Pigtail-Pulling in Power Suits: The Rise of the Office Bully

You’d think, at a certain age, having to deal with bullies is far behind you. However, the modern workplace proves that, sadly, this is not the case. The office bully can hinder corporate wellness, as well as your personal sense of wellbeing. Not only are you unhappy and stressed whenever the office bully is around, but a hostile working environment also hampers your productivity, which has disastrous effects for your company. Therefore, making sure everyone gets along is a worthy goal for anyone to take on.

 

“Workplace bullying” is a pretty broad term but it basically means a repeated, wellness-damaging mistreatment of one or more people. This encompasses all negative behaviour, such as verbal abuse, offensive nonverbal behaviours, or purposefully interfering with your ability to get your work done. It sounds like a simple problem to stamp out, but more and more people are reporting being the victim of workplace bullying. In 1998, 25% of those survey revealed that they were treated rudely once a week. However, this rose to 50% in 2011, and recent evidence has also come to light which suggests you’re now more likely to be bullied in the office if you’re unattractive.

 

It’s becoming glaringly obvious that workplace bullying is a problem. Many victims of an office bully have reported developing health issues such as anxiety and depression, while some have even had to leave a job to escape a negative working environment. But why has the situation become so dire? Some experts blame the recession, as this may have put so much undue pressure on your boss that he or she is taking it out on you. It may be the case that it’s just a natural personality thing, as many workplace bullies score high on tests of narcissism and self-orientation.

 

However, Dr. Christine Porath, a Georgetown University professor who studies workplace incivility, points out that you can become so overwhelmed by your work responsibilities that you don’t even realize when you’re being rude to others. While the cause of workplace bullying remains to be determined, Greatist expert and psychologist Dr. Michael Mantell, who helps train managers in workplace harassment prevention, says that recent research on workplace bullying has paved the way for efforts to prevent it. His main advice is to not let someone bully you out of achieving your best work: ‘You can’t change the bully, but you can prevent yourself from being a victim.’

Categories: bully, bullying, Negative Behaviour, office, office bully, productivity, recession, work, working environment, workplace, workplace bullying

5 Tips to Maximize Your Productivity

Despite all of the gadgets and apps humans have developed to make themselves more efficient, most people still struggle to accomplish their agendas. In fact, since most workers now carry mobile devices everywhere they go, they often feel obligated to work from any place at any time. Every advance that people make in productivity seems to be driven backward by an increased workload. Life can turn into an eternal to-do list that never seems to end.

 

Books, podcasts, blogs and Internet empires have sprung up to help people become more productive. Whether they’re small entrepreneurs or MBA graduates (click this link to learn about graduate business schools), everyone wants to work smarter and faster. The secret has less to do with technology than it does with proven timesaving techniques. These five tips can help anyone to accomplish more during their workdays.

 

Make the Most of Your Mornings

Frank Lloyd Wright got up at 4 a.m. Margaret Thatcher was up by 5 a.m. These historical heavyweights are just two examples of the myriad successful artists, CEOs, government executives and other influential people who rise early every day. Jennifer Cohen, CEO of No Gym Required and national spokesperson for Weight Watchers, recommends these activities to kick off the morning:

 

• Exercise. Most people who exercise regularly exercise in the morning. Exercise gives a sense of accomplishment and a boost of energy at the beginning of the day.


• Eat a healthy breakfast. Eating a quick bowl of oatmeal gives people a chance to socialize with their families on the way out the door. Breakfast also helps with concentration and makes it easier to eat healthily throughout the day.


• Make a schedule for the day. Use quiet, uninterrupted morning time to set the day’s priorities. When making a schedule for the day, remember to include breaks between activities, particularly if those activities are stressful.


• Visualize. Taking some time to visualize the day ahead can provide a sense of calm and mastery. Take time to close the eyes and breathe deeply while picturing the successes the day will bring.

