There’s plenty of evidence out there to confirm the old adage that a happy worker is a productive worker. In a striking example from a 2012 study, American companies that made a list of the 100 best places to work generated between 2.3% and 3.8% higher stock returns, compared to competitors, between 1984 and 2011. … Read more
There’s no shortage of research highlighting the benefits of spending time in the great outdoors. All manner of studies highlight things like how access to the outdoors is better for our vision and improves our mental health. While the reasons for this are thought to be many and varied, the effect is quantifiable – said … Read more
A new study by Matthew McCarter, associate professor of management at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), looks into the bane of managers in nearly every industry: employees slacking off by excessively surfing the Internet, an activity known as cyberloafing. “Leisure surfing can be helpful,” McCarter said. “It relieves stress and can help … Read more
Unless you’re very young or very old, it’s likely you have some kind of relationship with email, whether you get hundreds of messages a day or a few dozen a week. A new study suggests that how we deal with these incoming messages could be affecting our stress levels and overall health. A team from … Read more
If you work in an office and use the communal coffee maker, chances are you’ve had the following thought at some point or other: Who cleans that thing? Maybe you’ve even joked about it with colleagues, each person laughing with varying degrees of intensity that reflect their own personal level of germaphobia. The uncomfortable answer … Read more
A century or so after the handlebar mustache made boardrooms look like a convention of Kaiser Wilhelm II impersonators, facial hair has found its way back to the professional setting. As a new generation of men rises into positions of power in the workplace — helping to relax standards for what constitutes executive style — … Read more
The robopocalypse for workers may be inevitable. In this vision of the future, super-smart machines will best humans in pretty much every task. A few of us will own the machines, a few will work a bit — perhaps providing “Made by Man” artisanal goods — while the rest will live off a government-provided income. … Read more