GTK: Hawthorne Effect

Here's another first installment of a new series: GTK - Good To Know.

HR Professionals are familiar with many names and concepts, but sometimes it's difficult to remember what something was exactly about. GTK helps refresh the memory with a few bullet points.

Hawthorne Effect

• based on experiments at the Hawthorne Works, 1924-1932
• Elton Mayo was involved in the experiments
• study about the effects of changes of the work environment on worker's productivity
• workers changed their behavior because human beings like feeling important
  
• give your employees special attention, but remember that the effect is only short-term

Sources

• Wikipedia
• 12manage
• Leibniz Universitaet Hannover (glossary)

Inspiration
Cali & Jody wrote about a post on 37signals and somebody mentioned the Hawthorne Effect in the comments.
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Better Know A Strange Labor Law: Italy

This is the first installment of our new series "Better Know A Strange Labor Law".

The labor laws in your own country may not always make sense to you, but at least you're used to them. If you start working in another country however, you will encounter labor laws which may seem a bit strange.

(Please also read the disclaimer at the bottom of this post)

Italy: The Country
Italy is a country in Southern Europe and looks like a boot. The Italians (back then Romans) were famous for their bloody entertainment long before Hollywood (gladiators and lions). Italians are crazy about football but you mustn't mention the word "soccer". Awesome food, beautiful women, great weather.

Italy: The Crazy Labor Law
"Trattamento Di Fine Rapporto" (TFR) is difficult to translate, but "end-of-service payment" comes quite close.

If an employee leaves your company, you will have to pay the equivalent of roughly one monthly salary per year of service. Some consider this a severance payment, but the money is also due in case of resignation.

If you start a company in Italy, make sure that your local adviser doesn't only explain the costs for base salary, social security and pension, but also ask him about the different mandatory accruals and their consequences.

Since 2007 companies with 50 or more employees must pay the TFR into a pension fund, which is easier to understand.

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Disclaimer:
I ain't no lawyer. This doesn't constitute in any way, shape, form or size legal advice. I got all my information from Google ads and TV commercials. If you really, really need serious advice, contact a lawyer. But first tell him your favorite lawyer joke. If he laughs, find a real lawyer.

Email Guerrilla Techniques (Only Apply If Really, Really Desperate)

Sometimes your workload can become just too much and you have no clue how to get the situation back under control. Desperate times call for... Guerrilla Techniques!

Just be careful if you really wish to apply them since your boss and co-workers might not be too happy about it.

Does this sound familiar? Your inbox contains more messages than there are stars in the sky. You read most of them, but can't remember if and what you're supposed to do.

Email Guerrilla Technique #1

• Move all messages from your inbox to a folder called "TooMuch", "IGiveUp" or whatever makes you feel better.
• Start over with a clean slate
• Never go to this folder again unless you're looking for a specific message you know must be in there somewhere.
• Trust me, you won't go to this folder nearly as often as you might think.

More Guerrilla Techniques soon.
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Credit Suisse Employees Without Facebook, Nestle Employees Are Vaccinated

Shocking news: employees at Credit Suisse are cut off from Facebook!

The free daily Swiss newspaper (newsrag...) 20 Minutes reports (in French) that CS has made sure their employees can't access Facebook at work.

I think this is stupid.

If your employees have the freedom to check their personal email, update their Facebook profile, watch a clip on YouTube and read some blogs, then they will be much more willing to stay late at the office to finish an urgent project (or just stay late at the office).

If this sounds like exploitation of the workforce to you, then let me feel the heat of your righteous anger in the comments.

Back to the original article, I also liked the quote from Nestle's PR guy:

Nous engageons des collaborateurs adultes, responsables et vaccinés.
(We hire employees who are grown-up, responsible and vaccinated.)

Never underestimate the value of a healthy workforce ;-)

Mid-Life Crisis Through The Generations

Some musings and random thoughts about mid-life crisis...

GI's / Veterans:
They're too old, they can't remember that far back.

Baby Boomers:
Panic. "My life is almost over, did I achieve anything?"

Gen X:
Mid-life crisis happens much earlier than for previous generations. "What do I really want? How can I achieve more? Is there a new time management book available on Amazon?"

Gen Y:
They don't care. They think they will live forever.

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Disclaimer: if this post offended you, then you're probably not from my generation...

Quote: Intelligence And Work-Life Balance

This is a quote from Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy":

[..] man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time.

But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.

What if the dolphins were right?

When It's Time To Go

Sometimes it's time to look for a new job. Even if you don't want to face it, your subconscious may be trying to send you a message right now.

How to listen to your subconscious? It's actually very easy. Start writing a "weekly top ten favorite songs"-list. If some or all of the songs below appear on your list more and more often, then it's time to look for a new challenge:

1. Linkin Park - In The End (it doesn't really matter)
2. Ozzy - Crazy Train (I'm going off the rails on a crazy train)
3. Queen - I'm Going Slightly Mad (it finally happened, I'm slightly mad)
4. Johnny Cash - I Got Stripes (stripes around my shoulders, chains around my feet)
5. Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains (You’ll get the message by the time I’m through [= resignation letter?])

Don't worry if Green Day's "Holiday" is on your list. A (definitely not) representative survey showed that this is an all-time favorite song with the working population aged 25-45.

And if "I Believe In Miracles" by the Ramones is on your list, at least 2 of the following things apply to you:

• you're old
• there's still hope for you
• you're beyond hope

Finally, if the only song you're listening to is Offspring's "Why Don't You Get A Job", then it's definitely time to do something, although it could either mean finding a new job or getting rid of your darling...