 

 

Avoid Getting Buried by Email

Productivity expert Tim Ferriss says that email is “everyone else’s agenda for your time.” Spending the day responding to email makes people feel more productive than they actually are. People have different strategies for staying on top of email, but the worst strategy is to answer emails that contain manufactured emergencies all day long. Instead, set a timer for 15 minutes at the start of the day, after lunch and before leaving, and manage email during that time. Some people program their email tools to produce on-screen previews in case important messages come up. Others find previews disruptive and avoid email altogether.

 

 

Be Top Heavy

When mapping out the day’s schedule, people should prioritize the most important activities. Schedule unpleasant activities or activities that require extensive concentration during the morning hours. Most people don’t realize how much time gets gobbled up when transitioning between activities. Allowing constant interruptions for non-priority problems creates multiple transitions in and out of activities and wastes time.

 

 

Schedule Fewer but More-Effective Meetings

Meetings are notorious time-wasters — if they aren’t planned and run authoritatively. Productive people get more done in fewer, shorter meetings. Set an agenda for each meeting, explain its context and tell attendees what the result should be. Start with difficult and more dramatic issues both to draw people into the meeting and to encourage prolonged engagement.

 

 

Limit Time Spent Online

A quick check of a New York Times article can develop into a lengthy Internet session. Turn off push notifications from social media and other apps that can disrupt valuable time. Several programs can hold workers accountable for how much time they spend online. For example, one Google Chrome extension called “StayFocusd” alerts people after they’ve spent 10 minutes on a site and then blocks the tempting URL.

 

Change won’t happen overnight, but people who adopt these tips can make radical improvements to their productivity. Pick one tip and try it for a week. If it works, then choose another to gradually build into your work life.

 

 

About the Author:

Dominique Rodriguez is a life coach who helps clients to become more focused and productive.

 

Image by PinkBlue from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Categories: activities, email, maximise, nbsp, nbsp nbsp, people, productivity, time, Tips

Top Tips for Improving Your Productivity at Work

With increasingly busy work schedules, it can be difficult to get everything in your schedule done in a single day. How productive you are at work plays an important role in how much you can get done off your to-do list, and its the thing all managers and executives are looking for. They need people who can get things done quickly and efficiently. There are many ways that you can increase your productivity, even if you’re not a naturally fast worker. Here are a few tips that can help you work through your workload more effectively.

 

Take regular breaks

While it is tempting to sit at your desk and be diligent all day, it’s actually counter-productive for your productivity. You’ll find yourself far less energised throughout the day if you don’t take a break from time to time – even five minutes away from your desk to grab some fresh air will clear your head. It helps to get the blood flowing and will give your body chance to stretch. Take a five minute break every couple of hours to get a glass of water, stretch and have a walk around the office before getting back to work. You’ll be surprised what a difference it makes.

Prioritise

Begin your morning by writing out a list of everything that needs to be done, then in the middle of the day reassess it and see what’s left, and what takes priority. It will help you to take stock of what is more important so that you can work on the right projects. Update your list as you go, keeping the more important tasks at the top so that you can constantly keep track of where your time needs to be used.

Set long-term goals

Too many employees worry about the short term, without seeing the bigger picture. Stop fretting about the phone call you just took or the email that you’ve just received, and look to projects which are more significant. Try to break it down into manageable chunks, such as two or three big-picture things that you need to accomplish and post them next to your computer as reminders of what needs to be done. It will keep them in your memory so that you can work on them alongside those more urgent tasks.

Work when no-one is around

If it’s possible, start your day a little earlier or stick around once everyone has left to go home, and you’ll notice that your productivity is significantly higher. This is because these are times when the office will be more empty, so you’re less likely to be distracted, leaving you time to get some work done. You don’t need to hang around the office until closing time, but taking a couple of nights or mornings a week to give that extra bit of your time will do wonders for your efficiency. It will also be noticed by management that you’re making the extra effort, something that will certainly be valued.

Meditate

Stress is the biggest killer of productivity, as it causes us to panic and feel overwhelmed. If you find yourself getting worked up over that looming deadline or the increasing list of projects you have to work through, take a breather. Step away from your desk, find a quiet spot in the office, and do some deep breathing exercises for a couple of minutes. You’ll find that you return to your desk far calmer and more able to work through the tasks in a manageable fashion. De-stressing is important for your mental health, as well as your productivity.

