Welcome back to the Peer Suite Agenda, your weekly briefing on what matters for your career, network, and next move.

This November we have a run of events bringing professional women together, starting with our monthly curated networking morning where I match you with two or three women before you arrive, followed by two career-focused masterclasses led by Victoria McLean of City CV. Sign up for writing an executive CV and getting noticed by the right boards.

⚖️ FLEXIBLE WORKING From October 2027, an employer refusing a flexible working request will have to show that saying no is reasonable. The government confirmed that timetable on 22nd October, and the draft Acas code expects managers to weigh up alternatives such as adjusted hours or a trial period before they refuse.

📖 ON THE SHELF Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Tiny Experiments, now out in paperback, has been named Business Book of the Year 2026. She argues that you can pursue ambition through small, time-limited experiments instead of one big fixed goal.

🧠 STRESS AWARENESS WEEK It's International Stress Awareness Week, and the latest Health and Safety Executive figures show 964,000 workers in Great Britain had work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25. The HSE’s guide to stress at work includes a section on the signs and what employers must do about it.

🤖 WHO WROTE YOUR CV? A TestGorilla survey of 483 UK recruiters, reported by People Management, found that 75% believe most of the CVs they see are written by AI, and only 15% would take a candidate’s word that they can do the job. Specific results you can talk through will carry more weight on your CV than perfect AI language.

🎨 BOOK YOUR TICKETS Peggy Guggenheim in London opens at the Royal Academy on 21st November. It revisits Guggenheim Jeune, the gallery she opened around the corner in 1938, and reunites work by artists she backed, including Barbara Hepworth, Eileen Agar and Sophie Taeuber-Arp alongside Kandinsky and Mondrian.

Why first-time NEDs get overlooked. City CV gives seven reasons accomplished executives miss their first board seat, including sending an executive CV when a board profile is what gets read. The 2025 UK Board Index found only 21% of new non-executive directors on listed boards were first-timers, down from 44% in 2022. SEE WHAT BOARDS LOOK FOR​

Redundancy: your rights. The GOV.UK guide covers fair selection, consultation, notice periods and suitable alternative work. Statutory redundancy pay applies after two years in the job, and from 6th April 2026 the maximum payment for redundancies is £22,530. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS​

Tax on savings interest. Last week’s Budget raised the tax on savings interest from April 2027, and dropped the planned cut to the cash ISA allowance, which stays at £20,000. If you hold savings outside an ISA, this GOV.UK guide sets out how much interest you can earn tax-free before any of it is taxed. CHECK WHAT’S TAX-FREE​

Thank you for being here. Have a lovely week!

Warmly,

Rebecca

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