Are you a master prankster or are you the frequent victim of an Ashton Kutcher wanna-be?
Either way you could win a fun prize from the YDR.
The business staff wants to know about your April Fool's Day shenanigans. Leave a comment telling us about your best workplace prank or your most embarrassing moment of gullibility. The more details the better.
Picture this:
Joey and Susy are sitting in the living room talking about baseball players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame trying to remember who the inductees were a few years back. Susy is positive it was one player, while Joey swears it was someone different. Joey says hold on, runs out of the room and Googles the information. Susy sits in the living room awkwardly because the conversation has died.
Now change the scenario and instead of Joey leaving the room to look up the information, he pulls out his iPhone to look it up. That still leaves Susy sitting awkwardly on the sofa because the conversation is still dead because Joey is focused on the phone.
In the world we live today, we are used to having instant access to information. While people may think twice about actually abandoning a conversation to leave the room to look something up, most think nothing of pulling out their smart phone to do the same thing.
I don't work at one of those offices that have a gym inside them for employees to use and I've always been kind of happy about that fact.
I like working out in private (or as private as a regular gym can be). I don't like people seeing me sweat while I'm running or chug water while I'm cycling -- especially if they are the same people I work with on a daily basis. I like to keep up some level of professionalism around them, and somehow being seen all sweaty doesn't scream professional.
I was mortified the other day at the gym when someone recognized me after I spent an hour in spin class. I wished I had magical powers to mind erase and make her think she saw me dressed in my work clothes, not my sweat-laden Under Armour.
As I've mentioned in many previous posts, I am a huge sports fan. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that I was fairly excited about the start of the NCAA basketball tournament.
I wrote a story for Friday's paper about how March Madness affects workplace productivity. Every year all these studies are published saying companies lose millions because workers aren't doing their jobs.
But what I found was totally different. Turns out people do take their jobs seriously and instead of dedicating the whole day to watching the game, many people will head to a sports bar during their lunch hour or take a half day or use their multitasking skills to check scores and do their work.
Piggybacking on my previous post about why Gen Y doesn't seem to work as hard as our parents, one local company is apparently taking the Gen Y work ethic as a fact of life.
(Basically, to save you a search through the archives, we don't work as hard because big business threw our parents away like they were disposable cans, and both our generation and our parents are worth better)
Johnson Controls, parent company of the former York International, is co-sponsoring a study to see how the company can better cater to this group and retain them as employees. The logic is simple: Older workers retire, and we're all you got left.
See the story here.
What do you think of this move?
Do you have stuff you wish you would have known about the workplace before you got there?
We want to hear about it.
Tell us, in 100 words or less, what you wish someone had told you about bosses, resumes, sick days -- whatever workplace wit or wisdom you have to share. Send your response to mburke@ydr.com. Include your name, age, where you work, the municipality where you live, and a daytime phone number.
Quick look around your office.
Is everyone wearing green? Are you wearing green?
I think it's great how when there is a holiday that is associated with a color that lots of people in the office wear that color to be festive at work. I know that's why I pulled on my green sweater this morning. (And because I got laughed at for not wearing green to the St. Patrick's Day parade this weekend.)
There aren't a ton of people in my department in green, but looking across other departments, people are wearing green beads or shamrock pins and other quirky Irish accessories.
What's the most festive outfit that you've seen at work today? Leave a comment and let me know.
Let's face it. Everyone hates dragging themselves to work on Monday morning. And come Friday, most employees have their minds set on pushing through to the weekend.
But what about they days in between?
According to a survey by Accountemps, Tuesdays are the most productive day of the workweek.
I face real terror every weekday.
And it occurs as the clock approaches 5:30 p.m.
My heart starts to pound, and I wonder how I can possibly get all my work done in time to rush out the door, speed through rush-hour traffic on Route 30 and make it to my daughter's daycare before it closes at 6 p.m.
