news from workSMART

Have you ever found it hard to keep up a smile at work? If so, spare a thought for staff in the Japanese service sector, who since the 80’s have been trained to smile as much as possible throughout the day. The nation’s perma-grin is starting to take its toll on its workers, predominantly younger women. Suppressing their emotions all day means they find it hard to turn off the smile and manage emotions when they leave for the day, leading in severe cases to stress and depression. Leo Lewis has the story in The Times

posted 12/02/2008

Coming soon to a lunchbreak near you! Friday 22nd February is Work Your Proper Hours Day. It’s a day to mark the amount of unpaid overtime done by UK employees, and prompt people to think a bit more about their work/life balance (or the lack of it). Read more…

posted 04/01/2008

Chances are that if you walk round most offices, you’ll see a couple of Dilbert cartoons posted on the walls. Scott Adams’ Dilbert cartoon strip first appeared in 1989, and his 3 panel adventures have graced the funnies pages of over 1500 newspapers and magazines, lampooning the people and processes of the modern business world. No matter the work situation, there’s a cartoon to cover it. Read more…

posted 21/12/2007

You know those unpleasant, macho TV ads we’ve had in recent years, where employees chug super-strength cold remedies in order to drag themselves to their desks, thus avoiding the sack for being a sniffly wimp?

Well, here’s a nice antidote to them from retro syrup makers Covonia, whose latest PR survey of 4,000 office staff shows that in real life, nobody wants a mucus trooper on the desk next to them. Read more…

posted 21/11/2007

When did you last spend some quality time with your bank statements? A lot of us are skimping on our financial planning, claim financial group AXA. Their answer to the problem is My Budget Day, a day for raising awareness of financial planning, which is also supported by bosses’ organisation the CBI and the trade union Unite. Read more…

posted 19/11/2007