We all like breaks: Lunch breaks, coffee breaks, water-cooler breaks, checking Facebook breaks, week in Maui breaks. But won’t lots of breaks hurt an organization’s bottom line? New research shows that the opposite may be true. Breaks may be beneficial for employee success.
Is telecommuting an effective work arrangement? A new review of the existing research makes informed conclusions about telecommuting implications for different work outcomes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, stress, performance, wages, withdrawal behavior, and firm-level metrics. So what’s the bottom line? Does telecommuting make life better or worse?
Unemployment is a scary sounding word. In today’s economy it seems typical to be “between jobs” for an extended amount of time. Have you ever considered the psychological effects of being out of work? New research shows that extended unemployment can even change someone’s personality.
For some jobs, working from home is just not possible. This is especially true if you are an assembly line technician, postal worker, coal miner, or pirate. But in the new economy, many professions require little else but a computer and mouse. This is why telework—or working from home—is all the rage. But does it work? And is it good for employees?
Modern technology allows us to do some pretty amazing things. One of these things includes playing an engaging game of chess with someone on the opposite side of the planet while sitting at your work desk. Yes, technology can be distracting. But what can employers do about it? How can they make sure that employees focus on the work that they are supposed to be doing?
Who do you really want answering that important 3am phone call? Probably not your employee. New organizational theory proposes that constant connectedness or working irregular hours can lead to sleep deprivation. While pushing employees extra hard may seem to initially increase organizational performance, it is certainly no long-term winning strategy.
Research shows that smartphone use disrupts the balance between work and home. A new study shows that supervisor and coworker expectations of smartphone use during non-work hours can harmfully affect work-life balance. The study also found that feeling engaged at work may weaken the relationship between smartphone use and work-home interference.
I’ll bet that if you have a job and also have a family, you probably have experienced work-family conflict. Work and family are both demanding and time-consuming, and there simply aren’t always enough hours in the day to satisfy the needs of both. New research shows that this pervasive type of conflict can affect the choices we make while at work, which can lead to career-altering outcomes.
Employees are faced with anxiety producing events every day: securing new clients, important meetings with bosses, interacting with difficult coworkers. Yet, these events can lead to more than just uncomfortable feelings, they may also affect ethics in the workplace. Recent research shows that anxious employees may be more likely to engage in unethical behavior than employees in a relaxed state.
So much attention has been focused on the ability of women to balance family life with work life, but less attention has been given to how men manage the same obstacle. Men face increased societal pressure to be closely involved with parenting, while simultaneously facing societal pressure to meet the standards of the perfect employee. Can men really do it all? If not, how are modern men managing this tricky situation?
