A CEO Gives His Employees $2,000 to Go on Vacation and Says They’re More Productive Than Ever

This is pretty great.

Mark Douglas is the CEO of a marketing and advertising company called SteelHouse who has very specific rules when it comes to vacation time for his employees. No, he’s not cutting down on time off – he requires that his workers take vacation time, and he gives each employee a $2,000 bonus each year that they have to spend on their vacations.

How amazing is that?

Beautiful Beach

Douglas said, “It’s one thing to say ‘You have three weeks’ vacation,’ as most companies do. It’s another thing to say ‘You have cash, and if you don’t go on vacation and spend this money, the money literally goes to waste.’ It’s another level of saying this is real.”

Douglas also said that the bonus pays off. He says his workers are more productive than ever and that they “have virtually zero turnovers.” Douglas said that between 2013 and 2016, only 3 employees left out of a workforce of 250 people.

Speicher Durlaßboden - Austria

Douglas said there are five main reasons why he enacted the vacation policy:

1. It gives employees a chance to recharge.

2. It encourages team-building among staff members.

3. A give-and-take mindset gets the best out of people.

4. A good life-work balance attracts great employees.

5. Customers view the company’s dedication to its employees in a positive light.

Douglas added, “I think it’s important that everyone be able to essentially really, truly leave work.”

In addition to that nice perk, the entire SteelHouse company takes a 3-day weekend once a month.

Not too shabby, huh?

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A Company Is Offering Nonsmokers Six Extra Vacation Days to Make up for Cigarette Breaks

If you work with smokers, they take breaks constantly. I’m sure you’ve noticed this. I’ve worked with some people who took at least one cigarette break per hour and sometimes even more.

That time really adds up.

A company in Japan has taken notice and decided to give non-smokers an extra six days of vacation per year to make up for the time that smokers take on breaks. Piala Inc. is a marketing firm in Tokyo, and they decided to take this step after non-smokers at the company complained about working more than people at the business who take time each day to smoke.

A spokesperson for the company said, “One of our non-smoking staff put a message in the company suggestion box earlier in the year saying that smoking breaks were causing problems. Our CEO saw the comment and agreed, so we are giving non-smokers some extra time off to compensate.”

The company is based on the 29th floor of a building so you can imagine how much time was spent by smokers venturing all the way downstairs, taking a leisurely cigarette break, and then coming back up 29 flights. Like I said, it adds up.

Group of smokers, Tokyo 2016

Takao Asuka, the CEO of the company, said, “I hope to encourage employees to quit smoking through incentives rather than penalties or coercion.”

What do you think about this? Fair? Unfair? Unnecessary?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

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If You’ve Worked in a Restaurant, These Tweets Will Look Painfully Familiar

I’ve spent some working in restaurants. I worked at a taco place in high school, a wing and sandwich place in college, and I worked on a food truck for a number of years. It was a blast…most of the time.

But there are a lot of funny quirks about working in the service industry that can drive you nuts, especially bad customers.

If you’ve been there, these tweets might look very familiar.

1. Don’t pay attention to what you should ACTUALLY do.

Photo Credit: Twitter

2. Seems reasonable.

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3. Rock star chefs are everywhere.

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4. Only have two arms.

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5. Don’t ruin it for everyone.

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6. Might take all night.

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7. Never a good thing to hear.

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8. I want it all.

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9. Ain’t that the truth?

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10. Them’s the rules.

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11. Happens all the time.

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12. The answer is “maybe never.”

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13. Back to the two arms thing again.

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14. It’s all for fun!

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15. Sad, but very true.

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That brought back a lot of beautiful, and painful, memories for me…

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A Study Show That for Entrepreneurs, 45 Is the New 25

For some people, seeing a young entrepreneur like Mark Zuckerberg completely change the world at such a young age can be disheartening as the years creep by. But wait! This is good news for people who feel like they might’ve missed the boat in one way or another, professionally speaking.

