A mum's guide to improving rights for all in the workplace. International Women's day. Mother's Day. It's been a weekend of thanking women for all they do. We do deserve it and are grateful for it. I have always been an active participant in International Women's Day events and I have been a mother for almost 18 years. I have been an advocate of women's rights since I was probably around 14 or 15, when I began to realise that my upbringing and family set up based on principles of equality and teamwork, and cooperation, was unusual.

In order to utilize the mediation methodology to assist with financial arrangements, division of assets and living expenses, it is highly recommended that communication is aligned first - either by using a third party mediator to help with this - or by ensuring that key issues, frustrations, misunderstandings or emotional responses to the separation have been discussed. Financial division of joint assets is a highly emotive topic in these circumstances and it is far better for the parties to approach this having a clear approach to fairness and collaborative working.

In my work as an employment lawyer and mediator I have dealt with countless cases where an employee has felt alarmed, distressed, humiliated or intimidated - in short- bullied - by behaviours of colleagues or managers towards them. Employers are often surprised and upset to hear of this (especially when it is by way of legal letter) and through my mediation work I have come to find that not many employers deliberately set out to make an employee feel this way.

Over the years, my work has taken me on many deep dives into the dynamics of employment behaviours, effective team management and ultimately exploring why interpersonal relationships, particularly in an employment context can often fail in stressful, catastrophic and dramatic ways.