Freelancing Heritage

Surprise!  Working 'gigs' as a freelancer was once the norm.  Professor Stephen Mihm of the U of Georgia shed light on how Americans went from working on farms or apprenticing in a trade, to plying one's skills as a contingent worker in the early days of the Industrial Revolution.  The advent of factories introduced more stable work, but even then people had to find fill-in work when business dipped.  While we freelancers may not want to claim hobos and tramps as our early mentors, we do share some of the perils of self-employment.  We now account for at least 40% of the workforce; that is comparison to 12.5% in 1990.  Fasten your seatbelts - we are in new, old, territory.  (Source:  Hartford Courant 7/19/2015, via Bloomberg View)

National Sleep Debt

Lack of sleep makes us sick, fat and stupid* - and sleep evangelist Arianna Huffington is leading the way for companies to tell employees to 'unplug' at home.  After fainting and requiring facial stitches, she literally had a 'wake-up' call about her sleepless lifestyle.  Sleep-hygiene courses are enlightening people about the facts of workplace fatigue - such as, skimping on 2 hours of sleep is like drinking 2 beers.  Our 24/7 society is messing with our 'natural body clocks' -- and our gadgets are keeping us alert when we should be snoozing.  So get informed - check out Harvard's sponsorship of a Sleep Matters Initiative.  (*James Maas, author of "Sleep for Success", as quoted in a Reader's Digest article, March, 2015 - "Sounding the Alarm on Sleep")

Stormy Weather = Results!

Conventional wisdom says we don't perform well in gloomy weather - depression and mopey moods stunt our productivity ...  BUT ...  Science says we are more task-oriented when not distracted by thoughts of basking under sunny skies.  While our creativity is likely to flourish when our moods match good weather, the best time to tackle those to-do lists is when you are stuck inside, anyway.  (Source:  "Let It Snow.  There's Work To Be Done." by Matt Richtel, Applied Science section of the NYT - 2/15/15.)

Hoarding Knowledge

  

Where are you on a continuum of guarding your knowledge?  Fascinating NYT article, "When Those Who Know Won't Share" by Phyllis Korkki (Applied Science, 10/19/14) reports that employees hoard what they know for a range of reasons -- a 'continuum of deception'.  My Catholic upbring might call it a 'sin of omission.' 

Worker justifications ranged from the fairly benign -- confidentiality concerns -- to 'playing dumb' by giving half-truths or not following up as promised.

Research, and common sense, tells us the organization suffers from knowledge-hiding.  Creativity is dampened, and a lot of energy goes into protecting one's turf.

Unfortunately, many of us have been betrayed by sharing our knowledge with others, but we should try to keep the flow of information and ideas open.

Unpaid Security Screenings

Warehouse workers are having a day in court -- the Supreme Court.  Seems it is common practice to screen workers before they leave work, to guard against theft.  Workers at Amazon and similar companies claim it can consume 25 minutes a day; the warehouses say it is closer to 5 minutes.  This is unpaid time.

Let's divide the difference: If an average screening is 12 minutes, that is an hour of the employee's time for a 5 day work week.  Or 48 hours a year.  So for argument's sake, that is equivalent to about 6 days of work a year, assuming an 8-hour shift.

So far, the employers' case has ruled the day.  But there must be a way to compensate workers for making sure they are not stealing, right?  Maybe a quarterly bonus, or compensatory time off.