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Will Work For . . . Well, That Depends.
It’s going to be a gloomy Labor Day for many this year. The national unemployment rate, now 9.1 percent, won’t seem to budge, and many states are doing worse than that. The unemployment rate in California exceeds 12 percent, with some communities registering staggering rates of more than 30 percent. Yet jobs go begging. I see jobs advertised in store windows of my hometown, Washington, DC, where one in ten workers is out of work. Many working Americans find this perplexing. Isn’t it simple economics that the unemployed would take these jobs—indeed welcome any job—when times are rough?
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Creativity Not as Well Received as We Think
Discovery News: Using creativity to solve problems is usually encouraged and championed as companies' secret to success. But researchers have questioned whether people actually welcome creative tastes with open arms. At least among adult college students, the team found somewhat the opposite. Because creative ideas are also new, they seem to give rise to uncertainty or even discomfort for others who depend on the tried-and-true way of doing things. To reduce uncertainty, subconsciously rejecting a creative idea may be easier than accepting it. Even in cases in which creative ideas show promise, it's still hard for other people to accept them, researchers say.
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Working Moms: Work-Life Balance Affected By Language Used, Kellogg Study Finds
Huffington Post: Very few employers have figured out how to make work -- and life -- manageable for working mothers, but what if it's not just our work-life policies that are flawed? What if even the language we use to discuss working motherhood is problematic and making it more difficult for women to navigate office and family life? That's the argument made by Nicole Stephens, an assistant professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, based on research she conducted from April to November 2010.
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Women not risk averse, study finds
Financial Post: A growing number of studies suggest having women in a company's boardroom and executive suites fundamentally changes the corporation's decision-making process -and can improve the balance sheet. While this is usually attributed to the fact women take fewer risks than men, a study published this month suggests the stereotype of women as cautious risk-avoiders misses the mark. Bernd Figner, a scientist at the Center for Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School who studies when and how people take risks, suggests women are every bit as likely to step outside their security zones as men - the two sexes just do so in different ways. Read the whole story: Financial Post
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7 Simple Ways to Stay Healthier at Work
ABC News: Spending an average of 40 hours per week at work can be physically and mentally draining, but the workplace can also be unhealthy in other ways as well. Sitting or standing for long periods of time can cause pain and other adverse effects, and there can also be nutritional traps, such as vending machines, that could contribute to weight gain. But experts say there are numerous things people can do to make their workplaces healthier. The following pages feature simple tips for keeping healthy at work. Check out 1-7 here: ABC News
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Men With Wide Faces: Frauds or Financial Wizards?
Forbes: I’m not sure what to think about this new research, so I’ll just pass it on . . . Men with wider faces not only are perceived as untrustworthy, they may deserve the reputation, according to an article in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee discovered that broad-faced men appear more likely to deceive their counterparts in negotiations and are more willing to cheat in order to increase their financial gain. In one study, experimenters measured the facial width-to-height ratio of 192 Masters of Business Administration students, 115 of whom were men.
