‘Meetings on the Move’ spark workplace productivity, fights obesity

August 20th, 2009 Workplace suicides surge by 28 percentWASHINGTON — Workplace suicides surged 28 percent last year, the Labor Department said Thursday, as anxious workers dealt with a struggling economy and watched colleagues depart in a rash of layoffs. At the same time, the agency's Bureau of Labor Statistics said the total number of workers who died on the job from any cause fell by 10 percent.

August 10th, 2009 Ahead of the Bell: ProductivityWASHINGTON —Productivity likely surged by a sizable amount in the spring as businesses worked to hold down costs in the face of the worst recession to hit the country in the post World War II period. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect productivity grew at an annual rate of 5.3 percent in the April-June quarter.

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - It's not communication overload but peer behaviour that determines whether people use their laptops or smart phones during a meeting, say researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. It was believed that the more people experienced communication overload, the more they would engage in electronic multitasking during meetings.

July 1st, 2009 Obesity rates rising, Mississippi's still fattestWASHINGTON — Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers. It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news.

June 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has found a link between symptoms of depression in obese children and abnormalities of the 'stress' hormone. "There is evidence in adults that abnormal regulation of cortisol plays a role in both obesity and depression," said the study's lead author, Panagiota Pervanidou, MD, of Athens University Medical School in Athens, Greece.

June 4th, 2009 Productivity increases more than expected in 1QWASHINGTON — U.S. workers were more productive in the first quarter than previously estimated, the government said Thursday, as rapid layoffs meant companies were forced to make do with fewer employees.

May 8th, 2009 Productivity rebounds while wage pressures easeWASHINGTON — The government says productivity rebounded in the first three months of this year while wage pressures eased, both outcomes reflecting the country's deep recession. The Labor Department said Thursday that productivity, the key ingredient to rising living standards, grew at a 0.8 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, slightly better than the 0.6 percent increase that economists had expected.

April 24th, 2009 Man, 84, fights off carjackers with groin kickTACOMA, Wash. — An 84-year-old man has a black eye, but he still has his car, after fighting off two would-be carjackers.

April 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study on radiologists has suggested that playing baroque classical music in the reading room can help improve mood and productivity. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD, Harbor Hospital in Baltimore, MD, and the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia, PA.

April 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has linked low aerobic capacity to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and suggested that the resulting liver problems play a crucial step developing obesity-related illnesses. Poor aerobic fitness is already strongly associated with obesity and its consequent risks of heart disease, strokes and diabetes.

April 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Fast food and soft drinks may be fattening children but they are also making them merrier, a new study has found. One way of tackling childhood obesity effectively is to reduce their consumption of unhealthy food and drink, and keeping them happy in other ways, according to Hung-Hao Chang from National Taiwan University and Rodolfo Nayga, University of Arkansas.

April 2nd, 2009 MELBOURNE - A new study has offered employees the best excuse to check out their Facebook or Orkut accounts during work hours: turning to social networking sites or general Internet surfing for breaks leads to better office productivity. According to Dr Brent Coker, from Melbourne University, staff members who surf the web for leisure, called 'Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing' (WILB), yield better results on the work front than those who don't.

March 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While many reckon the benefits of working in teams, a new research has shown that people working in groups do share information, but they only discuss things they already know. The analysis of 22 years of applied psychological research has also shown that "talkier" teams are less effective.

March 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has suggested that US president Barack Obama has become a 'glorious mascot' for biethnic people seeking to achieve in the workplace. The research, carried out at the University of Leicester, UK, determines that Obama is seen to give inspiration and new impetus to biethnic people who seek to achieve 'against the odds.' Postgraduate researcher Rana Sinha has studied if a biethnic background provides any advantage to a biethnic adult in adapting to the modern international workplace.

March 16th, 2009 LONDON - Hollywood actress Kate Bosworth is said to have dumped her musician boyfriend James Rousseau. The 'Superman Returns' star, who began dating Rousseau after they met at a fashion party in September 2006, reportedly parted ways following fights over their work schedules.