Featured This Month - January
The U.S. Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being
U.S. Surgeon General
October 20, 2022
Framework Highlights Five Essentials for Workers in Organizations, and Businesses of Every Size to Help Leaders Develop Policies and Practices that Support the Mental Health and Well-Being of Workers
While some say quiet quitting is over, the spirit of it may carry into 2023
Lauren Aratani
January 2, 2023
Quiet quitting might be declining – but its theme of rebalancing work and home life will continue into the new year.
Quiet Quitting and a Pathway to Better Work (White Paper)
Cristina Banks
January 7, 2023
What is “quiet quitting” really about (Goldberg, 2022)? Quiet quitting has been described as a person’s unwillingness to perform their job above and beyond their job description. In other words, they just do their job as hired. It has also been described as bordering on laziness—doing only the minimum. I think both descriptions miss the mark.
Blueprint for Building Business Success by Becoming a ‘Healthcare Business’ (White Paper)
More than ever before, U.S. Businesses must prioritize creating healthy workplaces where people want to go to and do their best work. To do so comprehensively and holistically, U.S. businesses need to become a ‘healthcare’ business.
Real World Spaces and Creative Thinking (Conference Paper)
Sally Augustin, Cynthia Milota, and Cristina Banks
September 7, 2022
Neuroscientists have comprehensively assessed how design can support creative thinking, most often in studies that detail the effects of a single physical factor. For the study reported here, multiple factors linked by previous research studies to enhanced creative performance were investigated simultaneously in real-world settings to determine their potential roles in creative thinking.
Designing Workplaces to Align with Culture(s) (Conference Paper)
Sally Augustin
September 7, 2022
The reported project integrates neuroscience research related to organizational culture, national culture, and workplace design to develop a straightforward framework that can be used in practice to create work environments that support employees as they work to their full potential within the context of their national and organizational cultures.
Home Office Ergonomics Post COVID-19: Carpe Diem (Hosted by CA Labor Lab)
Carisa Harris
January 18th 12-1pm
The COVID-19 pandemic changed how knowledge work gets done. In early 2022, roughly six in ten U.S. workers with jobs that can be completed from home continue to work from home all or most of the time. As more people work from home than ever before, and as the demand for remote work increases, workplaces continue to find optimal balance for collaborating with colleagues onsite. This presentation will discuss how the pandemic changed how we work, and how the home-office work balance will continue to evolve.
The Home as a Workplace (Hosted by CA Labor Lab)
Eileen Boris
January 25th 12-1pm
This webinar will explore home workplaces in the context of the gig economy, and as the organization of conventional labor unravels. The pandemic has revealed the limits of the home as a place of employment, even as this arrangement gestures to a new world of work. The conditions of home-based labor have depended on the very inequalities between genders and geographies, which have made working at home seem like the best of bad options for combining earning and caring. Rather than a progress narrative, Dr. Boris will tell a tale of the return to home-based work with a twist: from outwork as an evil to be eradicated in favor of home-based work, and of home workers as deserving of decent work, like all laborers.
Improving Worker Health Through Organizational Changes
Glorian Sorensen, PhD, MPH
February 22, 2023, 12 - 1 PM
Addressing underlying threats of worker safety, health and well-being relies first and foremost on improving the ways work is organized, designed, and managed. Central to such interventions is the focus on work practices, policies and procedures. Organizational interventions may be guided by a conceptual model that can serve as a map of priorities. During this webinar, learners will explore the model developed by the Harvard Center for Work, Health and Well-being, which highlights the importance of conditions of work, including physical, such as chemical and physical exposures, as well as organizational conditions of work such as an increasing pace of work and rising job instability. Learners will review key characteristics of organizational change, as measured in the Workplace Integrated Safety and Health assessment, including: (a) leadership commitment; (b) participation; (c) policies, programs, and practices that foster supportive working conditions; (d) comprehensive and collaborative strategies; (e) adherence to federal and state regulations and ethical norms; and (f) data-driven change. This webinar will also review steps organizations can take in the process of organizational change. A case study conducted in the food service industry will be used to illustrate opportunities and challenges to implementing organizational interventions.