The 7 Keys to A Productive and Happy Workplace from The Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces @ UC Berkeley (LinkedIn)
Mary Anna Weklar
September 12, 2017
It was my privilege to sit down face-to-face with the co-founder and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces at UC Berkeley, Cristina Banks, PhD, last month, and I wanted to share some of what I learned.
UC Berkeley professors correct our most common misconceptions (DailyCal)
Logan Goldberg
November 4, 2015
According to Cristina Banks, a senior lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, one myth that persists in the business world is that engaging and low-stress workplaces prevent workers from being productive. In reality, Banks said, providing such workspaces has the opposite effect.
“Business executives believe that giving their employees comfortable, pleasing, sociable and nature-enhanced workspaces will lower their productivity because they will get distracted and a bit too comfortable,” Banks said. “On the contrary, employees in such workspaces are more productive because they are less stressed, less fatigued, more engaged and more socially satisfied.”
Banks added that a possible reason for today’s preponderance of unpleasant, stressful work environments is that these environments do initially get results.
“Companies employing high-stress, highly competitive and high-work-demand strategies get productivity in the short term,” Banks said. “But burning people out quickly results in lost productivity due to depression, exhaustion and sleep deprivation, which creates conditions for a revolving door of workers coming in and out of that workplace.”
High-Yield Workplace: How Well-being Drives Learning on the Academic Campus
Meghan Webster
April 8, 2014
Many of the experiences that shape who people are as individuals—such as how they work well with others and how they ultimately succeed in life—are learned outside of the classroom. The professional world is also shifting; interpersonal skills, ways of problem-solving, and creativity are not only critical but basic, fundamental tools for getting by in life and as part of the work force. Yet, somehow, the academic campus – arguably a center for innovation and thus a crucial source for many of these tools – is lagging behind.