Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I Guess what Will? What's that? Man? Have you seen
Speaker 1: these nap pods around? The companies have started using in
Speaker 1: their offices, of course, And actually I feel like I
Speaker 1: remember from years ago. Did didn't you take a field
Speaker 1: trip to one of these things? One time I did
Speaker 1: so Jason English and I heard about these at the
Speaker 1: Empire State Building and so we went to a nap
Speaker 1: room and got a nap pass and you kind of
Speaker 1: just lie down in the space age recliner that looks
Speaker 1: like an egg and and rest. It does look like
Speaker 1: can he. But for some reason, every time I see
Speaker 1: one of those, it makes me think of pac Man
Speaker 1: and just like eating these people. So there's something about it.
Speaker 1: It makes me a little hesitant to get in one
Speaker 1: of those things. Yeah, but I kind of love that
Speaker 1: they are, these weird little pods and their soundproof and ergonomic,
Speaker 1: and they've got colors that come in to wake you up.
Speaker 1: You know. The one time I did it, not only
Speaker 1: did I feel rested, but I woke up refreshed. So
Speaker 1: I actually looked into them for our office and did
Speaker 1: you know they go for like thirteen grand a pop.
Speaker 1: It's a little out of our price range, but it
Speaker 1: did give me thinking about all the ways that the
Speaker 1: workplace has changed over the years. I mean, there was
Speaker 1: a time not too long ago when sleeping on the
Speaker 1: job was a fireball offense. But now it's a part
Speaker 1: of employee wellness programs that everywhere from like Nike to
Speaker 1: Google to Ben and Jerry's. So with that kind of
Speaker 1: change in mind, I thought i'd be fun to take
Speaker 1: a tour through the history of office innovations, from surprising
Speaker 1: programs adopted in other countries to the rise and fall
Speaker 1: of the office cubicle. Let's dive in. Y Hey, their
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
Speaker 1: and it's always I'm joined by my good friend Manges
Speaker 1: Ticketer on the other side of that soundproof glass. Look
Speaker 1: at him just polishing that thing. He's polishing this shiny
Speaker 1: new Employee of the Month blaque. That's our friend and
Speaker 1: producer Tristan McNeil. I didn't even know we hadn't employed
Speaker 1: in the month program. We we we actually don't mango.
Speaker 1: He gave himself the employee them on the ward. It
Speaker 1: was kind of a power move, you know, he's he's
Speaker 1: a little bit into these power moves, and and I
Speaker 1: think this is because he's now handed over the producing duties.
Speaker 1: And of course Tristan is still going to be around,
Speaker 1: but these are now going to the wonderful lull Berlante.
Speaker 1: So to be fair, I think I'm at least partially
Speaker 1: to blame for this, because last week I told Tristan
Speaker 1: about this big push to ban Employee of the month programs.
Speaker 1: Apparently some HR departments think that the selection criteria is
Speaker 1: too vague, and as a result of this, companies are
Speaker 1: left open to being accused of favoritism. So a lot
Speaker 1: of people are pushing to get rid of these things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I guess you can see how people might complain
Speaker 1: when they don't get it, And it kind of makes sense,
Speaker 1: you know. I I like how Tristan took it into
Speaker 1: his own hands and out himself a plaque. But why
Speaker 1: why don't we stick to some of the more time
Speaker 1: tested workplace innovations, ones that have already proven themselves to
Speaker 1: be good ideas And one that I really like are
Speaker 1: these professional readers who work in Cuban cigar factories. Readers
Speaker 1: who work in Cuban cigar factories. Yeah, they're called electories,
Speaker 1: and their job is to sit on a raised platform
Speaker 1: inside a factory and read aloud to the people rolling
Speaker 1: the cigars. There's usually some kind of p a system too,
Speaker 1: so it isn't just them yelling, but it's it's pretty
Speaker 1: great and it's a practice that's been going on in
Speaker 1: Cuban factories for over a hundred and fifty years now,
Speaker 1: and the electorias are are still they're just reading two
Speaker 1: people to this day. Why is this like it's some
Speaker 1: kind of enrichment or education program or what. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: this is back in eight six five there was a
Speaker 1: man named Nicolas as Karate. I'm sure I'm pronouncing that terribly,
Speaker 1: but he was the leader of a political reform movement
Speaker 1: in Havana, and he thought lictors would help in two ways. First,
Speaker 1: they would help relieve the workers of their boredom. You know,
Speaker 1: cigar roll all day has to be kind of a
Speaker 1: tedious activity. But more importantly, it would help educate the
Speaker 1: workers and broaden their minds about local and global issues.