Categories: desk, efficiency, office, productivity, time, work, work wellness

What Makes a Company Excel at Creating Work-Life Balance?

The leader of any successful company will tell you that a work-life balance is good for corporate wellness; a reputation of putting employee wellbeing first increases morale, yields superior work and attracts the best talent in the market. Recently, job site Indeed.com released a list of the top 25 companies nationwide in terms of work-life balance, and director of recruiting Mark Steinerd explained, ‘Proper work-life balance makes employees feel appreciated, which in turn makes them more productive and more likely to stay with the company for an extended period of time… This list showcases those companies that, according to previous or current employees, got it right.’

 

Companies who made the list often infused balance into the work day itself, through creative managerial practices. Desk time is often the epitome of work day drudgery, and so Farhad Chowdhury, the chief executive officer of the application development firm Fifth Tribe, works with collaborators over an intensive four-mile hike rather than a conference room. The physical challenge is a great team-building exercise, and the collaborating element promotes thinking outside the box by removing professionals from the box itself. Chowdhury noted, ‘That’s why I try to do this with everyone with whom I interact professionally.’

 

Flex time also rated high on Indeed.com’s list of companies. As an employee at Wegmans explained, ‘Because I am a college student, my schedule can sometimes be all over the place. Thankfully Wegmans is more than happy to work around my school and personal schedule and make a work schedule that I can easily adhere to. For the two years I have worked at Wegmans, I have not regretted one minute of it!’ Most of us would rather work to live, rather than live to work, which means we place higher value on picking our kids up from school, attending a class or going to an important family event, than putting in the nine to five. During his 2010 TEDTalk Why Work Doesn’t Happen at Work, Jason Fried, co-founder of the Web application firm 37signals, explained a flexible professional atmosphere allows the long, uninterrupted thought required for great (and even good) work to manifest.

Categories: Balance, Companies, flexible hours, hiking, life, life balance, list, productivity, work, work day, work life

Sleep More, Do More: How to Break that Sleepless Cycle

Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything you need to, and so you create more by staying up late until you drop, and getting up early the next day to get a head start. However, sleep is not an enemy, it’s absolutely essential to your wellbeing and, if you’re still concerned about time management, getting enough sleep will actually make you more productive.

According to a new study from researchers at the University of California-San Francisco, women who slept less than six hours per night had far more inflammation than men who slept that amount. While this doesn’t prove the lack of sleep caused increased inflammation, it does raise questions about how important sleep is to your wellness. Inflammation is seen as an important factor in heart attacks and strokes, and so it’s best to avoid it by getting plenty of sleep.

Aside from this, when you get more sleep you’re more focused and effective the next day. It’s important to embrace a lifestyle that will make you happier and healthier in the short-term, as it may extend your life. What’s the point of utilising a few more hours now, when you’ll end up missing out on years later on. All it takes is getting more than six hours of sleep every night (the recommended amount is seven to nine hours). It’s a small change, but it can make a huge difference to your health and happiness.

Charles Duhigg writes in The Power of Habit that you have the ability to reshape your routine and, thus, your life. You may think you’ve been burning the midnight oil for too long to change anything now, but extinguishing that flame might be easier than you think. According to Duhigg, routines begin with a cue; in this case, wanting to get things done. However, for the routine to develop it also needs to be justified with a reward; the satisfaction of checking something else off the to-do list. This is how you get into a sleepless cycle, but you can use this knowledge to create a better routine. Change your mindset to a new cue; wanting to feel more focused and alert. Then, the reward will be that new feeling, and you’ll get the sleep you need.

Categories: change, hours, Inflammation, productivity, Routine, sleep, sleepless cycle

You’ve Got Mail: How to Stop Your Inbox Distractions

Whether you work from home, or can’t be bothered to walk to the other side of the office, email has changed the way we communicate with co-workers. However, is that handy inbox really such a blessing to corporate wellness? Or are you better off with good old-fashioned face-to-face interaction?

