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Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | |
WORKPLACE
Is an office romance a good investment?
Dating the boss is rarely encouraged — but does it pay off?
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INTRA-WORKPLACE ROMANCES CAN be a powder keg at the best of times, and there is virtual consensus that dating your boss or direct subordinate is not a great idea. But alas, the heart wants what the heart wants, and we wouldn’t have the field of human resources if people always made good or ‘correct’ decisions in the workplace.
Could there be an economic upside to dating the boss, though? That’s a question a trio of researchers based in British Columbia, California and Finland set out to answer in a new working paper titled The Impacts of Romantic Relationships with the Boss.
“Romantic relationships in the workplace are common, but those between managers and subordinates have increasingly drawn scrutiny,” wrote researchers David Macdonald, Jerry Montonen and Emily Nix.
But conceding these relationships are bound to happen, they wanted to know: what happens to your income when you hook up with the boss? The economists looked at a data set on couples in Finland, and found that, in purely looking at the finances, dating your boss could help your bank account — but carries some pretty big risks.
Those in relationships with their boss stand to increase their earnings by six per cent over two years but risk an average 18 per cent drop in earnings if they break up, the research found. The study also revealed that women who break up with their managers “show a stark and prolonged drop in employment,” and they are 13 per cent more likely to leave the company, often for less money, just to get out of the messy situation.
“Together,” the researchers said, “these estimates indicate that breaking up with a workplace manager is problematic, not only because subordinates are more likely to leave the workforce but also because they make less advantageous firm-to-firm moves.”
Now, we know there are more than a few human resources professionals tearing their hair out, screaming that it is not as simple as a risk-reward calculation might make it seem. And they would be right. The research also found that outside the relationship itself, relationships between subordinates and managers have a major spillover effect on the rest of the company.
“We find a six-percentage point decline in retention of other workers in establishments where a manger enters a relationship with a subordinate,” the researchers said. And if it’s a small, tight-knit company, that effect grows, as it also does when the subordinate’s income gains are larger.
So, overall, where does the research stand on dating your boss? Still pretty firmly in the ‘bad idea’ bucket. A six per cent increase in your wages over two years isn’t really enough juice to justify the risks. But equally, the researchers concede it’s still going to happen and banning it is futile.
“Such bans come with their own costs,” they wrote. “If similar rules had existed at Microsoft or Sidley Austin Law Firm, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Barack and Michelle Obama, would have been barred from dating.”
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ADVANCEMENT
Empty gestures
Career growth is supposed to feel empowering. But for workers experiencing ‘ghost growth’, it feels like an illusion
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EVER THOUGHT YOU were about to get a sweet promotion, only for it to be kicked down the road two weeks, and then another two weeks, and then another, even as you do all the ‘right’ things — taking on additional work, mentoring others, networking, etc.?
Well, you might have been the victim of ‘ghost growth’ or ‘growth theatre’ — and you’re definitely not alone.
A recent report from MyPerfectResume found that 65 per cent of employees say they have experienced ghost growth, which it defines as “advancement in name only.” Employees are developing, adding new skills and responsibilities, but aren’t getting rewarded for it, the report suggests. Two thirds said their employer engages in this deliberately, while 49 per cent say their company is trying to mask this with “superficial opportunities.”
In an environment where the economic data suggests that employers are feeling paralyzed when it comes to investing in employee growth and advancement, HR experts see the prevalence of ghost growth as a particularly negative factor for employee morale.
“That demotivates employees, and they’re like, ‘Maybe I should look into another job. Maybe I should ask around and see what is happening. Maybe there is a problem with me,’” says University of Alberta management professor Sara Mahabadi.
“Companies are being asked to do more with less,” Ontario career coach Michelle Schafer told The Globe and Mail. “They give people more responsibility but do not have the financial means to compensate them for the extra work. They offer these opportunities under the guise of career development, and may not have any intention of making the added responsibilities official in any way.”
But the risk for employers engaging in growth theatre is growing, warns MyPerfectResume’s Jasmine Escalera. The impact of the ‘quiet quitting’ trend from a few years back means more employees are clear-eyed about the deal being made in any job: money for work; an increase in one should pair with an increase in the other.
“It can’t just be, ‘Here’s a bunch of work we want you to do,’ and a pat on the back” she said. “Employees know what the deal is now. They understand completely that this is just a form of appeasement to keep them around, and it’s not satisfying their needs.”