Speaker 1: And the public actually loved the ideas. So just one
Speaker 1: year after the lectoria has arrived in the factories, the
Speaker 1: Cuban newspaper um Law Aurora report on the program, and
Speaker 1: this is where they wrote. Quote. Today, even in the
Speaker 1: heart of the workshops and during the hours most suited
Speaker 1: to manual labor, imaginations are busily questioning scientific and philosophical truth.
Speaker 1: They're talking and discussing, They're reading the works of good
Speaker 1: modern authors and consulting with each other. In short, they
Speaker 1: are doing what they can to learn and to continue
Speaker 1: along the path of civilization. So it's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to say exactly what affects those readings had on the workers,
Speaker 1: but it is worth noting that when Cuba want its
Speaker 1: independence from Spain, it did so with the help of
Speaker 1: these cigar workers, and it isn't a stretch to think
Speaker 1: that many of them were inspired by the readings that
Speaker 1: they heard at work. Yeah, not only that, And this
Speaker 1: is something I really don't think most people would know.
Speaker 1: But q but has one of the highest literacy rates
Speaker 1: in the world, right, Like, I think it sounds like
Speaker 1: nine point seven percent of the population, which you know,
Speaker 1: it makes sense for a country where factory workers listen
Speaker 1: to news and books all day long, I guess. But
Speaker 1: you know, I'm assuming they read books out loud, too,
Speaker 1: So so what kind of stuff do these electories read. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is a mix. The electoria's typically read in thirty
Speaker 1: minutes shifts, so one shift might cover the major news
Speaker 1: stories of the day and another might cover horoscopes or recipes.
Speaker 1: But you're totally right about the books. The real need
Speaker 1: of the programming is the dramatic reading of novels, which happens,
Speaker 1: and that's when the lector is really good to show off,
Speaker 1: like they act out multiple parts, they use different voices.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they provide sound effects like their own effects, and
Speaker 1: the workers can't get enough of it. In fact, when
Speaker 1: they really like what they're hearing, they'll start tapping on
Speaker 1: the table with the knives they use for the cigar
Speaker 1: cutting and and it's basically their way to show their applause.
Speaker 1: And I love that they applaud with knives, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't It worries me a little bit and kind of
Speaker 1: makes me wonder what happens if they don't like a reading. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it could be dangerous, but actually that knife applause gets
Speaker 1: used in different ways to write. The factories actually hold
Speaker 1: auditions for these lectoria's, where each candidate's pronunciation and their
Speaker 1: oratory flair is is scrutinized. I guess their sound effects
Speaker 1: as well. And and then the workers put the whole
Speaker 1: thing to a knife vote, and they also get a
Speaker 1: vote on which texta read. Can you guess what the
Speaker 1: top novel among these cigar rollers is? I mean, I
Speaker 1: have no idea what Harry Potter? Yeah, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: not a bad guess, but it's actually, uh, the Count
Speaker 1: of Monte Cristo. Okay, also Jared Kushner's favorite book. But
Speaker 1: and some lectoria's have even read the book multiple times
Speaker 1: for the same group of workers, Like that's how popular
Speaker 1: it is. But the thing I really like is that
Speaker 1: Electora is basically the voice of the workers in their factory.
Speaker 1: The workers choose the Electora and they choose the words
Speaker 1: here she will read. But they also paid the electora's
Speaker 1: wages themselves, using contributions from their salaries, so in a
Speaker 1: very real way, the electora's speaks for them. But being
Speaker 1: Electora can extend beyond the daily reading, so sometimes they
Speaker 1: wind up taking on other jobs, like they announced plays
Speaker 1: at the company baseball game, they'll perform the eulogy at
Speaker 1: at employee funerals, and they even act as a middleman
Speaker 1: for the workers speaking to management on their behalf. It's
Speaker 1: really a role as like a community spokesman or like
Speaker 1: almost like a union leader, as well as being a reader.
