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posted by martyb on Wednesday September 21 2016, @07:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the more-or-less-getting-more-done-with-less-people dept.

Having underemployed workers can lead to two outcomes that benefit an organization—creativity and commitment to the organization—according to a new study by management experts at Rice University, Chinese University of Hong Kong at Shenzhen and Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Statistics have shown that a significant proportion of workers worldwide are underemployed or working at jobs that are below their capacity. Researchers have estimated that underemployment ranges from 17 percent to two-thirds of the workforce in Asia, Europe and North America, according to the study.

"Our results have important implications for managers," said study co-author Jing Zhou, the Houston Endowment Professor of Management at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business. "Managers should not assume that employees will always respond negatively to their perception of being underemployed. Our results suggest that managers need to be vigilant in detecting perceptions of underemployment among employees.

"When managers notice that their employees feel underemployed, they should support employees' efforts to proactively change the boundaries or formal descriptions of their work tasks, such as changing the sequencing of the tasks, increasing the number of tasks that they do or enlarging the scope of the tasks," she said. "Because the perception of underemployment may be experienced by many employees, managers should provide support to sustain positive outcomes in these situations."

Not getting enough hours to qualify for benefits is a good thing?


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @08:21PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @08:21PM (#404905)

    It leads to depression and listlessness.
    Source: my life, and probably yours too.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by quintessence on Wednesday September 21 2016, @09:42PM

    by quintessence (6227) on Wednesday September 21 2016, @09:42PM (#404923)

    The depression part usually comes from management creating busy work just so they can feel they are contributing something. The listlessness from rather hardline ideas of what a work environment should be.

    I long ago adopted the mantra of working to pursue my other interests, not as an end onto itself. Inasmuch as management accepts this, they get high quality work and I get a very compelling reason to keep producing high quality work (so I can continue to dick around in my free time).

    The problem lies when there is an attempt to incorporate career into my identity, which sorry, no; I'm not having.

    Also, as a gent I worked with put it: "if it is trivial or mundane, my rate is double. If it is somewhat interesting, you get my normal rate. And if it is really interesting, you may get it for free."

    The only really interesting work I do is the stuff I pursue on my own.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @09:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @09:50PM (#404926)

    Go off somewhere and study math and science. They're endlessly fascinating.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @10:36PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @10:36PM (#404939)

      Go off somewhere and study math and science. They're endlessly fascinating.

      To you.

      I have depression from this sort of crap. You want to do nothing. You feel useless and feel at any moment you will lose your job. Oh your skills are now shot and no one cares about your 5+ year old skills as everyone has moved on to the newest fad. 'oh you should have kept up to date'. Your boss does not want you doing anything else and you get put back in your place for doing anything interesting 'that is someone elses job'.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @12:42AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @12:42AM (#404970)

        Sounds like you're burned out. Time for a career change.. you might have to move somewhere so your income can accommodate your new lifestyle. But it would be well worth it if you're in a good mood instead of a crappy mood when you're working.

        A job that pays 6+ figures USD comes with drawbacks. That's one reason why you don't see more women in IT and engineering jobs, and why women who go through law school sometimes drop out of the profession after only a few years.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @04:37AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @04:37AM (#405026)

          Sounds like you're burned out
          Absolutely I am burned out. Thing is nothing really interests me. I took 5 months off between jobs. As in I did not even LOOK for another job. Started looking again a couple of weeks ago. Getting told 'no' is pretty depressing too. All that interests me is sitting on ass and playing solitaire. Cant even motivate myself to play a real game. Even basic things like getting up in the morning are tough. Its probably full on depression.

          Had a blast the past few days learning a new computer language. But I know the high will not last unless I have a job to use it on.

          you might have to move somewhere so your income can accommodate your new lifestyle
          I already live in a economically depressed area. A nice 2500sq ft house is 180k. In most large urban areas something like that starts around 400k. The downside is there are no real jobs around here other than slinging burgers. The factory jobs all moved to china and mexico years ago.

          A job that pays 6+ figures USD comes with drawbacks. That's one reason why you don't see more women in IT and engineering jobs
          You dont see them as they never get in the first place. They are encouraged to do other things by their families. My MIL told my wife 'find a good man and you dont need a job'. Then proceeded to make sure that was the only option she had. So she is in her 30s starting college. She is not the only one this happens to. My niece is on her way to being a full on engineer. That is if her teachers do not discourage it out of her. Her sister has 0 interest in it. Her sister will do much better socially because she has no interest in it.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Webweasel on Thursday September 22 2016, @10:55AM

            by Webweasel (567) on Thursday September 22 2016, @10:55AM (#405080) Homepage Journal

            You do have depression and its time to get some help.

            Having been through it myself, I have a lot of sympathy, but therapy does work, it really does.

            If you can get some, I really recommend it. I avoided it for years myself "I can get through this" but it REALLY helps. Please try it.

            --
            Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @01:05PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 22 2016, @01:05PM (#405114)

            All that interests me is sitting on ass and playing solitaire. Cant even motivate myself to play a real game.

            Have you thought about applying for public sector work? Sounds like you'd fit right in.

          • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday September 24 2016, @02:27PM

            by Reziac (2489) on Saturday September 24 2016, @02:27PM (#405936) Homepage

            Make sure when your doctor examines your depression that you get a full thyroid workup. Low thyroid is a major common cause of depression, especially of the feel-so-damn-unmotivated variety. There may be NO other obvious symptoms.

            --
            And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.