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Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim would like to put you on a 3-day workweek.
Working a shorter week would likely make most people feel happier and even more productive, experts say. But research suggests it may also help boost employment rates.
]]>Will Obama’s overtime plan create more part-time jobs?
Quentin Fottrell write in his recent MarketWatch piece, ”Under current rules, many companies don’t have to pay overtime to salaried workers who make more than $455 per week (roughly $24,000 a year). The Obama administration is expected to direct the Labor Department to raise that threshold, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday.”
As I told Quentin, “We will see companies working to bring this work in on a contract basis instead of a salaried basis” to avoid paying overtime, says Steve Langerud, workplace consultant and principal of Steve Langerud & Associates in Grinnell, Iowa.
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“As cardinals from all over the world gather to decide on the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, the use of cellphones is strictly forbidden,” reports MarketWatch today. “Call it the cardinal rule: The digital wall of silence surrounding the papal conclave may be catching on in the corporate world, as well.”
Increasingly, companies are banning the use of smartphones and other devices during important meetings, writes Quentin Fottrell. “The bottom line, says Steve Langerud, a workplace consultant and director of professional opportunities at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., is that the word in the board room at many companies is now, ‘If you’re going to be present for meetings, leave your phone in your office.’ Obviously, going cold turkey on Facebook and Twitter — even during important staff or board meetings — isn’t easy for some. Employees rely on their phones much like a virtual security blanket, Langerud says, as well as using tablets and smartphones for work.”
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