Office courtesy
New app lets coworkers anonymously rate each other
We rate our restaurants, our exes, our professors, our workplaces — why not our coworkers? A new app, Knozen, launched by Marc Cenedella, former TheLadders CEO, aims to do just that. As Business Insider reports, the free app “pits two coworkers against each other and asks the user a series of questions” to gauge their personalities. […]
Channeling FIFA fever can improve employee productivity
It sounds counterintuitive. Workers watching the FIFA World Cup means less work gets done, right? Not necessarily. If you assume workers are adults who plan their tasks around matches, productivity need not dip. Eighty percent of the world is watching the World Cup, and, according to a survey, a majority of employees watched or listened to […]
Privacy vs. partnership: Tweaking the office open-floor plan
As many cubicle workers can attest, the in-vogue office open-floor plan doesn’t always contribute to productivity. In fact, it can hinder it. While open-floor plans have been popular in interior design over the last decade or so, their efficacy is now being questioned by designers and planners — not to mention, the earplug-wearing workers long disturbed […]
Office perks: What employees really want
Last week, the Society for Human Resource Management released its annual Employee Benefits Survey. The survey provides comprehensive information about the types of benefits U.S. employers offer employees. The major takeaway from this year’s results: Employers are spending more to keep their employees in good health, even if they have to sacrifice other benefits. According to the […]
Office temperature troubles: New app tackles top worker complaint
Office temperature control: It sounds simple, but, as workers in frigid offices around the country can testify, it isn’t. More often than not, workers bundle up in the summer thanks to HVAC systems that waste energy and over-cool office occupants. As FastCo reports, a new app called Comfy is adjusting that imbalance. Comfy is an […]
How to keep cool (and appropriate) in the summer heat
The temperature is inching up, winter coats are tucked away in storage, and office workers throughout the country are wondering what, exactly, they should be wearing in the impending summer heat. Frigid, overly air-conditioned offices certainly don’t help the wardrobe-planning process. There are plenty of pitfalls to avoid — the embarrassment of your boss associating your […]
Green office buildings don’t necessarily promote worker happiness
Working in a green office doesn’t necessarily boost employee happiness, according to a recent study reported on by ArchDaily. The study suggests that while employees are “generally satisfied” working in LEED buildings, their happiness isn’t any greater than those employees’ who work in non-LEED buildings. (LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, […]
Employees too guilty to take breaks at work, new survey says
Despite the majority of workers spending more than eight hours on the job each day, over 25 percent of employees don’t take a break other than lunch. Their excuse? A new survey from Staples, reports Yahoo Finance, reveals that one in five of those employees surveyed say that guilt prevents them from taking breaks at […]
“Lunch hour” becoming a misnomer in America
A report from MarketWatch declares the decline of the “lunch hour,” a phenomenon we all know to be true. But the report also highlights the new services that cater to the time-starved employees who want to do more with the limited time they have and are profiting from this trend. Employees are forsaking their already truncated […]
Workplace stress has caused 42% of workers to switch jobs
A staggering 42 percent of employees have changed jobs because of stress, according to a survey reported on by Forbes. The Monster.com survey polled almost 7,000 U.S. workers and discovered that 35 percent “contemplated” leaving a job to escape a stress-filled situation, while 42 percent actually packed up their office supplies and left. Work stress […]