Speaker 1: But I think that intimacy between that relationship is kind
Speaker 1: of why the practice still endures today, even with like TV, smartphones,
Speaker 1: even podcast I don't know if you've heard those, but
Speaker 1: these are gonna be big some day. But Lectura kind
Speaker 1: of has the workers back in a way that none
Speaker 1: of those mediums can do exactly. Well. You know, there's
Speaker 1: one thing I noticed when I was looking through the
Speaker 1: research that Gabe sent us this week, and is that
Speaker 1: the most effective office innovations tend to be the ones
Speaker 1: that reinforced this feeling of humanity in the workplace. So
Speaker 1: when you think about these, like for a lot of us,
Speaker 1: this means you know, certain modern office staples like coffee
Speaker 1: breaks or casual Fridays, but there are also things that
Speaker 1: like homemade lunch delivery service that they have in Mumbai,
Speaker 1: which is just can you imagine how much fun that
Speaker 1: would be? Yeah, the double Wallas the dumble is actually
Speaker 1: your lunch or lunch container and the wall as the
Speaker 1: person who delivers it. I mean, it's crazy how old
Speaker 1: this system actually is Apparently it's been in place for
Speaker 1: them like a hundred and thirty years and there's more
Speaker 1: than two hundred thousand people in the city that rely
Speaker 1: on it to deliver their lunch each day. But what's
Speaker 1: fascinating to me is that it's so efficient. So there
Speaker 1: were some people from Harvard that did a study on this,
Speaker 1: and it's actually estimated that for every six million meals
Speaker 1: they handle, only one actually misses its destination. Like that
Speaker 1: is efficient, way better track record than any food delivery
Speaker 1: app that I can think of. Yeah, I mean my
Speaker 1: families from Bombay and I didn't know those numbers. But
Speaker 1: what's crazier to me is that the system is about
Speaker 1: as analog as you can get. So each double wall
Speaker 1: is responsible for finding his own customers, also for collecting
Speaker 1: the money from them, and sort of the way it
Speaker 1: used to work with milkman or paper boys. They're actually
Speaker 1: the one doing the collections. So every day, each double
Speaker 1: Walla bikes to his customers homes one by one, picks
Speaker 1: up a freshly cooked meal from each one of them,
Speaker 1: and then he takes these meals to their drop off points,
Speaker 1: where they get grouped with a bunch of other meals
Speaker 1: and sent off to this nearby train station. So from there,
Speaker 1: the home cooked meals travel to a hub where they're
Speaker 1: sorted by location and then finally sent out by bike
Speaker 1: and delivered before lunchtime. And despite all of that, they
Speaker 1: have that sort of track record. I mean, it's, I guess,
Speaker 1: a wonderful organized chaos from everything I've read about. If
Speaker 1: you know apprienently, it takes at least three months of
Speaker 1: training just to memorize the coding system they use for
Speaker 1: the different lunch boxes. I don't know if you've seen these,
Speaker 1: but it's got like a jumble of colors and letters
Speaker 1: and numbers. But you know, I can't get over how
Speaker 1: much stress these guys must be under. Like not only
Speaker 1: do they have to move the lunch boxes from one
Speaker 1: train to another to get to the destinations, but if
Speaker 1: you've ever tried to just take a train without doing
Speaker 1: the lunch is an India that's its own chore. So
Speaker 1: you know, if a double walla gets confused and and
Speaker 1: this is his connection, that means a whole block where
Speaker 1: the customers might miss their lunches. It's insanity, all right.
Speaker 1: So just to clarify on this though, like this system
Speaker 1: seems to be thriving despite the fact that they're probably
Speaker 1: cheaper and easier ways to eat lunch at work. And
Speaker 1: I'm curious, why do you think this is? I mean,
Speaker 1: for some people it's a matter of health or hygiene,
Speaker 1: like they don't want to eat anything that might get
Speaker 1: them sick, and getting your dubble from home is is
Speaker 1: a good way to ensure that doesn't happen. But more broadly,
Speaker 1: I think the people goes back to the human component, like,
Speaker 1: this isn't food that's been prepared by a stranger. It
Speaker 1: was freshly cooked by a loved one for you, Which
Speaker 1: is why I think it's such an enduring innovation. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: now that we've looked at a few workplace trends from abroad,
Speaker 1: I feel like we should circle back to the US
Speaker 1: offices and trying to get a sense for how it's
Speaker 1: evolved over the years. Sure, but before we do that,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time
Speaker 1: Genius and we're talking about office innovations that have changed
Speaker 1: the way we work, sometimes for the better and sometimes
Speaker 1: for the worst. Is it still an innovation if it
Speaker 1: actually makes things worse? I think so, Like think about
Speaker 1: think about the cubicle right, like it's it was super
Speaker 1: innovative when it came on the scene in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: but plenty of office workers would argue that change was
Speaker 1: not for the better. I mean, I guess that's true,
Speaker 1: but you kind of have to look at the whole history.
