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When mirrors talk in the workplace

By That's life, Work

When mirrors take sidesTalking mirrors, eh?

Well, IKEA have done exactly that with their Motivational Mirror. Their research suggested that in the UK

  • 49% of the British receive no compliments in an average week
  • 43.6 million people in the UK are self-critical about their appearance
  • 33% of the nation feel they look their worst before 9am on a Monday morning

The solution to this issue – the talking mirror, which compliments you as you stand in front of it.  Take a look at the customers’ reaction as they pass by in this You Tube video. Currently on trial in UK IKEA stores; I guess time will tell if it’s a success or not. I don’t think this one is for me, but it could be a fun way to start the day.

So over to you. Will you be rushing to pre-order one today?

April 30, 2015
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Boss logic

By That's life, Work

Mirrors used to duplicate work output

I’m beginning to think the boss is onto something here.

That’s it! Now even I am convinced of the boss’s logic here; nothing like a little scientific experiment to prove your theory. I’m buying two for my workstation immediately.

Will you join me?

 

April 17, 2015
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How emails develop a life of their own

By That's life

Email evolution

Because I can (and possibly because I am an engineer and like to play with numbers), I did a quick calculation to work out how full Frank’s inbox would get after the scenario above played its course.

After the fifth iteration (starting when Frank’s initial colleague on forwards the email), Frank has 32 emails in his inbox, and we’ve involved 63 of our (now very close) work colleagues in this discussion.

If the iterations continue overnight to our final cartoon cell,

  • After 10 iterations, Frank has 512 emails
  • After 15, he has has 8,192 emails
  • After 20, he has a whopping 524,288 emails

Makes you think twice about hitting ‘Reply all’, eh?

Next time, pick up the phone instead.

 

November 11, 2014
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The Board Report

By Science

Board Memo2

 

I’m sure Dilbert has already done something like this, but didn’t have the time to trawl through all his cartoons (as much fun as that would be).

October 20, 2014
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What happens when you rotate the corporate ladder by 90 degrees?

By That's life, Work

When you rotate the corporate ladder And I was surprised to see that there were more similarities between the corporate ladder and monkey bars

The inventor, Sebastian Hinton, patented the first set of monkey bars in 1920.  In his patent application (Ref: US1471465 A) he explained his inspiration and logic for creating this piece of equipment.

‘As exercise for children, climbing has in it conspicuous-features of advantage. It is an exercise wherein all the muscles of the whole body are used. Climbing is the natural method of locomotion which the evolutionary predecessors of the human race were designed to practice, and is therefore almost ideally suited for children…  

Again and importantly, the monkey instinct strong in all human beings and perhaps more clearly displayed in children, makes climbing a sport to which children by a psychology about the same as that of a kitten at play with a ball, which of course is practice for hunting.’

And now for a bit of fun, let’s change the word ‘children; with ‘businessman’ and tweak a few choice words

‘As exercise for ambitious businessmen, climbing the corporate ladder has in it conspicuous-features of advantage. It is an exercise wherein all the muscles of the whole body are used. Climbing is the natural method of locomotion which the evolutionary predecessors of the human race were designed to practice, and is therefore almost ideally suited for the want-to-be CEO…

Again and importantly, the monkey instinct strong in all human beings and perhaps more clearly displayed in businessmen, makes climbing the corporate ladder a sport to which businessmen by a psychology about the same as that of a kitten at play with a ball, which of course is practice for hunting.’

October 6, 2014
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