- ‘Work Smart, Not Hard’ Is a Lie: Why Smart Is Nice But It’s Hard that Matters
High performers typically work more hours than average performers. Simple logic explains why. If two equally skilled and motivated people engage in an activity and one person spends 25 percent more time on it, that person will produce more results, on average. The additional time they invest at work creates a virtuous cycle. More work means more learning has occurred, so that person becomes more capable and potentially a better contributor in the future. Her higher performance from her additional hours becomes known in the organization, so she receives additional opportunities to show her skills. She might get more exposure to senior leaders who can serve as sponsors or mentors. Her success isn’t guaranteed because she’s put in more hours, but she will be more likely to succeed than those who work fewer hours.
- It’s official: No one cares about your “cool” office perks
Those funky perks employers tout as supposed emblems of a great work culture are actually empty totems that employees don’t really care about.
“One of the top factors most likely to keep professionals at their company for 5+ years,” LinkedIn researchers write in a summary of the findings shared this morning with Fast Company, “is having strong workplace benefits such as PTO, parental leave, and health insurance (44%). In comparison, the least enticing factor for keeping professionals at their current companies is having in-office perks such as food, game rooms, and gyms (19%).”
https://www.fastcompany.com/40589970/its-official-no-one-cares-about-your-cool-office-perks
- Uber ruined their careers. Should it pay a price?
- Higher testosterone levels are apparently driving men to luxury goods
A new study published this week by a collaboration of very serious academic institutions has come up with a finding that’s equal parts trivial and amusing: higher testosterone levels in men have been shown to stimulate a higher preference for luxury or status symbol goods. Authored by researchers at Caltech, the Wharton School, INSEAD, ZRT Laboratory, and the Sorbonne University, the study suggests there’s a measurable causal relationship between the hormone testosterone and a person’s desire for higher-status brands and goods.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/4/17534124/caltech-testosterone-luxury-status-symbols-study-report
- When diversity training backfires
“While the capacity for white people to sustain challenges to our racial positions is limited — and, in this way, fragile — the effects of our responses are not fragile at all; they are quite powerful, because they take advantage of historical and institutional power and control. We wield this power and control in whatever way is most useful in the moment to protect our positions. If we need to cry so that all the resources rush back to us and attention is diverted away from a discussion of our racism, then we will cry (a strategy most commonly employed by white middle-class women). If we need to take umbrage and respond with righteous outrage, then we will take umbrage. If we need to argue, minimize, explain, play devil’s advocate, pout, tune out, or withdraw to stop the challenge, then we will.”
https://www.cio.com/article/3286623/it-industry/when-diversity-training-backfires.html
Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash
