From October 1st restaurants will no longer be able to pay staff less than the minimum wage, topping up their salary to a fair ammount with tips. Good. Well, good for staff, but the increase in wages and national insurance will mean an extra £60m having to be found throughout the industry. Realistically some restaurants will make staff cuts - one person per restaurant is the claim. Nothing in the new rules states that tips should still be shared by staff, so if you’re going for a filler post as a waiter or waitress, make sure you are clear on how you will be getting paid. If the restaurant is now paying you minimum wage but keeping your tips for themselves, then it will be a lot of work at unsociable hours for very little. And if you are there: ask the customer for a cash tip and pocket it. Done!

Tesco is investing in graduate recruitment by increasing the number of graduate schemes from 15 to…er…17. No: its good news. The two new graduate schemes in telecoms and environmental engineering compliment schemes already in place such as property, merchandising and store management. The firm has taken on 191 graduates this month – among 74,000 staff under the age of 25. And alongside the graduate scheme Tesco has also recruited 52 school leavers to join a 12-month fast-track programme, allowing them to progress to manage level within six months. Who needs University?!

Almost 9 out of 10 lap dancing clubs in London provide ‘discreet receipts’ so employees can visit and claim the money back from their employer. Hooray! Or not, as the Fawcett Society has found in their recent survey (well, I say don’t Fawcett). 26% of trade unions have received enquiries from employees who have been exposed to the sex industry - including pornography - at work – demeaning the status of female staff. Kat Banyard, campaigns officer at the Fawcett Society, said: “The sex industry is increasingly focusing on the corporate market, with lap dancing clubs marketing themselves as ideal venues to host meetings and client entertaining.â€� See you at the next meeting Kat: mind where you shelve that motion!

Greek half-wit Theo Paphitis wants Britain’s bosses to ban Facebook in the workplace after Portsmouth City Council had discovered that their staff were “wasting� on average 400 hours on the site every month. Good old Matt Alder for pointing out that this actually equates to just 5-6minutes a month PER staff member. Don’t get put off by a boss that hate social media in the job interview: Matt’s right that Facebook is a excellent way to stay in touch with a social &/or professional circles. As Matt points out what this does show us is that Theo’s Ryman’s or Portsmouth City council will be pretty rubbish places to work. If you don’t smoke, you’ll likely be spending a lot more time at your desk than those that do – outside drawing on a gasper, networking with their emphysemamatic colleagues.

This Friday 11th September The Guardian is holding a live Q&A session on the topic of career breaks, between 1-4pm. Take part and pose a question or two - more specifically, if you’re (or you know) someone that may have rushed into a career and are finding that it isn’t for them and need to take a step back and re-asess their options, get involved. Click here to follow the link to the discussion forum and the list of experts on the panel. If you’re not yet in work, still monitor the discussion, there will be loads of insider knowledge that will stop you making the wrong career choice. And thank you to The Guadian for my free lifetime subscription to the paper for plugging that. Can I exchange it for The Star…?