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Showing posts from September, 2022

How going above and beyond at work became required

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  Remember my article about quite quitting? Well this one is related a little bit. These days, workers expect to exceed their job descriptions if they want to get ahead — or even keep their positions at all. How did we get here? Whether it’s staying late, working through the weekend to perfect a project, or showing up no matter what, many employees routinely put in more hours and perform more tasks than their job description sets out. And though for some, that extra effort is about getting one step ahead in their career, for others, it feels like a built-in, minimum expectation from their employer. This reality has been laid bare by the quiet quitting phenomenon, where disengaged workers refuse to work beyond the hours and tasks they’re paid to do. It’s sparked a wildfire discussion, central to which is the idea of how normalised it’s become to expect workers to do more and more in the first place. The reality is that a workplace culture that requires employees to go the extra mile...

How luck works

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  Can you change your luck? Is fortune something real? It’s difficult to say. There are times when everything seems to go wrong. They don’t give him the job he asked for, his back hurts, he doesn’t raise the closure of his dress, his cat doesn’t stop vomiting, etc. Suddenly he encounters setbacks of all kinds and feels that his life is going from bad to worse. He’s not superstitious, but he’s starting to wonder if he just doesn’t have good luck. Why does nothing seem to go well? I’ve felt that way lately. Hoping that my outlook would improve, I went to three experts who helped me understand why we believe in luck and how we can take advantage of that belief to make real changes in our attitude towards life. What is luck? People define luck in three different ways, according to Jacqueline Woolley, professor of psychology at the University of Texas, in Austin, United States. First of all, we often use the term luck as a synonym for “luck”. We could say that it would be a matter of lu...

Remote workers: Work longer not harder

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  The return to the office is well under way, just as summer in the northern hemisphere begins. Pretty soon, people will be able to resume the habit of staring wistfully out of the window, hoping it will still be sunny at the weekend. As many workers embrace a hybrid pattern, perhaps commuting 2–3 days a week, the experiment in full-time home-working is ending. At the same time, assessments of its effectiveness are proliferating. Early surveys of employees and employers found that remote work did not reduce productivity. But a new study* of more than 10,000 employees at an Asian technology company between April 2019 and August 2020 paints a different picture. The firm uses software installed on employees’ computers that tracked which applications or websites were active, and whether the employee was using the keyboard or a mouse. (Shopping online didn’t count.) The research certainly concluded that the employees were working hard. Total hours worked were 30% higher than before the ...

Quiet quitting or just doing your job?

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  When an employee only does what is required it is called quient quitting. This is an answer by a Gen Z: No! if I am doing what is required I am doing my job! Employers are used to workers giving 110% because of the need to keep their jobs. Now there is plenty of work and workers are very well trained and able to find another job quickly, so there is no need for them to give that 110% (which by the way is not paid). Another point is that Millennials and Gen Z put their mental health first and their limits, money is not everything. Employers are used to Baby Boomers and Gen Xers giving their life for their job, well not anymore! They are retired now, so if they want an “above and beyond” from us, pay us more. And no! It’s not quiet quitting, I’m just doing the job I’m paid to do, if you want more from me, raise my salary, and if you’re not happy, I’ll give you a real quit. Stop always demonizing the employee! We have a life outside of work and bills to pay.