emm in sem

Employees might not even be sober: 24 percent admit to having a drink. Twenty-six percent say they take naps. Others are distracted by housekeeping: 35 percent do household chores; 28 percent cook dinner. Yet despite all the distractions, telecommuters are actually more productive than their peers in the office[.]

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What People Really Do When They’re ‘Working From Home’ - Businessweek

It’s settled, then. Afternoon cocktails in my office from this day forward.—misterjt

“Yet despite all the distractions, telecommuters are actually more productive than their peers in the office[.]” That’s the important part of the story.

(via swirlspice)

sarahlee310:

In today’s ever-increasingly cutthroat work environment, a common notion among employees and bosses alike tends to be, “he who works latest works best.” And while it seems that the 40-hour work week has been largely dispensed with in our hardworking culture, new studies show that working more very seldom produces better results. Employees work many more hours now than they have in the past, but it’s coming at the expense of health, happiness, and even productivity. While it looks good to be the first to arrive and the last to leave work each day, it turns out that putting in 60 hours of work each week may do more harm than good in achieving end results. This infographic examines some of the lesser-known statistics regarding overtime work and its effects, and through it one thing becomes extremely clear: To boost productivity and foster excellent employees, the best thing businesses can do is to bring back the 40-hour work week.

(via Bring back the 40-hour work week | TechRepublic)

Frankly, I think we should be pushing for 32 hour work weeks. Let more folks be employed and everyone enjoy a bit more time actually living.

We can deal with unemployment every bit as effectively by having people work fewer hours, as we can by increasing demand.

The most important point to realize is that the problem facing wealthy countries at the moment is not that we are poor, as the stern proponents of austerity insist. The problem is that we are wealthy. We have tens of millions of people unemployed precisely because we can meet current demand without needing their labor.

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There is nothing natural about the length of the average work week or work year and there are, in fact, large variations across countries. The average worker in Germany and the Netherlands puts in 20% fewer hours in a year than the average worker in the United States. This means that if the US adopted Germany’s work patterns tomorrow, it would immediately eliminate unemployment.

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—	Why Americans should work less – the way Germans do \| Dean Baker \| Comment is free \| guardian.co.uk (via swirlspice)