A new study led by Pierre Azoulay of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology analyzed the relationship between age and high-growth entrepreneurship. According to the researchers,

“Our primary finding is that successful entrepreneurs are middle-aged, not young. We find no evidence to suggest that founders in their 20’s are especially likely to succeed. Rather, all evidence points to founders being especially successful when starting businesses in middle age or beyond, while young founders appear disadvantaged.”

Azoulay and his researchers studied data from many sources, including tax forms and the U.S. Census Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs. They pored over records from over 2.5 million entrepreneurs who have founded businesses (not including sole proprietorships) in the U.S. since the 1970s. The conclusion: they found the average age of these entrepreneurs was 42 years old.

They also studied entrepreneurs who were active in growth-oriented entrepreneurship and found that businesses that operated in the high-tech sector had founders that averaged 43 years of age, and that founders of venture-backed startups and businesses based in Silicon Valley were 42 years old, on average.

The researchers also discovered that more successful startup companies had slightly older founders.

The authors of the study continued,

“The 1,700 founders of the fastest growing new ventures (the top 0.1%) in our universe of U.S. firms had an average age at founding of 45.0 (compared to 43.7 for the top 1% and 42.1 for the top 5%). Regardless of the measure of technology-intensiveness chosen, we see older founders as we move toward upper-tail performance, especially for the top 1 in 100 or top 1 in 1,000 firms, as well as for founders with successful exits. This evidence is at odds with the conventional wisdom that successful founders skew younger.”

Okay all of you middle-aged folks, get out there and start a business! You can do it!

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Microsoft Japan Adopted a 4-Day Work Week and It Boosted Productivity by 40 Percent

Might this be a sign of things to come on this side of the Pacific Ocean? Let’s hope so.

Microsoft Japan recently trialed a 4-day work week and announced the results from the experiment.

Two big takeaways: the employees enjoyed the four-day week very much and productivity increased by 40%. Shorter, more efficient meetings were noted as one factor for the boost in productivity (DUH).

Microsoft called the experiment the “Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019,” and it lasted for five weeks for the company’s 2,300 employees in Japan. Microsoft Japan president and CEO Takuya Hirano said, “Work a short time, rest well and learn a lot. It’s necessary to have an environment that allows you to feel your purpose in life and make a greater impact at work. I want employees to think about and experience how they can achieve the same results with 20 percent less working time.”

The employees of the company had to be more efficient with their time, which meant shorter meetings or remote meetings. That in turn led to more productivity. In addition to that good news, electricity use by the company dropped 23.1%, and employees printed 58.7% fewer pages of paper.

A whopping 92% of Microsoft Japan’s employees said that they enjoyed the shorter work week (surprise surprise). The company said it plans on repeating the 4-day work week trial next summer and might expand the experiment to other times as well.

I, for one, think this is a great idea if you work in an office or another job where people have to be present in order for things to be accomplished. I know that I would’ve preferred working four 10-hour days in my old office jobs as opposed to five 8-hour days.

What do you think? Share your ideas about this topic in the comments.

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20 Workplace Memes That Might Look Familiar to You

You’re going to be working for many, many, many, many years, so you might as well have a laugh once in a while.

Because the whole thing can be a little ridiculous, don’t you think?

1. That’s true

Photo Credit: Twitter

2. Not a chance

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3. It really does…

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4. Something to look forward to

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5. No thank you

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6. Living her best life

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7. Did she get the job?

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8. Do not approach me

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9. Deal with it

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10. F it

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11. Grizzled veteran

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12. Performance reviews

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13. Need a new identity

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14. Dummies

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15. That’s why

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16. All day, on repeat

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17. A fine line

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18. A morning ritual

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19. I don’t think so

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20. That’s it!

Photo Credit: Instagram

You’ve had your bit of fun, now back to the grind!

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15 Jokes That Writers Might Find Funny

Writing for a living is a tough gig. Always wracking your brain to come up with something interesting or witty to say. Hitting that inevitable bout of writer’s block at one point or another.

