May 2, 2016
The cocktail party effect and the false narrative of office acoustics
Ask most people what they find most annoying about modern office life and they’re likely to tell you that it is the sounds of other people. The knee jerk response to this is often to blame the hegemony of open plan design and then find ways to reduce the amount of noise generated within the office. Like many others, this is an enduring narrative and one that many well-informed people continue to challenge. As always, the issues around office acoustics are far more complex and interesting than that and we’ve known it for a long time. Donald Broadbent was a researcher who died twenty years ago. Yet his research into cognitive psychology has never been more pertinent than it is right now as we continue to struggle with the the effects of unwelcome noise in open plan offices. Offices may have changed in the last twenty years, but human beings haven’t. This revealing programme, broadcast by the BBC, explores some of his ideas. There are no visuals so you have to use your ears.
April 26, 2016
Men paid more after having kids, as mothers’ pay and prospects diminish 0
by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace
We’ve observed at Workplace Insight that the reason many women fall behind men in terms of pay and promotion may not be due to direct gender discrimination but becauses when women start having children, they’re penalised for needing a more flexible working arrangement. This theory has been borne out in a series of surveys and now the latest one shows how stacked the job market is against working mothers. According to a new report by the TUC, fathers working full-time get paid a fifth more than men with similar jobs who don’t have children. The report shows that dads who work full-time experience, on average, a 21 percent ‘wage bonus’ and that working fathers with two children earn more (9 percent) than those with just one. The findings are in stark contrast to the experience of working mothers, says the report. Women who become mothers before 33 typically suffer a 15 percent pay penalty.
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