 

According to UC Irvine and Army researchers, relying on emails is actually making you more stressed and less productive. Employees of different professions, including psychologists and biologists, were asked to go “off the grid” for five days and…nothing happened. No one missed an opportunity, lost a job and, perhaps most surprisingly of all, the world didn’t end. Those who participated were more focused at work, were less stressed and lesser involved with multi-tasking. Plus, the volunteers enjoyed chatting at the water cooler more than usual.

 

Let’s be honest; you don’t check your emails in order to be efficient, you do it to procrastinate or give yourself a break from dull tasks. However, this cuts your concentration and can hinder productivity if you do it 17 times in a day. Still, eliminating emails isn’t always possible, and it can be nice for those times that you just need a break, so how do you make sure that you’re the boss of your own inbox?

 

1. Choose three times in a day that you will open your emails, and never deviate from those scheduled times.

 

2. Let your colleagues know about your new email action plan. If they know they’ll have to wait for a response, your co-workers may get on with things by themselves instead of bugging you.

 

3. Set filters so that your emails are divided into ones that need a speedy reply (such as ones from your boss) and ones that can wait (like cute videos of cats).

 

4. Don’t take your smartphone with you on errands or switch off your email app during non-work times. If you’re worried about upsetting colleagues, let them know that you’re taking an email break and will return soon, or that you won’t be contactable outside of office hours. Leave work stress at work, where it belongs.

Categories: Distraction, email, Emails, nbsp, productivity, times, work

How To Improve Your Motivation To Do Anything And Everything

Often people know what they need to do and how they need to do it – it’s just getting the motivation that can be the problem. Finding a way to improve your motivation can be highly beneficial for your wellness and wellbeing, however, as the mental clarity that you gain from completing a task that has been sitting on the edge of your mind for a long time can be a huge relief. The saying ‘tidy house, tidy mind’ really rings true, for example!

 

Many people make the mistake of sitting around waiting for someone or something to motivate them, but the truth is that they are going to be waiting for a very long time! The truth is, that motivation almost never occurs before a job starts. The period before undertaking a large task is not a very motivating time – you are actually more likely to feel motivated when you have started getting your teeth into a task and have a clear idea of how it is going to pan out. The start of a task is more a time of nervousness as you can feel inhibited to start because you are unsure about how something is going to work out.

 

Once you take action and get started on a project, the creative energy and motivation are more likely to kick in and help you do the task to the best of your ability. Therefore, one way to get motivation is to stop waiting for it to strike and to get stuck into the task!

 

Remember, too, that you are in control of the way you feel. If you tell yourself that you feel unmotivated, you may well talk yourself into being unmotivated (and, therefore, unproductive). You are in full control of your own motivation, and should be aware that you have to work hard to make yourself feel motivated rather than waiting for some imaginary spark to strike you.

Categories: feel, feel motivated, improve, long time, motivation, productivity, task, time, waiting

Healthy Vending Machines Create Wellness Work Environment

Corporate Wellness has gathered steam over the years, with wellness programmes being commonly found in factories, corporate offices, large corporations and small corporations alike. Now, businesses big and small are taking the next step in corporate wellness; Fresh Health Vending Machines.

The idea for these Corporate Wellness Programmes, which are designed to nurture wellbeing in workers in all types of work environments, stems from several different experiences, decades ago. Yes, companies wanted reduce healthcare expenses they were incurring on behalf of their employees, but there were also many forward-thinking companies that wanted to make the work space a more inviting and relaxing environment for their employees as well. If work is a fun place to be, surely employees won’t leave and prospective top employees will be attracted to the company.

In fact, investing in corporate wellness is one of the most vital things you can do for your company. Businesses that start Corporate Wellness programmes invest in the physical wellness, safety, and mental health of their employees, and also preventive measures by creating a healthier environment. Corporate Wellness programmes help corporations to improve their overall productivity and save money on health care expenses. You might be concern about the actual wellness return on investment (ROI), but the fact remains that healthier lifestyles create healthier employees who will work more diligently and miss fewer days of work due to illness.