Speaker 1: I do think they're a little bit misunderstood. Like cubicles,
Speaker 1: for all their faults, and of course there are many,
Speaker 1: they were still a step up from the office layout
Speaker 1: of yesteryear. So just as an example of this, in
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, American offices were these small, dingy places,
Speaker 1: pop bellied stove and a bunch of clerks just kind
Speaker 1: of piled on top of one another, and so it's
Speaker 1: this cramp, smokey, just not pleasant space ace and there
Speaker 1: was zero privacy. I know, when I think about that,
Speaker 1: I almost think of like Scrooge's office in the Christmas Carol.
Speaker 1: It was all exactly like that, Like that was true
Speaker 1: to every single office. And I know you, Mango, so
Speaker 1: I know you're picturing Scrooges office in the Muppet version
Speaker 1: of the Christmas Carol, and you aren't far off. So
Speaker 1: by the twentieth century, office spaces had thankfully spread out
Speaker 1: a little bit, but soon they started to resemble factory floors.
Speaker 1: You know, I think of these bulky flat desks set
Speaker 1: up side by side, and so not only did this
Speaker 1: arrangement maximize space, but it also made it easy for
Speaker 1: supervisors to keep an eye on all of their employees.
Speaker 1: So even though offices were bigger than they used to be,
Speaker 1: personal privacy in this workplace sort of setting it was,
Speaker 1: it was really nonexistent. It would, you know, It's kind
Speaker 1: of stay this way until the cubicle came along in
Speaker 1: the late nineteen sixties. Yeah, it's interesting, like we're so
Speaker 1: used to thinking of cubicles in negative terms, like they're
Speaker 1: blend or homogeneous, isolating, But that's probably because we pictured
Speaker 1: the alternative as every employe having their own office with
Speaker 1: the door. But cubicle will start to look a lot
Speaker 1: more liberating when you remember that the status quo of
Speaker 1: the era was almost like a bullpen with everyone just
Speaker 1: working elbow to elbow. Yeah, that's exactly right, And you know,
Speaker 1: it's strange to think about the cubicles really were intended
Speaker 1: to bring a bit more humanity and individuality to the workplace,
Speaker 1: or at least that was the goal of Robert Probes,
Speaker 1: who was the inventor of the cubicle, and Probes was
Speaker 1: the head of research at Herman Miller's furniture company. This
Speaker 1: was in the nineteen fifties and the nineteen sixties, and
Speaker 1: it was during the course of his work that he
Speaker 1: got depressed about the state of the modern office. So
Speaker 1: he wrote about this. This was actually from nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: and he said, today's office is a waste land. It
Speaker 1: SAPs fatality, blocks talent, frustrates accomplishment. It is the daily
Speaker 1: scene of unfulfilled intentions and failed efforts. Such a wonderful idea,
Speaker 1: I know you had some strong feelings there, He really did,
Speaker 1: and so it inspired him to get, you know, to
Speaker 1: work designing the ideal workspace. So he really did have
Speaker 1: very good in engines here, and using research he collected
Speaker 1: from design experts, Probes decided on this new, flexible, kind
Speaker 1: of customizable approach, which he dubbed the action office. So
Speaker 1: it consisted of a desk, a space for making phone calls,
Speaker 1: a vertical filing system, and these three hinged partitions that
Speaker 1: could be rearranged as needed to accommodate solo work. Or
Speaker 1: in some cases collaborative work. And to be clear, though,
Speaker 1: the Action Office was not a cubicle like. The idea
Speaker 1: was to provide a mix of walls and desks of
Speaker 1: various heights so that each workers set up their space
Speaker 1: to match their own needs. And you know, it's kind
Speaker 1: of a smart idea compared to what was out there.
Speaker 1: And Proest included these acoustical panels to help block out
Speaker 1: some of the sound of typing and other people's phone calls,
Speaker 1: and so he even included this adjustable desk so that
Speaker 1: people could stand while they worked, which you know, he
Speaker 1: thought it would actually help improve employee blood flow in
Speaker 1: the process. That's kind of amazing that he was that
Speaker 1: ahead of his time with the standing deess and and
Speaker 1: the panels. And I also love the branding the Action Office. Like,
Speaker 1: the main problem was that nobody bought the Action Office.
