sutton030

Non-work orientations are related to higher career  and life satisfaction The study shows that the salaries of people who have strong non-work orientations are not negatively affected. In addition, they are happier with their career and with life in general. When planning a career, many people take non-work orientations into account, such as family, personal interests and civic engagement. Psychologists from the University of Bern (Switzerland) have found out that people who strongly consider the role of the family in career planning report more satisfaction with their career and their lives in general. Surprisingly, non-work orientations also showed no negative effects on earnings. People differ greatly in terms of how much they consider nonwork roles, such as family, personal interests and civic engagement when making career decisions and planning their career. Up until now, it was unclear how the consideration of nonwork roles affect career success and satisfaction with life in ...

 Ms. Chiara Amati M ost business management books and classes teach that good leaders and managers are authentic, open and honest. Now a study published January 10, 2012 reports that many managers "fake it" and put on positive, encouraging emotions to ensure employees perform well in their jobs.  This is the key finding of a doctoral study conducted by psychologist Chiara Amati of Edinburgh Napier University.     " Faking it seems to be part of good people management ," Amati reports. According to Amati, "Managers who spoke to me reported feeling obliged to monitor their public displays of emotions in order to manage staff performance and maintain good working relationships with their team. It is more important for managers to deploy influencing skills to get people to do things; they simply do not have the authority to command unconditional respect." A further finding of the study suggests that female managers may need to contrive their emotional disp...

M eet Hans Georg Baumgartner, The Night Watchman of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany.  He's the fellow in the photo left dressed in black holding the nasty looking weapon - an hellebarde , a medieval weapon that combines a seven foot long spear and axe used in the day to keep the local drunks in line. From the earliest years of civilization in Europe until about 1920, night watchmen were common, working from 9:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m., keeping an eye out for trespassers, drunks and especially fire.  Even though the citizens trusted him to keep the streets inside the high stone walls safe, his pay was low and his status lower. Only the gravedigger and the executioner were lower in status. *  *  *      Herr Baumgartner is a Re-enactor , the highest form of tour guide in the industry.  The basic job is that of a Tour Guide , sometimes referred to in the tourism industry as a Step-on Guide , referring to the guides who "s...

Earning a Living as a Bootblack "Shoeshine boy on the street during the Depression, circa 1929." Can someone make a living shining shoes in today's economy?  At on time there shoe shine boys as they were called were found on street corners across the country, thousands of them.  Many were from poor families and worked to help support themselves and their families.  Today, I found three established shoe shine stands in downtown Seattle, plus two bootblacks, the traditional name of those who shine shoes, working on the streets of Seattle. Meet George Johnson, age 74 on October 20th, a self-employed operator of a shoe shine stand in downtown Seattle's Rainier Place.  George has been shining shoes for the last sixty years, starting in Arkansas and ending up some thirty years ago at the Washington Athletic club a few blocks from his current location. "Sixty years," I asked him the day we met.  "You ever think of retiring?" "Gonna work until I can...

Amanda  Plays a Mean Blues Harp When Amanda Grzadzielewski was four years old, her parents purchased her a piano and paid for piano lessons.    Three years later she was with her parents visiting Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market when she heard two musicians playing and talking with a crowd of listeners that surrounded them.   Her reaction was to say to herself, “I want to do that.” Fast forward to 2012, and Amanda and parents have moved permanently to Poulsbo near Seattle and the University of Washington where her father studied mathematics.   True to her dream, she’s busking for passersby at Pike Street Market to earn an income, to find performance opportunities and to find students in her three instruments of choice, piano, guitar (since age 14) and harp (the past three years). Arriving in Poulsbo just this past June, she went to work introducing herself to business owners and civic associations, printing up a business card then dropping by various relate...

A set of Gerber-12 steak knives circa 1950.   Source:   houseinprogress Y ou might think this is the story of a struggling knife maker making it big through sheer dint of effort.  The story of Gerber Legendary Blades is one of serendipity and the Christmas of 1939.  The name Gerber in hometown Portland, Oregon, is often associated with the regional advertising agency started by Joseph Gerber in 1910.  The agency dealt in advertising, which in those days required the agency have their own printing presses in addition to the standard staff of writers, artists and account managers.  By 1939, Gerber Advertising was one of three large agencies in Portland, with a staff of around thirty employees. As a present to the agency's clients, Joseph Gerber, commissioned a knife maker to create 25 sets of steak knives which were delivered at Christmas that year.  The knives were such a hit that catalog retailer Abercrombie & Fitch made a big order - fro...

The Burning Man question: " What makes life worth living ?" ~ Larry Harvey , founder, The Burning Man Festival This is not a question economists know how to ask let alone answer.  Yet it is the driving question you must answer when making any life decision such as whether or not to start a business.  Why?  How do you quantify or measure quality of life with numbers?  Figure that out and you'll win a Nobel in Economics. Rather, economists spend their careers quantifying what they can and of necessity ignoring any aspect of quality of life that cannot be set to numbers.  So in the dismal world inhabited by economists, the ONLY reason to start a business is growth as defined by increasing (or decreasing) some numbers of "things", usually money or jobs or efficiency or productivity.  Economists have no language for discussing the core reasons for starting and running a business.  Take Mr. Harvey's guiding princ...

Introducing the Fringe Economy You’re snacking from a food cart at a music festival, strolling through a swap meet, perusing home-made goods at a craft or holiday fair, spending Saturday garage sale-ing, dropping a dollar bill in a busker’s cup or scanning the ads on Craigslist or Ebay.  Without knowing it y ou are probably supporting the Fringe Economy, also known as the Informal Economy, the Grey Market, System D, the Underground Economy, the Street Market and so on. How to understand the Fringe Economy? Well, the Fringe Economy is to the traditional economy as Fringe Theater is to traditional theater: an opportunity for those on the outside of the institution to find a way into that select group.   Not familiar with Fringe Festivals?  Here’s a brief description courtesy of Wikipedia ~ Street performers at the Edinburgh Fringe, the world's oldest and largest Fringe Theater Festival. Photo source: www.culturalweekly.com “ Fringe theatre is theatre that is...