Taking a lunchtime walk provides employees with a much-needed afternoon mood boost. A team of researchers led by psychological scientist Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani of Curtin University in Australia made use of a specially designed cell phone app to gauge the changes in people’s mood in the moment, in an attempt to get a more accurate picture of how exercise influences mood throughout the workday. Analysis of…
Walking at Lunchtime Buffers Against Workplace Stress
Work Environment Plays Key Role in Well-Being and Happiness
Researchers from the UK have found that the work environment has a significant effect on a person’s perception of well-being and happiness. Queen Mary University of London investigators discovered positive aspects of working life — such as high levels of control at work, good support from supervisors and colleagues, and feeling cared for — were linked to higher levels of life happiness. Researchers discovered higher…
Top 10 Most Depressive Professions
You think that you have the hardest job in the world and that other people love their jobs? Relax, it’s not true. The proof of this is the rating of the most depressive professions in which you will hardly find yours, which means that you’re luckier than many others. And well, if you can find there yours there’s nothing you can do about it. Either…
4 Ways To Make Your Workspace More Productive
What’s happening around you can be just as important as what’s going on in your head. Open floor plans might promote collaboration, but they are clearly hotbeds of distraction. So there’s a trade-off: More collaboration, less productivity. It turns out, for example, that bad weather is good for productivity. It all comes down to distractions, according to a Harvard Business School study. The more distracted people…
7 Worst Habits of Workaholics
“Many people feel like they have to push themselves to unhealthy levels in order to succeed. But high-pressure jobs and long hours take a real toll on your immediate and future health,” says George Griffing, M.D., professor of internal medicine at Saint Louis University. Here, according to Griffing are the seven worst habits to watch out for in these workaholic times. 1. Forgetting to relax: While some stress can be…
First Impressions: The Science of Meeting People
A strong handshake and assertive greeting may not be the best way to make a good first impression. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy of Harvard Business School is studying how we evaluate people we meet. When we meet individuals or groups for the first time, we mostly evaluate two metrics: trustworthiness and confidence. When we form a first impression of another person it’s not really a single…
What You Need To Succeed
Whether you succeed at work may depend on many factors—intelligence, empathy, self-control, talent and persistence, to name a few. But one determinant may outweigh many of these: how you perceive those around you. A Key Component of Achievement – Psychological Capital Psychological capital reflects our capacity to overcome obstacles and push ourselves to pursue our ambitions. It is a mixture of efficacy (self-confidence) resilience (you believe…
Overwork / Underwork – Two Sides of Male Depression
Overwork and Underwork; two sides of worthlessness in male depression. How insistence on social connections can break through. The case of overwork Al commented: “I have never been a guy who can just take time off without feeling wrong and guilty. So I work 70 hours or more a week. It is killing me, I think, but what in the world would I do with the time…
Flexible Workplaces Promote Better Health Behaviour and Well-Being
A flexible workplace initiative improved employees’ health behavior and well-being, including a rise in the amount and quality of sleep and better health management, according to a new study by University of Minnesota sociology professors Erin Kelly and Phyllis Moen, which appears in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. The key findings show that employees participating in the flexible workplace initiative…
Dealing with a Passive-Aggressive Boss
If you’ve ever experienced the great shut-out from a passive-aggressive boss, you know how nerve-wracking such treatment can be. And if you’ve followed the dynamics of the “Terrible Office Tyrant” or “TOT,” you can easily picture your boss as a child who doesn’t get his way and chooses to ignore you. But you can empower yourself to manage this kind of boss – and create…