NYT: Zynga's Tough Culture Risks a Talent Drain

“We’ve learned that when companies treat talent as a commodity, the consequences are severe,” said Ms. Toledano of Electronic Arts. “It takes years to repair a reputation.”

For full article, click the link above.

Longer Vacations = More Productivity

In Europe, 4 to 6 weeks of vacation are mandated by law. Compare that to the U.S., where we have no such mandates and are sometimes asked to give up our vacation time for a pressing project. According to Joe Robinson, author of Work to Live, those European countries with mandated vacation are all as productive or in some cases, more productive than the U.S. Studies have shown that when you do take time for vacations, your overall performance improves. Vacation time, which doesn't include "working vacations" of checking e-mail and still actually working, renews the spirit and provides fresh inspiration.

The news is worst for women workaholics. The Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, WI conducted a study of 1500 working women and found that women who only had a vacation once in 6 years were twice as likely to report damaging problems to their health such as hypertension, anxiety, and depression, than women who took regular vacations each year.

Industry comes clean on crunch

Results from Develop's Quality of Life in 2009 survey:

"Ninety-eight per cent of game developers across the world do not receive paid overtime, despite being frequently asked to work an extra ten to fifteen hours per week."

Paid Maternity Leave is a Win-Win Formula

In this op-ed for the Financial Times, Michael Skapinker argues that even in these times of economic downturn, it is more beneficial to companies and to society to have paid maternity leave than to force a mother to resign if she wants to stay with her baby. Some say that it imposes extra costs -- but on the other hand, perhaps in these times, companies may want a valued worker who comes in part-time to the office.

An excerpt:

There are not many countries in the world with no paid maternity leave. The International Labour Organisation lists only four others: Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the US. To anyone living in a country where paid maternity leave is well-established, the consequences of not having it are arresting. In the US, the law requires companies with more than 50 employees to offer at least 12 weeks' unpaid leave after childbirth. What do US mothers do after that?

Women who hit glass ceiling are pushed to start new businesses

"New research from the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Business Administration suggests Parry is correct. Professors found that the perception that women will have more family-work conflicts than men exists today, even when evidence runs to the contrary.

They also found the stereotype affects women's upward mobility, said Jenny Hoobler, an assistant professor of management who led the study.

"We found that rather than women's actual family-work conflict, bosses' biased perceptions" of it account for why women are given fewer promotions, she said."

Co-worker hobbies encourage synergy, productivity

Staff sing from one hymn sheet

Take a leaf out of these corporate bibliophiles' book, FT, Oct 14, 2008

"Reading, especially high quality reading, is the mental equivalent of losing weight, eating better or going to the gym and has similar benefits."

2 articles from the Financial Times highlight that corporate programs done for seemingly frivolous entertainment have led to synergy and increased productivity.

The Sony Philharmonic Orchestra, composed mostly of engineers in Sony's divisions, has had the positive side effect of collaborations between departments. Reading programs have led to reading groups and book clubs. Reading not only improves communication skills but also, research of brain scans indicate that people who read literature, such as Shakespeare, have dramatic spikes in positive brain activity.

A Bad Boss Can Send You to an Early Grave

Fear the seagull manager!

"Then—-instead of getting the facts straight and working alongside their staff to realize a viable solution-—seagull managers come swooping in at the last minute, they squawk orders at everybody, and deposit steaming piles of formulaic advice before abruptly taking off..."

Tecmo Settles Overtime Suit

"The suit, which was filed with the Tokyo District Court in June 2008, claimed that under Tecmo’s "flexible hours" work scheme, employees were not paid appropriately for their overtime hours, which often exceeded 100 hours per month. The suit also alleged that the company created false documents to cover up the accounting documents..."

Maternity leave in the U.S.

from New York Times article "Give a Break to Americans Giving Birth," November 4, 2006

According to a 2004 study by Jody Heymann, an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, more than 160 countries offer some sort of leave for new mothers, paid by the government. Those that don't include Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Lesotho - and the United States.

The Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for men and women. And even then it covers only people who have worked basically full-time for at least one year at companies with 50 or more employees. That means about 40% of working women don't qualify for leave under the FMLA.

Flex Time Good For Your Health

"Following participants for one year, researchers found that if an employee's job flexibility improved over the course of 365 days, so did their healthy habits..."

Study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Study: Americans not taking time for vacation

Nearly one in five workers responding to a recent survey said it has been three or more years since they took five days off in a row for a vacation.

Pass the Pasta, Please, and Hold the Stress

Washington Post, July 10, 2007

Better quality of life in the workplace increases productivity.