news 2023

Anna Bergefurt defended her PhD thesis cum laude at the Department of Built Environment on December 18th. How do plants, noise, and the view outside affect your stress level, concentration or mood? PhD researcher Lisanne Bergefurt examined how different aspects of the physical workplace can influence employees' mental health.

Are you feeling permanently stressed and overworked? It could be due to your social media consumption. Reducing it by as little as 30 minutes a day makes a difference. If you feel overworked and stressed, you'll be less committed to your job and perform less well. Many companies are aware of this problem and, therefore, spend money on professionals to look after the mental health of their employees.

Study: Childcare subsidy employment and copayment requirements and child maltreatment Young children in low-income households could be at risk for abuse and neglect if their parents are unable to receive adequate child care subsidies, a new University of Michigan study found. Employment requirements, which vary by state, above a certain threshold have negative consequences for children and families, said Kathryn Maguire-Jack , U-M associate professor of social work and study's lead author.

Similarity is not the key, according to this research which UC3M is taking part in Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Loyola University have discovered that personality does not seem to have much influence when it comes to choosing social friendships at school, which are based more on the closeness of our contacts, according to a study recently published in the journal PNAS.

Ensuring a healthy transition into retirement for older individuals and enhancing career opportunities for the younger workforce: a 'generation pact' allows employees to reduce their working hours once they reach a certain age. The aim is to prevent older workers from dropping out before reaching retirement while creating room for newcomers in the job market.

Nurses' voices and professional judgement is not being utilised in strategic decision making potentially causing dissatisfaction among staff and a lack of high quality patient care, according to new research led by Cardiff Univeristy. The study, known as Pro-Judge, was funded by the RCN Foundation and looked at how nurses use professional judgement in making decisions about organising the nursing workforce to meet patient needs.

UdeM professors Nancy Beauregard and Véronique Dupéré are investigating the impact of balancing studies, work and personal life on students' mental health. Working many hours per week can be detrimental to young people's academic performance and well-being, but studies that explore the positive impacts of work on mental health are few and far between.

The USA is likely to see consistent job growth from the transition to net zero, but the gains will be unevenly distributed, shows a new analysis. The analysis, conducted by Imperial College London researchers and published today in Nature Climate Change , shows that some states will need new policies to ensure a 'just' transition.

The University of Glasgow's Adam Smith Business School collaborated on one of the world's first studies to explore both menstrual health and menopause at work, which is informing a new NHS Scotland policy. The University of Glasgow's Adam Smith Business School collaborated on one of the first studies in the world to explore both menstrual health and menopause at work, which is informing a new NHS Scotland policy.

Study: The Michigan Farmworker Project: A Community-Based Participatory Approach to Research on Precarious Employment and Labor Exploitation of Farmworkers Denied drinking water. Timed bathroom breaks. Threatened or fired for bruising apples while picking them. Unsafe exposure to chemicals and pesticides.

What do we think when we think about public employees? They are going home on time, they have high job security and they get paid well. These three stereotypes seem to be universal, according to an international, comparative study by researchers from Utrecht University. But, of course there are more stereotypes and they are sometimes graded differently in different countries.

Researchers show in a new study that a short reflection exercise to boost self confidence increases job search success. This holds true even for the long-term unemployed and people over 50. For many people, losing their job is not only a financial burden but also a psychological one. They are stressed, worry about their social status and begin to doubt themselves.

In the fast-paced corporate world where stress can be an unwelcome colleague for many employees, SFU researchers have found that mindfulness can reduce workplace stress by helping to narrow employees' views of work tasks as threats. Research looking at the role of mindfulness in the workplace conducted by SFU Beedie School professor Lieke ten Brummelhuis and PhD candidate Mariana Toniolo-Barrios is published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a suction cup that allows medications to be absorbed through the mucosal lining of the cheeks. This new approach could spare millions of patients the pain and fear associated with injections. Many of today's medications belong to groups of relatively large molecules such as peptides.

More than a third of newly qualified doctors are leaving UK medical schools without any education on sexual misconduct specifically relating to the medical profession according to new research led by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

A benefit of working in the office is that it can spur workers to put in more effort, as they are able to observe their colleagues working (and working hard) more easily. Remote work has become increasingly common thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and left its mark on the Australian workplace, with  knowledge workers  such as accountants, engineers and IT specialists the ones who can and do work from home the most.

The AlpSatellites project, aimed at verifying the potential of remote working in alpine and remotes areas, is moving forward. It is scheduled for completion in February 2024 and, at the present time, the collection of quantitative survey data has almost been completed. One of the AlpSatellites' project goals is, in fact, understanding the evolving landscape of remote working.

Haiko Jessurun defended his PhD thesis at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences on August 29th. Employees often possess a wider range of talents than they need for their jobs; for example, they may be musically gifted or have great visual thinking capabilities. If these capabilities are not seen and valued, there is a higher risk of what PhD candidate Haiko Jessurun calls "chronic relative underperformance" (CRU).

A new study finds medical students from marginalized backgrounds are less likely to pursue surgical careers, affecting workforce diversity and patient care. Medical students from marginalized groups are less likely to have sustained or cultivated career paths in surgery, Yale researchers report in a new study.

A significant number of healthcare workers have either left their job or considered changing it because they feel undervalued or have experienced discrimination, according to a new study led by the University of Leicester in collaboration with UCL. The study, published in The Lancet , found that 48% of healthcare workers surveyed had either considered or acted upon changing or leaving their roles.