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Terry Talk: Global positivity is up. So why is Canada still gloomy?
| Are we really living in a less grumpy world? Global optimism is rising despite uncertainty, pandemics and economic turbulence — but Canada seems stuck in a gloomy mindset. In this Terry Talk, Ahria Consulting president & CEO Terry Gillis examines economist Rebecca Young's rational optimism to break fear-driven narratives and boost well-being, why perceptions matter and how gratitude and positivity can reshape our reality. | | | |
CAREERS
Dazed & confused
In the AI economy, parents — and even counsellors — are at a loss when it comes to career advice
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IF YOU GAZE upon the current economic landscape and the jobs market, trying to see which way the winds are blowing, what do you tell your children who are looking for career advice?
No, seriously. What do you tell them? We really don’t know — and nobody else seems to, either.
“The AI boom’s effect on the job market for young adults is creating new anxiety for parents. Many don’t know how to advise teens on what to study in college — or whether to even go,” reads a new report from The Wall Street Journal. They quote the director of college counseling at a private school, who reports that “there’s a panic over careers and employment. Everyone is looking for a guarantee.”
Indeed, everyone seems fully caught out by the moment. Twenty years ago, maybe you could say that computer science or some kind of STEM degree would be the safest bet, but career experts say those markets have become oversaturated and are seeing the biggest damage from AI.
On the flipside, parents everywhere have long groaned (hopefully silently) when their kids say they want to get a philosophy degree, but there are plenty of career coaches who think that in the age of AI, we might see a resurgence in the value of liberal arts education. But the point is, nobody knows for sure right now.
That extends most obviously to young people themselves. Gallup poll data found that 90 per cent of Gen Z students are turning to their parents, but “parents say they don’t know enough about the vast majority of valuable education and training options,” and “they’re especially in the dark about anything that isn’t either pursuing a career directly or getting a bachelor’s degree,” reads a report in Time Magazine. “Even school counselors — professionals specifically tasked with providing this kind of guidance — say they feel unprepared to help students adapt to the future labour landscape.”
That has helped contribute to a growing gulf when it comes to views of college or university education. With nobody making a solid case that pursuing higher ed will improve your outlook, younger generations hold an increasingly dim view of it.
“Students are becoming more aware of the times when college doesn’t pay off,” researcher Preston Cooper told Fortune. “It’s front of mind for universities today in a way that it was not necessarily 15, 20 years ago.”
And so, faced with this conundrum, many parents are reverting to the basics — and that might be the best they can do right now. The pendulum is swinging back to something like ‘follow your heart.’
“I said you better fill up your bucket with a ton of experience this summer with whatever you can,” one parent told their child. “And you have to network, network, network.”
It’s as good advice as any these days.
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CULTURE
Contrary to popular belief
Can social media breaks make you more productive?
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FOR AS LONG as social media and smartphones have been around, managers have been fretting about distraction. This has become a full-on debate that has lasted for two decades now: some argue that social media breaks are beneficial, in that they break up the monotony of the day and serve as something like a digital smoke break, while others argue that they are, in fact, a time sink that drains productivity.
But maybe that debate is too simplistic, and rather than question whether the act of going on socials is productive or distracting at work, we ought to be more concerned about what people are seeing when they’re scrolling.
A team of researchers led by Rebecca Greenbaum, a professor at Rutgers University, set out to look into this, and found that a social media break can have a wide range of impacts, from motivation and encouragement to withdrawal and anxiety, depending on the type of content someone interacts with.
“It’s not just a distraction,” she told HRReporter. “Our unique takeaway is actually looking at the type of information that people are taking in throughout the workday, and how that relates to emotions and motivation, and then work outcomes.”
For instance, researchers found that workers who view content revolving around family tend to experience a motivating, productivity-boosting effect. “Being reminded about family energizes a focus on growth opportunities and working harder to achieve goals,” the researchers said.
On the flipside, content that emphasizes accomplishment could have negative effects. “Accomplished social media content can spark avoidance motivation in the form of anxiety or social worry, because one’s failure to keep up with these external markers of success could suggest an inability to achieve that threatens one’s social standing,” the researchers wrote. (Entirely unsurprisingly, contentious political content causes almost universally negative effects.)
Viewed this way, the researchers submit that social media breaks can have a positive impact on a workplace and aren’t universally a distraction — and suggest companies can actually use this effectively.
“A manager could support employees’ use of social media as a daily work break,” wrote Inc.com’s Kit Eaton, noting that employers encouraging employees to focus on posts with family-oriented or uplifting content might even be able to deliberately boost productivity (although this is definitely not the way social media algorithms tend to work).
“The fact that you’ve given explicit permission is also a boon,” Eaton said. “It shows you understand the fascination of social media, and you’re not punishing people for slacking off work for a handful of minutes.”
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