Many of us fantasize about switching off email and chat notifications and retreating to a beach where no communication app can intrude. Fantasies aside, how often does the typical employee actually use their vacation time each year? Turns out, not nearly often enough.
Company culture has a significant impact on organizational success. According to this Workplace Culture Survey, 77 percent of employees believe work culture influences their productivity while 74 percent believe it impacts their ability to serve customers. This means a successful culture can shape everything—from the number of deadlines you hit to your percent of satisfied customers. Ultimately, a happy workplace drives both individual and overall productivity.
If you’ve experienced what Stanford University researchers call Zoom fatigue, rest assured, it’s not just in your imagination. The fact is, some virtual meetings cause exhaustion and contribute to burnout. However, they won’t be phased out anytime soon. So, it’s up to you to understand why this happens and how to mitigate it in order to stay healthy and productive.
The tech industry has been on a bumpy ride ever since the pandemic began more than 3 years ago. 2021 kicked off the Great Resignation, a period where employees across hundreds of industries—not just in technology—took steps to leave their jobs. When that wave turned, a new term was coined, The Great Regret. Next, towards the end of 2022, the job market was hit by The Great Layoff. In a nutshell, it has been wild, both for recruiting teams and for employees.
Virtual meetings have a bad reputation. From video fatigue that plagued remote workers during the pandemic to technology problems that should already have been solved by 2023, it is easy to see why people prefer to meet in person. However, virtual meetings are still very useful when people are far away and online communication is the only sustainable way to do it. Let’s learn together how to make them better!
Time management is one of those key skill sets that teams place a high premium on, but often fall short of maintaining. In this installment of The Productivity Box, we want to introduce you to time-blocking—a technique that will help you and your team reclaim the workday.
Effective communication is crucial for success in any workplace. For the process to be effective, you need good speakers and good listeners. When someone is an ineffective speaker or a bad listener and communication fails, it can lead to misunderstandings, errors, and missed opportunities.
Internships are increasingly popular among college students and recent grads. According to the National Survey of College Internships (NSCI), 21.5 percent of students complete internships before they graduate. This type of opportunity is perfect for learning and experiencing the jobs you think you want to do before you get out into the working world. Yet, only hands-on internships are the best.
Team meetings are an inevitable part of the average employee’s schedule. But regardless of their frequency, just how productive are those meetings? And how many prove to be pointless meetings?
As social beings, communication is an essential part of our lives. We communicate with others to share our thoughts, feelings, and ideas. However, communication is not just about speaking; it also involves active listening. Active listening is the ability to fully concentrate on what someone is saying, understand their perspective, and respond appropriately. In this article, we will discuss the importance of active listening and how you can become a better active listener.