So where do vending machines come in? FreshandHealthy.Org is teaming up with corporations to assist in providing the total corporate wellness solution; replacing junk food vending with healthy snack and drink options. As it stands, traditional vending machines play a huge part in the overall wellness problem within the workplace, and so business owners can now add Healthy Vending to their policies and create healthier working environments for employees.

According to Michelle Valency, Chief Wellness Advocate for FreshandHealthy.Org, ‘Policy managers love the program for the following reasons; it’s in line with their current corporate wellness initiatives. It allows the business owner discounted insurance costs and most importantly it provides ROI. We are learning that policy managers have been seeking an alternative to junk food vending and they are elated when they learn about Fresh Healthy Vending.’

Categories: productivity, vending machine, wellness environment

Is Working from Home Working Out? The Yahoo! Argument

A corporate wellness policy change made by Marissa Mayer, newly appointed CEO of Yahoo!, has put the work-at-home issue front and centre for many companies. Mayer quashed the option altogether for her employees, with much of the move’s media coverage portraying it a step backwards, but could Mayer have a point?

According to INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Erin Meyer, ‘I believe the move by Marissa Mayer was a smart one. She saw that productivity per individual at Google GOOG +2.21% was higher than productivity per individual at Yahoo!. Google generates $931,657 in revenue per employee, 170% higher than Yahoo’s $344,758 per employee. If Mayer’s goal is to increase that productivity level, bringing people into the same office space is one quick and inexpensive way to accomplish that goal.’

A memo from Jackie Reses, Yahoo! head of HR, was leaked and this is what sparked off the big debate. The memo explained, ‘To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.’

Meyer noted that face-to-face interaction helps companies to reach their objectives more easily. ‘Because we are human beings, when we collaborate, we rely heavily on what I call mutual adjustment,’ she said. ‘Mutual adjustment means that you notice how others are working around you, they notice how you are working, and through hundreds of subtle cues you adjust to one another, and the collaboration happens. When people are geographically dispersed, they don’t have the same high level of cues in order to mutually adjust which makes collaboration more difficult.’

She added, ‘It’s a myth that virtual teamwork costs less than face-to-face collaboration. There is this idea that because it requires less electricity, less desk space, and less rent to collaborate virtually, it’s therefore less expensive.  But it takes a lot more time to organise and monitor effective virtual teamwork.  When we are working together but working apart it requires a much greater effort to assure the communication has passed as expected.   Misunderstandings are more likely and that leads to higher costs.’

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Is Working from Home Working Out? The Yahoo! Argument

Categories: collaboration, Communication, face, marissa mayer, mayer, mutual adjustment, productivity, virtual teamwork, working, working from home, Yahoo

Do IT Companies Need To Re-think Productivity?

Giant American company Yahoo recently announced that they were no longer allowing people to work from home. This change in policy has been ascribed to people not getting their work done while they are working remotely. And it is a growing trend – companies are becoming increasingly intolerant of any potential time being spent away from doing work.

A large number of companies that have banned all games and applications from corporate-provisioned devices, as well as social apps like Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest. This is especially true of IT companies. The problem is that now IT has become all about productivity. Indeed, in large organisations, IT is often the driving force behind keeping people productive.

Although productivity policing isn’t an issue of technology, IT does have technology tools that make it easier to implement policies of keeping devices free from unwanted programmes. You can blacklist apps entirely, sometimes by category and sometimes simply by name. But the real issue is that companies no longer trust their employees.

There is nothing wrong with trying to protect your users from the problems of malicious apps, malware, and spyware. It’s good practice for any company. But there’s no doubt it needs to be part of any company’s culture that people take responsibility for their own actions. Often we know our minds, and if a couple of moments of browsing Twitter as a quick break allows you to re-focus, then it can definitely be a good thing.

It should be possible to harness people using apps as a good thing. Make it a part of the working schedule – social media often brings news and new ideas forward. There is no need for IT to over-police productivity.

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Do IT Companies Need To Re-think Productivity?

Categories: app, productivity, Yahoo