BRIGHTWORK Group, the Scottish recruitment specialist, is making a special proposal this leap year – but it's not the traditional proposal of marriage by women to men.

Instead, the firm’s staff plan to use the extra day which falls on February 29 to devote their business skills to good causes across Scotland. They have offered their services – including HR, administration, sales, finance, credit control and recruitment skills – to charity group Volunteer Glasgow. “Our staff excel themselves when it comes to thinking up new ways to support those less fortunate in society and the directors are, in turn, very glad to support them," said Brightwork group chief executive Derek May. "What a very decent proposal.”

HOWARD Archer, chief UK and European economist at economic analysis firm IHS Global Insight, made a bit of a faux pas last week when his finger slipped during the circulation of a routine email to journalists. “Have a great end and all the best for the coming week,” he signed off his erudite analysis of the UK’s latest economic indicators. Discovering the unfortunate typo later, he re-emailed everyone with the following message: “Sorry did not mean to wish you a great end. Meant to wish you a great weekend! Fat finger again – rest of me is hardly slim.”

BONUS season in the banking industry is producing some interesting results for Emolument.com, the ‘crowdsourced pay data’ website. Despite substantially increased pay year on year, the site’s ‘Happiness index’ – which analyses salary and bonus data shared by bankers themselves – finds that few are satisfied with their bonuses. It suggests that cost-cutting measures, vast redundancy plans and the march of technology could explain some of the long faces. 'Doughnuts' – zero bonuses – are also becoming more prevalent, while lack of transparency adds to the discontent. “If the [bonus] process is shrouded in secrecy, the levels of paranoia and suspicion wipe off goodwill earned through higher bonus payments," suggested Emolument.com co-founder Alice Leguay.

YOUNG children are being encouraged to think about a career in plumbing in a new book for three to seven-year-olds called ‘My Mummy is a Plumber’. The book has been published by Butterfly Books, in collaboration with WaterSafe, the national accreditation scheme for plumbers which promotes best practice in the industry. “We were delighted to work with the authors on the My Mummy is a Plumber book, which shows how she saves the day to tackle burst water pipes and overflowing toilets,” said Julie Spinks of WaterSafe. Butterfly Books has already released ‘My Mummy is an Engineer’ and is also working on ‘My Mummy is a Scientist’. A ‘My Daddy’ series is due to follow.