In an awesome study released just in time for the weekend, researchers in Sweden have proven a correlation between people who have good (or at least regular) sex are happier, more motivated employees. Those of you who aren’t currently getting any don’t need to worry – healthy emotional relationships with friends and family members also make you happier at the office.
I’m sure there are more in-depth scientific reasons for why these things connect, but it seems obvious to me – happy people are happier employees. If having healthy emotional relationships make you a better worker, it’s probably because a) you have people you can vent to about work who then remind you it’s not your fault, and b) you have other things that give your life value and meaning and don’t have to rely on your boss to compliment you. And as for the good sex thing, well, anyone who’s ever had The Glow can pretty much attest to its general life benefits.
What this study doesn’t explicitly say – but gets at – is that not only are happy people better workers, companies should keep that in mind when they’re building offices and planning schedules. It seems so fucking obvious to me that if you create a corporate culture that encourages caring about employees’ emotional health, it pays off for you in the long run. Then again, I once worked for a company that considered morale a buzzword instead of a workplace concern and where you practically had to ask permission to go pee, so perhaps I’m biased on this one.
With a few exceptions – like The Naked Cowboy or Peaches Geldof – most people who have personal assistants have them because they are busy people with way too much to do. However, “branding” “expert” Peter Arnell has an assistant and still managed to fall way behind on a book project. How far behind? The book won’t be coming out at all, and Arnell has been ordered to return part of the hefty advance he got. Here’s my favorite line from the article on BNET:
Arnell failed to deliver the book despite having the assistance of two ghostwriters, a personal assistant, his wife and an editor at HarperCollins. He only turned in 25,000 words of a promised 80,000 manuscript — and HarperCollins sued to get its money back.
Wow. For a rich executive type like him, he sure seems to be a bonehead. Although, I’d be really curious to know what the assistant was doing all day – was he/she just busy with Arnell’s other business, or do they do nothing all day and have the greatest job ever?
Procrascipline, as coined by Slacker Manager, is a term he got from combining the words “discipline” and “procrastination.” And, considering how much I love procrastinating, I was intrigued by the idea of having a method to my slacker madness.
Procrascipline: (v) pro-crAS-sip-lyn, the discipline of procrastination. As in: “Boy, I really procrasciplined my way through that project!” Or, “Wow, what a talented procrascipliner you are! Will you marry me?”
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: highly effective slackers are very good at doing what is important to them. But maybe not so good at doing what’s important to others. That makes for fertile ground for procrastination to bloom and flourish. This is the bane of all highly effective slackers.
The first rule of procrascipline is that you must not ignore the task. The second rule of procrascipline is to que it up in one of your lists that you actually look at. Don’t bury that task in your “List of things that must never be acknowledged.” The third rule of procrascipline is to communicate your progress.
Welcome back from Columbus Day, everyone. Wait–what’s that? Some of you didn’t have the day off? We would just like to remind you that if postal employees don’t have to work, you shouldn’t have to either. Tell your HR manager we said it was OK.
The latest “gee, you don’t say” workplace article comes to us from Yahoo. Their shocking claim is that workers who are mistreated are more likely to slack off at work. We’ve noticed this trend for a long time. People don’t like working for people they don’t respect, simple as that. And it’s hard to feel compelled to your best work when someone a) is going to tell you it sucks no matter what, b) will not reward you in any way for it if it is successful, and/or c) will take credit for it.
From the article:
Employees with difficult bosses checked out in the following ways:
- 30 percent slowed down or purposely made errors, compared with 6 percent of those not reporting abuse.
- 27 percent purposely hid from the boss, compared with 4 percent of those not abused.
- 33 percent confessed to not putting in maximum effort, compared with 9 percent of those not abused.
- 29 percent took sick time off even when not ill, compared with 4 percent of those not abused.
- 25 percent took more or longer breaks, compared with 7 percent of those not abused.
For that and other revelations, click here.
For many workers, smoke breaks are what helps them stay sane. They’re nickin’ or super stressed, and running outside to suck down a cigarette keeps their Bruce Banner from becoming a Hulk. Not to mention that they have a valid excuse to spend ten minutes getting away from their desks.
However, a recent study argues that smokers are hurting the company. Smokers take an average of 11 sick days a year more than nonsmokers. Plus the frequent daily breaks take time away from valuable hours spent working.
We can see both sides of this. As nonsmokers, our excuse to take mini-breaks throughout the day is usually ‘running an errand’ or having that 4 PM chocolate craving. And we’re also not going to be all preachy about how bad smoking is for your health, because you know already. So read the article and decide for yourself.
