Study: Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees

One of our other reporters printed out a copy of this story and handed it to one of the bosses.

Caught Twittering or on Facebook work? It’ll make you a better employee, according to an Australian study that shows surfing the Internet for fun during office hours increases productivity.

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.

Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing, said “workplace Internet leisure browsing,” or WILB, helped to sharpened workers’ concentration.

“People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,” Coker said. “Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased productivity,” he said.

According to the study of 300 workers, 70%  of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB.

Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on Youtube.

“Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity,” said Coker. “That’s not always the case.”

However, Coker said the study looked at people who browsed in moderation, or were on the Internet for less than 20 percent of their total time in the office.

“Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without,” he said.

 

Read more: Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees: study

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Jobless gather for ‘Unemployment Olympics’

You know what you are supposed to do when life hands you lemons… these guys made some fun lemonade.

Who hasn’t secretly wished he could pin the blame on his boss? Or slam office equipment against the pavement? Dozens of unemployed people got the chance to do exactly that during the tongue-in-cheek Unemployment Olympics.

In a twist on the classic game Pin the Tail on the Donkey, participants pulled a hat over their eyes and spun around before using a pushpin to attempt to Pin the Blame on the Boss.

The Manhattan event, organized by a laid-off computer programmer, was decidedly low-tech, with most games arranged with the help of cardboard, children’s paint and chalk.

Competitors also played a game of Office-Phone Skee-Ball, hurling a black phone toward chalk goal marks on the pavement. A group of schoolchildren from nearby cheered them on.

Prizes were offered by merchants from the surrounding Lower East Side neighborhood.

Nick McGlynn was among those who lined up at Tompkins Square Park in front of a cardboard hutch labeled with bright green paint as the Unemployment Office, where participants were required to show proof they had lost their jobs. The 26-year-old, who worked with video for Gawker Media until he was let go in November, said he was thrilled to have something to do besides searching the Internet and updating his blog.

The gaiety of the event was enough to make Maria Tapia smile, a welcome relief from the anxiety that accompanied her layoff in January from a job as a finance executive’s personal assistant.

“I never knew that I wanted a job this bad until I didn’t have a job,” Tapia said.

But at least at these simple games, “people are trying to look at it in a positive way,” she said.

Read more: Jobless gather for ‘Unemployment Olympics’ in NYC

Company uses “smiley faces” to create good economic times [Video]

When you see the A-Nete-Idea truck coming your way early in the morning, you know you are going to receive a smile.

“Grinners are winners, we think people are sad, sad people have no confidence, happy people go out and buy, sad people go home and hide,” Nita Clark of A-Nete-Idea said.    

Every Tuesday, they donate their smiley face sign to different companies in Stark County to help spur the economy.    

“Happy people go out and buy, sad people go home and hide,” Clark said. “We are going back to the same business over and over because they enjoy it so much and their clients enjoy it so much.”    

They also pass out smiley buttons to the company employees to wear so they feel happier and the customers they see all day will also receive a smile.    

“Bad times happen, good times are created, so I know we are making good times for people. And growing up, I realized happy times are the glue that get you through the bad times, so now I get to make a lot of glue for people,” Clark said.

Come evening, they take down their sign and put it away until next Tuesday when it comes out again to make a difference.

Read more, watch this story and smile: Stark County company using smiles to create good economic times