public servant

Public servants complaining to the media: ‘un-Australian’ or valid last resort?

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett says it is “un-Australian” for public servants to complain to the media about how their department is being managed. His Health Minister Kim Hames calls it “highly disappointing and inappropriate” — even if the public servants in question are medical doctors who say their professional input was being ignored and […]

business meeting

Multitasking isn’t making you more efficient, it’s frying your attention span

We all suffer from the digital-age version of life’s “full catastrophe”: incoming emails, pressing texts, phone messages, and more, storming in all at once – not to mention the Facebook posts, Instagrams, and all such urgent memos from our personal universe of social media. Given the ubiquity of smartphones and such devices, people today seem […]

female construction worker

Fair Play—Equal Laws for Equal Working Opportunity for Women | IMF Blog

Leveling the legal playing field for women holds real promise for the world—in both human and economic terms. Unfortunately, that promise remains largely ignored and its potential untapped. In too many countries, too many legal restrictions conspire against women to be economically active—to work. What can be done to remove these barriers?  A new study done by IMF economists […]

happiness

Employers, your idea about employee happiness is all wrong

When Google promoted a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan to the role of “Jolly Good Fellow,” his career–and the entire culture of Silicon Valley–took a sharp turn. Meng, a cheerful employee valued for his motivational qualities, went from developing mobile search tools to spreading happiness across the organization. Happiness became his job. Google wasn’t the […]

Women

Do Women-only networking groups help or hurt female entrepreneurs?

In a small loft space in downtown New York City, 13 women sit cross-legged on cushions. A noise machine hums in the background. Small succulents and crystals line the room, along with overstuffed purses carrying laptops. At the center is Deborah Hanekamp–or Mama Medicine, as she is known–a healer-slash-entrepreneur in a muumuu who is guiding the women […]