employment Archives - Antony Simpson is an Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.

Let Me Explain About The Monetising

Tuesday 8 September 2026 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Let me explain about the monetising…

Dear Reader,

I have always used my website/blog to share my great free content and promote my brilliant paid content. My paid content consisting of: my books, articles and short stories.

But I have recently added a Support Antony page, listing all the ways you can support me and my creative works. I wanted to take a moment of your time to explain.

6 Months of Vasculitis HELL!

A couple of years ago, I was diagnosed with a progressive and life shortening disease called Vasculitis:

Vasculitis is the name of a group of conditions that cause inflammation of the blood vessels.

Inflammation is your immune system’s natural response to injury or infection. It causes swelling and can help the body deal with invading germs.

But in vasculitis, for some reason the immune system attacks healthy blood vessels, causing them to become swollen and narrow.
(Quote from: NHS, 2023)

There’s no other way for me to describe the last 6 months, than being Vasculitis Hell. I’ve had several flare ups and an 8 week nasal infection that was resistant to a number of different antibiotics.

During this time, my Vasculitis Fatigue has gotten significantly worse. I am told by the specialist team caring for me, that although the fatigue will fluctuate from day-to-day, it isn’t going to get any better. That it will be ever present, regardless of whether I am in an active flare up or in remission.

Throughout this time, I’ve worked full time (40 hours per week), plus travel time (10 hours per week). I’ve even managed to maintain some regular blog posting and promoting of my books. I’ve also just about managed to maintain the basics – eating, bathing and sleeping.

But my quality of life has been non-existent. I’ve been constantly physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. I’ve repeatedly had to cancel social plans. I’ve ended up taking some time off work sick and had an increased number of medical appointments.

Its took me 6 months to realise: What I am doing is not sustainable. Especially since the Vasculitis fatigue has worsened. I estimate that I probably get 10-20 productive hours per week and when I’m working 40 hours, plus 10 hours travel, I just can’t do it any longer. Working at double my capacity is rapidly deteriorating my physical and mental health.

After much discussion with family and friends, I’ve made the difficult decision to stop working for a while. Being kind and fair to myself: I have probably carried on working full time for far too long. Now, my body and mind are telling me that I just can’t do it any more.

This decision is going to result in some major financial and life changes. But I no longer have the choice to carry on, I just can’t do it.

FREE and PAID Support

With all the above in mind, I need to make it easy as possible for anyone that wants to support me to do so. Which is why I’ve added the Support Antony page. The page includes a list of FREE and PAID ways to support me. Every action taken to support me is greatly appreciated.

I feel a deep sense of gratitude towards and appreciation for everyone that has supported me in the past, that supports me now, or chooses to do so in future.

My Very Best Wishes,

Antony

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The Equality Act (2010) Explained

Wednesday 20 May 2026 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Equality Act (2010) is a UK law that is intended to protect people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

This is to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

The Equality Act (2010) is about ensuring equality and fair treatment for all.

Before the Equality Act (2010) there were more than 100 pieces of other legislation that included details around protecting people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

The Equality Act (2010) starts by outlining the 9 protected characteristics:

Sex
Race
Disability
Sexual Orientation
Gender Re-Assignment
Religion or Belief
Marriage or Civil Partnership
Pregnancy and Maternity
Age

Next the act goes on to define what is prohibited, including:

Direct discrimination of anybody with a protected characteristic.
Indirect discrimination of anybody with a protected characteristic.
Harassment of anybody with a protected characteristic.
Victimisation of anybody with a protected characteristic.

Equality Act (2010) applies to all public organisations, all private organisations and all third sector organisations, making it all encompassing.

It covers accessing or buying services, buying of products, all education establishments, the NHS, Social Care (plus all other local authority services), employment (all aspects) and pensions.

It places a responsibility on all organisations to make reasonable adjustments for anybody with a protected characteristic and outlines the potential legal consequences for not adhering to this legislation.

I am choosing to write about the Equality Act (2010) now because a certain right-wing political party is planning to abolish this Act and the legal protections it provides if the party gets into power. Scarily, this political party appears to be getting increasingly popular with every day that passes. It is looking like this political party might get into power at the next general election.

So I thought I would use this platform to explain what the Act offers and hopefully help people realise why it is important for every one. Regardless of whether you have a protected characteristic or not.

If you enjoyed this blog post, you might also like my post The Human Rights Act (1998) Explained.

Write soon,

Antony

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Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) People in Employment Today

Thursday 9 February 2017 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) people in employment today have more acceptance and more equality than ever before. But have we reached a point were a persons sexuality isn’t important? Were their ability to do the job is paramount?

In this blog post I will discuss an article entitled Why it’s still not ‘Mission Accomplished’ for LGBT workers by Matthew Todd for Totaljobs. First the positives:

total-jobs-LGBT-Rights-1 — LGBT people have more acceptance and equality today, than ever before.
Image from & copyright Total Jobs @ GIPHY.

LGBT people in employment today have more acceptance and more equality than ever before. This has been helped by the wider society acceptance. It has also been helped by employers working with organisations such as Stonewall to learn and understand LGBT employees and to have more inclusive working practices.

total-jobs-LGBT-Rights-2 — Employers are working with organisations like Stonewall to understand LGBT people and have better working practices to include LGBT employees.
Image from & copyright Total Jobs @ GIPHY.

But for good and smart employers it’s about more than just acceptance and inclusion. It’s about valuing employees as individuals and celebrating the diversity of their workforce. This in turn increases productivity and leads to better outcomes (including bigger profit margins for private sector organisations) according to research studies quoted in this BBC article: Why it’s important to be yourself at work and this Infographic.

So acceptance, inclusion, valuing employees as individuals and celebrating diversity of LGBT employees is a win-win situation. Employees are happier and feel more secure. Employers get increased productivity and better outcomes.

total-jobs-LGBT-Rights-3 — Acceptance, inclusion, valuing employees as individuals and celebrating diversity of LGBT employees is a win-win situation.
Image from & copyright Total Jobs @ GIPHY.

But according to Todd it’s not all positive. He cites surveys that report that some LGBT people still experience bullying and/or harassment at work and that some LGBT people feel that some workplaces have been/are unwelcoming.

I can only speak of my own experiences. My experiences of being an LGBT person in employment has been very positive for the fast majority of the time.

But I have experienced bullying and harassment because of my sexuality and/or gender (as a Nurse who happens to be male). Three or four times in my career, which for me is three or four times too many. Each time by an individual employee and each time I felt unable to challenge their attitude or behaviour because of the situation I was in.

Still I have observed a massive change in attitudes and cultures both in the workplace and outside of it during my career. I think that if someone attempted to bully or harass me in the workplace today, that one of my colleagues would challenge it before I had chance to.

What do you think of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) people in employment today? Please leave a comment below.