But it’s also a lot of fun, and anyone who gets to write for a living would probably say the same thing.

If you’re a writer, these jokes will most likely make you shake your head and say, “Yup, that’s accurate.”

Enjoy!

1. You’ll all be very disappointed.

2. You can never, ever, have enough.

3. One of the worst feelings of all time.

4. I’m back, baby! Back with a bang!

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Yep, that’s me ?

A post shared by A Girl Named Karma (@agirlnamedkarma) on

5. That’s exactly what he was talking about.

6. Woo! Time for a nap and a snack.

7. Never listen to this advice.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

8. Make them suffer immeasurably.

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9. Among other things…

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10. Check your email every two-and-a-half minutes.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

11. Maybe it’s time to focus on one thing.

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12. Pretty much sums it up.

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13. “The man devoured the baked bread like it would be his last meal.” How’s that?

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14. Moments of inspiration.

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15. Let’s jump ahead a few years.

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Time to keep working, writers! You know we never get a day off…

Do you have any funny jokes about writing? If so, share them in the comments. Thanks!

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People Share the Best Weaknesses You Should Share in a Job Interview

Job interviews are pretty rough for interviewees. The nerves are palpable, and the back-and-forth between employer and job prospect can often be rife with landmines.

Then there’s the dreaded question: “What’s your biggest weakness?”

Ugh, now what? Well, we’re all in luck. These AskReddit users shared their opinions on how you should answer the most infamously difficult question to get “right.”

1. Awareness

“When I was graduating college I got interview tips from my dad who was heavily involved in the hiring process at his company for his department. His advice on this one, which I’ve used ever since and has gone great, was:

The whole “say a weakness that’s actually a positive” has been done to death and is such common knowledge that it’s no longer a clever “trick” and is now seen as avoiding the question. People want to see some self awareness, obviously don’t bring something absolutely terrible up, but mention a real flaw and most importantly what you’ve done to address or work with it.

For example the one I tend to use is that I can be forgetful so I now keep multiple sets of calendars, reminders, notes, etc to cover as much as possible.”

2. Nervous excitement

“One of my actual weaknesses: when I get nervous/excited, I tend to speak really fast and breathlessly. This can actually have a negative influence on my job as I work in healthcare and have to respond/communicate during emergencies.

For my next interview, I will bring this up, and say I have discovered that taking a second to collect myself and take a deep breath seems to calm my nerves and allow me to do/say what is needed in a more collected manner.”

3. Might work?

“What’s your greatest-”

“Weakness? Finishing other peoples’ sentences.” Calan_adan

“That’s what I was gonna’ say!”

4. Sharing

“For my current job, I said that I had a hard time sharing my ideas with new groups.”

5. Controlling

“Actual weakness: Taking on jobs by myself, not taking time to train other people to do them. In the end, I’m usually “the guy” and find myself feeling burnt out.

Probably could be worded better at an interview, but this could sound like you’re a “go-getter.” It might also encourage your employer to find opportunities for you to train other people to do things you particularly don’t like doing.”

6. Dedicated

“I said “I don’t like letting go of unfinished projects” during my interviews. I feel like it shows that I’m dedicated to the work I take on.”

7. Brutal honesty

“Show enough self awareness to know your actual weaknesses and mention how you’re working to reduce their impact on your life. For example, I have an issue with speaking compassionately. For a long time, I believed brutal honesty was the best way to go about things, but it often backfired and made people less willing to work with me because they respected me less and they thought I respected them less.

My wife has helped me with this by, for example when I say something and it’s phrased badly, she’ll say “stop. Try it again.” And I’ll rephrase it to be more empathetic and kinder while still getting across the information I want to communicate.”

8. …Yet

“If you are changing industries, your biggest weakness is not knowing the industry… yet.

If you are younger, say inexperience. Anything to show your willingness to learn and develop.”

