For many, making plans for retirement is about looking forward to that free time, to play a bit of golf, learn a new language or spend time with your grandchildren. The need to plan your finances and how to start using that pension that you’ve been paying into for decades makes the timing important.

Retirement also means bringing your career to an end, often leaving a workplace that has given you many happy memories and friends over the years, therefore, planning the timing and way in which you retire has to be right for you.

With so many cases highlighting the treatment of employees at work making the headlines recently, it is important to know your rights under the law when it comes to bullying in the workplace. Every one of us will have experienced or witnessed bullying at some point in our lives. Perhaps you remember people being picked on in the playground or classroom at school when you were a kid. Bullying is something we are supposed to grow out of. We expect adults to treat each other with respect, fairness and dignity. Which is why bullying in the workplace can be such a painful experience for victims – it is unexpected, and all the more hurtful as a result.

November is Islamophobia Awareness Month. Whilst this national campaign has reached a high level of engagement in schools and universities, many employers are unaware of it, and a significant number of the general public remain unfamiliar with the term ‘Islamophobia’.

Do you feel that you are being treated less favourably at work because you are, or perhaps you are not, a particular gender? Has your employer put in a place a new policy or working practice that puts you, because you are a man or a woman, at a particular disadvantage? Two important pieces of advice for anyone reading this article: know your rights and know the action you should take if you are the subject of sex discrimination.

Anyone who has witnessed or experienced bullying will know that the impact can be devastating. Where that treatment takes place…