I set my foot in the corporate world in 1997, holding my phone (the size of my shoe), wearing my large lapelled, purple dress-suit with so much pride, enthusiasm and naivety. Since those heady days, I have seen more corporate trends come and go than mobile phones. Ok small exaggeration, but I feel you get me….
Category: Quick n Easy Science Reads
Happiness at Work???
This is part of our quick reads series; helping you stay informed without hogging your precious time. This post covers the peer-reviewed academic paper shown below. Happiness has fascinated philosophers and the rest of us since, like, forever. However mainstream science only jumped on the bandwagon recently with the birth of ‘positive psychology’. The good…
Wellbeing at Work: A Case Study
But first This is part of our quick reads series; helping you stay informed without hogging your precious time. This post covers a wellbeing at work case study (in manufacturing) written up in Occupational Health in 2015. I’m sure you know when you are experiencing wellbeing and when you are not. However, this does not…
Are those plants on your desk helping you focus?
Yes, plants can help you perform better at certain tasks, maybe. A study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology asked 34 students to perform certain cognitive tasks. Half had four plants on their desk (including some flowers) the other half used the same room, performed the same task, but had no plants to keep them…
Wellbeing at Work: What Promotes it?
This is part of our quick reads series; helping you stay informed without hogging your precious time. This post summarises a presentation at the 2017 World Congress for the International Positive Psychology Association on what promotes wellbeing at work. Background The goods news is work (even with its inherent challenges and dramas) is good for…
Work life-integration matters for employees AND employers!
Since the 1960s the family dynamic has been changing, with women more involved in the workforce and men more involved in family life. This shift in balance is a shift in the right direction for equality. However, research demonstrates workplaces have not kept up with these trends, making work-life integration difficult (especially for families). Why…
Habits Big & Small: Flossing Investigated
This post is a summary of some research on flossing. Before you yawn and go to sleep there is more here than meets the eye or should I say teeth? The authors open with discussing the importance of automaticity i.e., once we have reached auto-pilot with habits, our conscious mind is no longer engaged, a…
How and when do habits form?
When behaviours are repeated in consistent settings (places, times, with certain people etc.) they become automatic responses, that is, they become habits. But how do habits form? How long do they take to form? How is this different with each person? And how important is reward (or reinforcement) in this process? Rewards: do they matter?…
Changing Circumstance, Disrupting Habits
Habits are automatic How much did you today that was simply a repetition of yesterday? Was your breakfast similar? Maybe it was different but you sat in the same chair or ate it at the same time? What about the order of your morning ablutions? The route you took to work? The irresistible snack you…
Red meat and death: Were our ancestor so smart?
A fascinating study published recently is definitely worth a read in this day of low carb high-fat diet trends. The study followed over half a million Americans aged 58 to 71 years, for 16 years. That is a huge sample size so worth taking very seriously. Many of the participants were dead by the end…