Category: Journal

The researchers eventually concluded that what distinguished the ‘‘good’’ teams from the dysfunctional groups was how teammates treated one another. The right norms, in other words, could raise a group’s collective intelligence, whereas the wrong norms could hobble a team, even if, individually, all the members were exceptionally bright. What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team – NYTimes.com

program is. A wellness program that’s actually about wellness would be entirely voluntary, not financially coercive. It wouldn’t collect any personal health information from employees. It wouldn’t weigh people or take their blood samples. It would be truly a benefit, not a cost-saving measure. It might reimburse employees for their gym or yoga studio memberships. It might subsidize a community-supported agriculture membership. Workplace Wellness Programs Are a Total Sham

So what are employers actually after when they implement wellness programs tied to large financial incentives? Cost-shifting. Under the ACA, wellness programs are a legal way to shift a significant portion of the cost of premiums onto employees deemed unhealthy. Wellness programs don’t save money by preventing expensive medical claims—and in fact, they might even increase claims costs due to encouraging unnecessary doctors’ visits. But wellness programs can save money if enough employees fail them or opt out. Workplace Wellness Programs Are a Total Sham

What’s more, a 2013 meta-analysis of more than 7,000 studies found that a BMI in the overweight category was associated with lower mortality than a BMI in the “normal” range; only morbid obesity was associated with higher mortality. Workplace Wellness Programs Are a Total Sham

Since 2010, companies have been able to shift up to 30 percent of the cost of employee-only health care premiums onto employees who fail wellness tests unrelated to tobacco, and up to 50 percent for failures related to tobacco. Workplace Wellness Programs Are a Total Sham

But wellness programs promote medical tests of dubious value, encourage unnecessary doctor visits, and collect sensitive health information despite often extremely lax privacy policies, with little to no evidence that they improve health outcomes. Workplace Wellness Programs Are a Total Sham

One such pattern that – once I noticed it – I realised is very prevalent in Agile Software Development is what I call the Empowered Straightjacket. Teams are “empowered” to make their own decisions, but when the boss doesn’t like a decision they’ve made, he or she overrules it.

Those who remember their set theory will know that if the set of all possible decisions a team is allowed to make can only include decisions the boss agrees with, then they are effectively working in the same set (or a subset) of the boss’s rules. Empowered Teams Can Make Decisions The Boss Disagrees With – Software People Inspiring

Some industries, like construction and education, had relatively low rates of wage theft — 12 to 13 percent; restaurants, grocery stores, and warehouses fell in the mid-range of 20 to 25 percent; textile and clothes manufacturing and other services hit 40 percent; and a whopping 66 percent of child care workers endured minimum wage violations, and 90 percent put up with overtime violations.

Race and gender played big roles. Women saw minimum wage violations at significantly higher rates than men. Wage theft was three times higher for blacks than for whites, and highest of all for Latinos. Employees at smaller businesses were more at risk, as well as employees with less education — though wage theft happens often even to the college educated. One of the biggest crime waves in America isn’t what you think it is

No one knows exactly how big a problem wage theft is, but in 2012 federal and state agencies recovered $933 million for victims of wage theft. By comparison, all the property taken in all the robberies of all types in 2012, solved or unsolved, amounted to a little under $341 million. One of the biggest crime waves in America isn’t what you think it is

As I’ve written about before, a report by the Chief Public Health Officer in Canada looked at this question of potential savings, and estimated that:

$1 invested in the early years saves between $3 and $9 in future spending on the health and criminal justice systems, as well as on social assistance.
It’s rare to see this kind of return on investment. That is, outside of vaccinations. That’s the power of immunizations. Spending $1 on a vaccine for a kid can save $10, but also just giving the same kid $1 can save $9 some decades down the road too. Universal Basic Income as the Social Vaccine of the 21st Century — Basic income — Medium