HR World 1/14
The weirdest global HR news of the month, including a much-anticipated update on the 'facial hair ceiling'30 days’ holiday? Zut alors!
The French take more holiday than any other nationality yet are the least satisfied with their vacation allowance, according to new research.
The Expedia 2013 Vacation Deprivation Study, which polled over 8,500 people in 24 countries, found that although the French receive and take a full 30 days’ holiday a year, 90 per cent think it’s not enough. And they’re not the only ones to feel disgruntled: workers in Italy (83 per cent), Spain (78 per cent) and Germany (74 per cent) also feel short-changed, despite all having generous vacation allowances compared to other parts of the world.
At the other end of the spectrum, Americans get 14 days – and on average take just 10 – yet only 59 per cent consider themselves to be hard done by. Only Asians take fewer holidays than Americans, with Japanese workers taking just seven days of their 18-day entitlement, the South Koreans taking seven out of 10 days and the Thais taking eight out of 11 days.
In contrast with the French, the Norwegians are by far the most content vacationers, with only 17 per cent feeling that their allowance falls short. We Brits, meanwhile, are neither very satisfied nor very dissatisfied, with just under half of us (47 per cent) feeling vacation-deprived.
Chinese have the nose for a job
Chinese students are taking drastic action to secure work after graduation, with many going under the knife to gain a competitive edge.
According to Channel News Asia, plastic surgeons are benefitting from a shortage of white-collar positions in China. A record seven million graduates entered the job market in 2013 following a government-backed drive to expand the country’s university system, yet a survey by Beijing-based education consultancy MyCOS suggests that as many as 10 per cent are unemployed. And in a country where employers are within their rights to base hiring decisions on physical attractiveness, many students and recent graduates will do anything to nose ahead – literally.
Surgeon Wang Xuming says a procedure dubbed ‘the Eiffel Tower’ is proving particularly popular with the university crowd. “Some students face a lot of employment pressure after graduation,” he told Channel News Asia. “If their facial features are good, they’ll have more chance of finding a job. We’ve had students getting the Eiffel nose; it’s helped them a lot.”
Best tool for effective career advancement? A razor
Facial-haired employees beware: sporting a moustache could interfere with opportunities for promotion, according to a new study.
The survey by the American Mustache Institute (AMI) found that an overwhelming majority (92 per cent) of the American public considered moustaches appropriate in the workplace while 75 per cent had witnessed beneficial contributions from co-workers with ’taches.
However, it found that Americans with hairy upper lips were in a minority in management positions, with just 30 per cent of respondents reporting to a supervisor with facial hair. “It would appear there is a definitive ‘facial hair ceiling’ if you will,” said AMI’s CEO, Dr Adam Paul Cosgrove. “We’ve observed this anecdotally for decades at the Institute and now we have data to confirm it. Moustached Americans have fewer opportunities for advancement and leadership than their shaven counterparts.”*
The survey also confirmed the popular perception of moustaches as macho: 41 per cent of respondents had noticed moustached co-workers exhibiting vast displays of upper body strength, 69 per cent associated ’taches with excessive alcohol intake and 85 per cent had observed a sense of manliness/cocksmanship among their hairy-lipped colleagues.
* Editor’s note: Without providing any context as to the percentage of working people with moustaches in the general population, this seems a bit of a leap – especially given that half of us can’t actually grow facial hair – but we’ll let it go in the interests of an amusing story.
If music be the food of work, play on!
Making music not only helps manual workers to work harder but also reduces their levels of exhaustion afterwards, according to a new study.
Singing and music have long been associated with hard physical labour: slaves sang the blues while picking cotton, prisoners sang ‘chain gang songs’ while breaking stones and today athletes are spurred on by singing and chanting fans.
Until now, it’s been assumed that music makes physical exertion easier simply by distracting us from the bodily stress we’re experiencing. But recent research by Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences shows that the act of making music actually improves exercise efficiency, thereby making it less exhausting.
The study tested participants as they worked out on fitness machines. In some tests, music was played all the time; in others, it only kicked in when the fitness machine was in use. In all instances, the researchers measured oxygen intake and changes to muscle tension, as well as asking the participants to assess their own effort.
The results showed that not only did the participants feel less tired when they activated the music themselves, but their oxygen intake and muscle co-ordination also improved. “These findings are a breakthrough,” said lead researcher Thomas Fritz. “Making music makes physical exertion less exhausting.”
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