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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: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 23 2016, @03:55PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 23 2016, @03:55PM (#405580)

    When the rich use their money to corner the market on money, that becomes a problem.

    Note that didn't happen in any example you've mentioned to date.

    Wealth distribution in 2012:

    According to the OECD in 2012 the top 0.6% of world population (consisting of adults with more than 1 million USD in assets) or the 42 million richest people in the world held 39.3% of world wealth. The next 4.4% (311 million people) held 32.3% of world wealth. The bottom 95% held 28.4% of world wealth.

    Yes, this is how it has been since the times of slaves building pyramids. We can do better. As the population grows to a level that consumes more than half of all available resources, we need to do better.

    --
    Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 23 2016, @05:02PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 23 2016, @05:02PM (#405618) Journal

    Yes, this is how it has been since the times of slaves building pyramids. We can do better. As the population grows to a level that consumes more than half of all available resources, we need to do better.

    And we are doing better, but not because we supposedly care about wealth or income inequality. It turns out gainfully employing people leads to reduced income inequality globally. Who knew?

    As to your rather irrelevant data about rich people owning a lot of stuff, most of that wealth is useless to you. The first thing you would probably do, if you got it would be to sell it significantly below its supposed value to one of the 0.6% for money you can use. That's the nature of the fantasy wealth that we supposedly should care about.

    It also just isn't that much wealth inequality. The bottom 95% owning 25% of asset wealth is pretty high IMHO. I just don't see what the problem is supposed to be.

    And I notice yet again that you have yet to show an example of rich people "cornering" money with money in markets, not that your babblegook has anything to do with markets or how they get used. Maybe you need to hit the market on the side a few times until an example falls out? It works for TVs and ice trays. Markets can't be that different, amirite?

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 23 2016, @06:16PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 23 2016, @06:16PM (#405645)

      you have yet to show an example of rich people "cornering" money with money

      You don't like high frequency trading as an example? Or international tax evasion? - it takes a considerable amount of wealth to make that one feasible, but once you're there, you drop your percentage tax paid considerably. Then we get right to the crux of the matter with political bribery. Enrich a politician with $100,000 under the table and you can get millions, either in grants, contracts, or favorable business regulation changes, often at the expense of the environment - not to mention protection from competition from people with less resources who can't afford to buy more influential politicians. And, whether we're talking about bribing politicians, or negotiating in the open market with kickbacks and favorable deals to big/influential business partners - whoever starts with the biggest pile of money can grow it the fastest. Productivity, employment for the masses, protection of the environment are all irrelevant in that equation.

      The only "advantages" that small players have in the market is relative lack of regulatory oversight, and the agility that comes from not having a huge organization to coordinate, much of which size comes from regulatory compliance activities. Give a small player the big pile of cash and 1) they attract regulatory oversight, and 2) they tend to "scale the organization" with lots of people, damping down that agility that comes from a whole team that can have a meaningful conversation over lunch.

      I "get it" that you either a) are one of the 0.6% and see nothing wrong with the way things are, or b) love to dream about you, or maybe your children, becoming one of them someday. Simply having a decent job in the U.S. usually puts you close to the top 5%, globally. Personally, I'd rather not live in a world where "loss of job" presents the opportunity to fall so far. In my experience, these great jobs we have today aren't as secure as my parent's generation's less great jobs were, and that security seems to be getting worse as the decades roll on.

      --
      Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 23 2016, @07:02PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 23 2016, @07:02PM (#405661) Journal

        You don't like high frequency trading as an example? Or international tax evasion?

        Indeed, because they aren't examples of whatever "cornering money" is supposed to be. And frankly, unless you computer trade, HFT means nothing to you. As to legal international tax avoidance, change the rules if you don't like the game. Just keep in mind that all those entitlements you get are the price you paid for going alone with the huge variety of these games. You probably will end up losing most of those as well, assuming you don't blink first.

        I "get it" that you either a) are one of the 0.6% and see nothing wrong with the way things are, or b) love to dream about you, or maybe your children, becoming one of them someday. Simply having a decent job in the U.S. usually puts you close to the top 5%, globally. Personally, I'd rather not live in a world where "loss of job" presents the opportunity to fall so far. In my experience, these great jobs we have today aren't as secure as my parent's generation's less great jobs were, and that security seems to be getting worse as the decades roll on.

        And we see you don't "get it". I don't care about the 0.6%. They're actually carrying their load pretty well. Your concerns are due to a temporary effect of labor competition with the developing world combined with a variety of short-sighted labor and protectionist policies in the developed world.

        When the developing world gets to near parity with your society by 2050 I think, then the pressure will go away. Of course, the regulatory mess won't and that might be enough to drive your society to subpar employment and living standards. But you will no doubt continue to transfer blame elsewhere.

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday September 23 2016, @07:19PM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday September 23 2016, @07:19PM (#405666)

          Your concerns are due to a temporary effect of labor competition

          No, actually, my concerns are mostly centered on my children, who are not likely to be competitive, or even capable, in the job market when they get to the age where they are "expected to work." And so they will stay home with us, until we are unable to provide a home for them, either before or maybe a few years after we die. As long as I can work, I should be able to provide a decent home for the family, and the system as it is will do O.K. for us as long as we manage our situation wisely.

          Assuming 30% of our home state isn't underwater by 2050.

          --
          Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 23 2016, @08:06PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 23 2016, @08:06PM (#405698) Journal

            No, actually, my concerns are mostly centered on my children, who are not likely to be competitive, or even capable, in the job market when they get to the age where they are "expected to work."

            Sorry about your bad luck with the kids. But for parents who don't have developmentally disabled kids, they just won't have those problems in 35 years.

            Assuming 30% of our home state isn't underwater by 2050.

            You are speaking of 15 centimeters of sea level gain here. Sorry about your bad luck with your runt of a state. Maybe someone in your family will figure out how to move by the time it matters.

            I'm sorry, but when I hear concerns like you describe, I have trouble taking them seriously. Scientists have done research on the climate and we're just not seeing the degree of melting now that would lead to significant sea level rise in a human lifetime.