MY WORLD OF TRUTH
Monday 31 July 2017
THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF APPLES
Packed with vitamins, antioxidants and fibre, apples are one of our favourite healthy fruits. Discover what else makes apples so good for you.
Thursday 20 July 2017
IS HUMOUR THE WAY TO KEEP AN OFFICE HAPPY?
Have you heard the joke about the humourless office worker who went for a promotion? He didn't get it.
In workplaces around the world a bit of humour can go a long way towards making it a more enjoyable place to spend eight or so hours a day.
But for every genuinely funny employee or boss, there are others whose unfunny or inappropriate jokes make colleagues wince.
So treading carefully, how exactly does humour help both improve a workplace and the standing of the person who is good at it?
When Steve Carlisle, president of General Motors of Canada, walks around the firm's Ontario headquarters he shares jokes, and uses humour to bond with his staff.
"I believe having a sense of humour is part of the leadership package," Mr Carlisle says. "It can help people feel more relaxed, more comfortable and thus be more effective at what they do."
WAYNE SIMPSON
What Mr Carlisle brings to his role at the car giant is exactly what a business professor called Maurice Schweitzer cautiously recommends.
Prof Schweitzer recently co-authored a study entitled Risky Business: When Humour Increases and Decreases Status.
It found that a worker or boss who successfully use humour is seen as both confident and competent, which in turn increases his or her status.
"In the workplace context, people look up to those who are confident," says Prof Schweitzer, who works at the University of Philadelphia's Wharton School.
"Being funny is taking a risk, and being risky shows confidence."
MAURICE SCHWEITZER
But do workers think that a humorous colleague is more competent at his or her job?
Prof Schweitzer says that telling a good joke requires both intellect and empathy, which makes colleagues believe that the person has a greater level of competency across the board.
"Being funny requires us to take into consideration other people's points of view, and what they may find funny," he explains.
"And being funny means you understand effective timing, and how to straddle a fine line between what is humorous and what's offensive."
Prof Schweitzer adds that if a person tells inappropriate jokes, be they insulting or unfunny, they are still regarded as more confident, but - perhaps unsurprisingly - also incompetent.
The study says: "Telling inappropriate jokes signals low competence, and the combined effect of high confidence and low competence harms status."
GETTY IMAGES
Essentially, you don't want to be like David Brent, the cringeworthy fictional boss from The Office, the TV comedy series that was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Humour creates a flattening of relationships in a hierarchal company," says Jennifer Moss, co-founder of Toronto's Plasticity Labs, which conducts research on emotional intelligence and happiness for businesses.
"To create stronger engagement with your staff, it helps to be humorous."
One example Prof Schweitzer cites of a good use of humour is a tweet sent out back in 2009 by former Twitter chief operating officer Dick Costolo.
Mr Costolo tweeted: "First full day as Twitter COO tomorrow. Step one, undermine CEO, consolidate power."
As it happened, Mr Costolo did actually go on to become Twitter's chief executive a year later, holding the role for five years before ultimately leaving the company.
Prof Schweitzer says: "Mr Costolo's not a seasoned veteran when it comes to comedy, he's not a comedian but he endeared himself to the company."
In fact, having some fun in the office can combat negative side effects of intense jobs.
In a 2006 study published in The Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, researchers found that for healthcare workers, emotional exhaustion was significantly lower among those who experienced greater levels of fun at work.
GETTY IMAGES
Also, research out of Vrije University Amsterdam concluded that teams that share more jokes gave more supportive and constructive statements to each other, such as "that's a great idea" or "we could solve this problem by doing X".
When it comes to the type of humour you might want to try out on your workmates, Prof Schweitzer says that self-deprecation "can be effective" because it humanises the joke-teller.
Sarcasm can also be effectively used, according to Prof Adam Galinsky of Columbia Business School, but he urges a cautious approach.
He says sarcastic humour works best when trust and playfulness has been established between parties, otherwise a wrongly-placed sarcastic comment can appear flippant or cruel.
"Sarcasm requires a cognitive capacity to understand flexibility of thinking and how words can be interpreted," says Prof Galinsky. "It is a particular type of social intelligence that not everyone uses or grasps."
DO YOU HAVE TO AVOID HUGGERS AT WORK?
Are you a hugger or a hand shaker - or neither? When a work colleague returns from holiday or maternity leave, do you go in for the double bear-hug, or a friendly hello from across the desk?
For those people who prefer a non-physical greeting, the direction of office etiquette may be moving against you.
There is evidence that workplaces are seeing a rise in hugging culture. In a survey last year more than half of advertising and marketing executives said hugging was common, up from a third in the survey in 2011.
Experts say it could have a lot to do with more relaxed workplace environments.
But there's a downside. A separate study last year on sexual harassment in the US fast food industry found that more than a quarter of workers felt they were hugged inappropriately.
Deborah Wallsmith, an assistant professor of anthropology at Kennesaw State University, Georgia, says that the gradations of hug discomfort depend upon nuances, relationships, and personal preferences.
"The least offensive is the one armed side-by-side hug, where the huggers are standing next to each other, and extend their adjacent arms around each other's waist.
"The most objectionable is the full-frontal squeeze that goes on forever."
She adds that she "feels uncomfortable getting hugged by former professors and former bosses".
Kara Deringer, a business coach from Alberta, Canada, explains that context is all-important. Yet many people get it wrong.
KARA DERINGER
She agrees that hugging can be very useful. "It creates connections." But on the other hand, she says: "Be careful. I have seen lots of misunderstandings.
"I currently work in a team, and we're huggers. But there are those who will courageously say 'I'm not a hugger'."
Ms Deringer recommends either asking people for a hug, or paying very close attention to body language. "If they reach out their hand? I've got it, they're hand shaker or a high fiver."
