBC this was, "too little, too late." He said: "There is a lack of basic benefits [for pilots] - no free bottles of water, coffee or tea and no crew meals." He said pilots also had to buy their own uniform. He added: "People have just had enough of the toxic atmosphere."              Mr O'Leary is attempting to repair the damage done to Ryanair's reputation after a scheduling error with pilot holidays. The costly mistake meant more than 20,000 flights have been cancel...

       New Zealand's government has announced a ban on the purchase of homes by foreigners. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Tuesday that the ban would begin in early 2018. The measure is to address the current housing crisis in New Zealand. For the past few decades, overseas buyers have been snapping up houses as investments or for holiday homes in New Zealand. This has created an increased demand for properties, which has seen house prices soar. Prices have risen by more than 50 per cent in the last decade. New Zealanders are up in arms at the inflated prices they now have to pay to buy a home. Many citizens have simply been priced out of the market and cannot afford to get on the housing ladder.         Ms Ardern expressed her determination to end the practice of overseas investment increasing property prices. She said: "We are determined to make it easier for Kiwis to buy their first home, so we are stopping foreign specu...