9. Good move

“I work in healthcare and always say “Not speaking Spanish” and odds are the interviewer is also not fluent in Spanish so it comes across as not really a weakness. WIN-WIN!”

10. How will you respond?

“Frame it in terms of something you’re looking to improve. “Well, at my last performance evaluation I received some constructive criticism regarding X, so since then I’ve been doing Y and Z to focus on improving in that regard.”

Honestly though, if an interviewer asks you that ridiculous cliched question either they have no idea what they’re doing and/or don’t give a crap, or they aren’t looking for an answer but just want to see how you respond to being pushed.”

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People Share What Job They’d Want If Every Occupation Paid the Same Salary

I’ve thought about this one before…

If every job paid the same amount of money, what job would I take? Professional bowler sounds mighty nice right about now.

AskReddit users answered that very question.

What would your answer be? Share in the comments below!

1. Sounds awesome

“Park Ranger in a national park.”

2. Oooohhhhh

“Travel destinations reviewer.”

3. Might be the perfect answer

“During the warmer seasons I would like to make and sell ice cream. During the colder seasons I would like to make and sell soup.”

4. The simple life

“I wanna go back to serving coffee and decorating cakes and donuts.”

5. Surrounded by flowers

“Probably being a florist. I love flowers and the art of design and would love to own a flower shop.”

6. Yes!

“Clerk in a used book store.”

7. Cool

“I would want to build those giant windmills.”

8. “Anonymous” is key

“Anonymous artist.”

9. Might be fun?

“Librarian at a college library.”

10. Doing good work

“Animal rescue.”

11. Actually, this might be mine

“Horror movie special effect artist.”

12. Okay…

“The guy who drives a tractor and mows the highway median.”

13. Always need one of those

“Really would like to open my own pub/deli.”

14. Old timey

“Blacksmith. It’s what I want to do with my life already, and I have a good start on a list of materials to start out, just no time, money, or knowledge yet.”

15. Amen!

“Dog walker or working at a doggy daycare

I just want to be with dogs all day.”

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Why Grit Is More Important Than IQ When It Comes to Success

One of my professors in college told us about a former student who was now a bigshot at a company in New York City and how well they were doing. A classmate of mine said to me, “Well, I guess you can have an okay career after you leave here.” I didn’t respond, but I’ve always believed that, ultimately, it really is up to you how far you go in your professional life. Yes, education and connections definitely help along the way, but just because you went to a certain school or a door is opened for you doesn’t mean that anything is guaranteed after that. You have to work hard and keep improving if you want to fulfill your dreams.

And, by the way, everyone has their own definition of what success means. For some, it’s a prestigious job on Wall Street, for others, it’s flipping pancakes at the local diner in their hometown where they know everyone.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

But back to my original point: intelligence might not be the best indicator of future success in life. Instead, it might be what psychologist Angela Duckworth calls “grit.” Duckworth believes that a special blend of passion and persistence is what makes high achievers special. In other words, not high IQ scores, high SAT scores, or a diploma from a prestigious university.

Posted by Angela Duckworth on Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Duckworth believes that grit is about being resilient and hardworking, and always wanting to improve. And another important aspect of this mindset: being able to overcome failure, which is tough for all of us. Passion is another key element in being successful. Duckworth says of some of the successful people she’s studied, “Even if some of the things they had to do were boring, or frustrating, or even painful, they wouldn’t dream of giving up. Their passion was enduring.”

Duckworth believes that effort is more important than IQ and she came up with two equations to explain her concept.

• Talent x effort = skill

• Skill x effort = achievement

Duckworth says, “Talent is how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort. Achievement is what happens when you take your acquired skills and use them.”

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Bottom line: grit, heart, and busting your rear end really do count and pay off. So even if you didn’t get into the best school, don’t have a bunch of family connections, and get rejected from a job (or multiple jobs), keep pushing forward. Be gritty and you’ll go far.

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