And beware another minefield - the sociological layers of power, culture, and gender. All can have their own "rules" for physical contact, says Ms Deringer. "It's also about social intelligence - I won't hug someone I just met."
Tracey Smolinski is also in a work culture where hugging is acceptable.
The chief executive of Cardiff-based Introbiz, which hosts business networking events, says: "We are quite a friendly team, and usually give a kiss on the face, both cheeks, when we are familiar with them.
"But if you don't know them, best not to kiss or hug, because you don't know how they will take it. You have to be careful."
Some of this may sound like commonsense. But what if hugging is standard practice in your office, but you really don't want to indulge? Are you the office grinch?
RAPIDEYE
Toronto-based musician Cynthia Pike-Elliott, who has had careers in healthcare and law enforcement, says that in both environments hugging was standard.
"Hugging was a huge part of my workplace, a huge part in maintaining these personal relationships," she says. For her, hugging is "a way to say to someone that you've made a connection with them, and that you trust them… It's not hurting anyone.
"If I was an employee, a hug from my employer would show their pride and gratitude of a job well done much more than words could ever accomplish," she says.
Ms Pike-Elliott adds that if a business owner hugs a client, it "shows trust and validates that the client is special, it builds a solid relationship".
In her role as a musician she has found colleagues and acquaintances more "huggy" than most. "Music and arts is about revealing your soul. It's very personal," she says.
JEFF BUCHANAN
Not everyone's so keen on the idea of hugging, however. Sometimes, it ends up in court.
Earlier this year, California corrections officer Victoria Zetwick California accused her superior, the county sheriff, of giving more than a hundred unwanted hugs over a dozen years. A court said it was enough to constitute a "hostile environment".
Canadian labour lawyer Shaun Bernstein advises against hugs in the office, particularly in light of the province of Ontario's update to its Occupational Health and Safety Act last September.
This included more provisions against workplace harassment and unwelcome attention.
Mr Bernstein says: "If the hug is taken in the wrong way, it can easily be construed under the law as workplace sexual harassment, which places a responsibility on the employer to investigate...
"There's the specific prohibition when it comes from a person in power, so I think that that's important to note."
It is also the responsibility of the company to have a designated harassment complaints officer, as well as a back-up person in case the officer is the one causing trouble.
Mr Bernstein adds: "Employers have a serious responsibility when it comes to protecting their workers against harassment, and are obligated to have policies in place to prevent this kind of conduct."
ADINA ZAIONTZ
For Adina Zaiontz, chief executive of Napkin Marketing, in Toronto, the simple rule is: "When in doubt, don't hug... Everyone feels differently about personal space and boundaries." It's possible to hug and still avoid full body contact, she adds.
So, when does she feel it's OK?
- Someone you are close to at work is very upset, and confiding to you about a death or personal tragedy in their life
- Someone you are close to at work is telling you big, happy personal news, "I'm engaged!" "I'm pregnant!"
- A close co-worker or employee is telling you they got a new job, and the departure is on good terms
- You meet a colleague whom you haven't seen in a very long time
- You're at a party and everyone is being a little extra huggier
Ms Zaiontz adds: "No matter what you think, your work friends are different than your real friends. Your real friends can't call HR on you."
THE SECRET HISTORY OF WOMEN'S FOOTBALL
Women's football matches once pulled bigger crowds than most men's games - sometimes more than 50,000.
In the 1920s the sport flourished with around 150 women's teams in England.
But then the women's game was effectively banned, with the FA at the time saying the game of football is "quite unsuitable for females".
It was another half century until women's football got back on its feet and a key reason it lags behind the men's game today.
As England start their Euro 2017 campaign in the Netherlands, we look at some facts you may not know about the women's game.
This woman was the Eden Hazard of her day
Lily Parr was a winger and one of the first female professional players.
She played for the Dick Kerr's Ladies team which got its name from the munitions factory in Preston where most of the team worked during World War One. They were the first women's team to play wearing shorts and the first to go on an overseas tour.
Lily was also a smoker and her wages were supplemented by packets of Woodbine cigarettes.
Women's matches pulled in enormous crowds
There was a huge growth in women's football during the war when women were called upon to do factory jobs left by the men who had gone to fight.
On Christmas Day in 1917, 10,000 spectators watched two women's teams playing at Preston.
And when Dick Kerr's Ladies played St Helen's Ladies on Boxing Day 1920 they pulled in a crowd of 53,000 at Everton's Goodison Park ground, with thousands more fans locked outside. Everton men's highest attendance this season (2014/15) was 39,000.
But then the women's game was effectively banned
On 5 December 1921, the Football Association banned women from playing on FA-affiliated pitches which meant stars like Lily Parr could no longer play at grounds with spectator facilities.
The FA at the time said "the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged".
In 1971 the ban was finally lifted following the formation of the Women's Football Association (WFA) a couple of years earlier.
Finally women could treat football as a career, 50 years later
The Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 made it easier for women to train to become professional referees.
It has always been pretty tough to watch women's football on television with the first TV reports of the Women's FA Cup final results in the 1970s.
In 1989 Channel 4 started to provide regular coverage of women's football.
And the FA outlined its plans to develop the women's game from grassroots to elite level in 1997.
2011 saw the inaugural season of the Women's Super League.
And as of September 2014, there were 2.6 million women and girls playing football in England.
In November more than 55,000 tickets were sold for England women's match against Germany, far more than the 40,181 that saw the previous Wembley friendly involving England's men.
And Sport England is pledging to spend £30m on grassroots football by 2017, with a focus on getting - and keeping - girls and women on the pitch.
THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF POMEGRANATES
Delicious, juicy and jewel-like, pomegranate seeds are packed with vitamins, minerals and fibre. Discover what else makes this ruby fruit so healthy...