Speaker 1: Designers praised it as ingenious, but for companies and the executives,
Speaker 1: the system was just like too high concept to buy into.
Speaker 1: And so Propes and his team went back to the
Speaker 1: drawing board and a year later they came out with
Speaker 1: the Action Office too, So, you know, totally different thing here,
Speaker 1: and it was cheaper and simpler, and unlike it's more
Speaker 1: open minded predecessor, this new design had a very stock
Speaker 1: model with a fixed desk and you know those humanizing
Speaker 1: frills like shelves and better site lines that had previously
Speaker 1: been available as options, but you know, most companies didn't
Speaker 1: spend on them, and as a result, Prop's vision of
Speaker 1: this sprawling, productive workspace gave way to his fenced in
Speaker 1: office space that we really think of now when we
Speaker 1: think of cubicles. When you talk about it that way,
Speaker 1: it's almost like kind of what happened with the mall inventor,
Speaker 1: Like who wanted to create those town squares and then
Speaker 1: it ended up being just this commercial, like like pure
Speaker 1: commerce place. Yeah, I know, we talked about that not
Speaker 1: too long ago, and it's basically the same story with Probes.
Speaker 1: So other furniture companies started making their own no frills
Speaker 1: cubicles and offices became these more crowded and impersonal spaces
Speaker 1: more than they had even before. And just like Ruin
Speaker 1: with his shopping malls, Probes had to stand by and watches.
Speaker 1: His invention became this new model for that very corporate
Speaker 1: sameness that he'd been trying to get rid of. And
Speaker 1: in fact, I pulled this quote from him that shows
Speaker 1: how disappointed he was in the whole thing. He says,
Speaker 1: not all organizations are intelligent and progressive. Lots are run
Speaker 1: by crass people. They make little bitty cubicles and stuff
Speaker 1: people in them. Barren, rat hole places, monolithic insanity. I
Speaker 1: don't want to read this guy's quotes. Just over and
Speaker 1: I've got more rat whole places. He has not mincing words,
Speaker 1: very very descriptive. So so probes passed away in the
Speaker 1: year two ols and it makes you wonder what he
Speaker 1: would think of the return to the open office layout
Speaker 1: that we've really seen come about in the last twenty
Speaker 1: years or so. I mean, don't get me wrong about
Speaker 1: thirty of American employees still work in cubicles, and the
Speaker 1: industry makes a couple billion dollars in sales every year.
Speaker 1: But open floor plans have become the new normal again,
Speaker 1: and that's thanks largely to the tech industry and the
Speaker 1: cubicle you know, could be on its way out at last.
Speaker 1: It is strange to see that pendulum, right, It just
Speaker 1: swings from one side to the other and back. But
Speaker 1: it's also weird that we can't find our way to
Speaker 1: the middle. Like, there's so many studies that show that
Speaker 1: open offices actually decreased productivity. One study from the Cohen
Speaker 1: Brown Management Group found that office workers lose between three
Speaker 1: to five hours of productive time every day in an
Speaker 1: open office. And that's because they're constantly being interrupted in
Speaker 1: some way by the people around them. And the worst
Speaker 1: part is that those interruptions aren't even worth the bother
Speaker 1: in most cases. Like, according to a professor of management
Speaker 1: at n y U, and her name is Ann lar Fiard,
Speaker 1: this is a quote, many studies show that people have
Speaker 1: shorter and more superficial conversations in open because they're self
Speaker 1: conscious about being overheard. You know. It's interesting because I've
Speaker 1: always heard that the biggest benefit to an open office
Speaker 1: is that the employees, you know, they interact, they collaborate
Speaker 1: so much more than in a partitioned office, I guess,
Speaker 1: But but I think that benefit make it canceled out
Speaker 1: if the interactions are mostly hollow, right, Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: the real thing open office plans have going for them
Speaker 1: is that they're way cheaper than going to cubicle route.
Speaker 1: You can get by with three times less office space
Speaker 1: if you just use an open floor plan and you
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about fitting in a bunch of big,
Speaker 1: boxy cubes. All right, So open offices are less expensive
Speaker 1: and they can make it seem like your company is
Speaker 1: really shaking things up, I guess. But you know, on
Speaker 1: their own, they aren't enough to make workers anymore creative
Speaker 1: or more productive. So so what kind of innovation would
Speaker 1: actually do that? I mean, there's got to be something, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've got a few fun options that we can run through.
Speaker 1: But let's take another quick break. Welcome back to part
Speaker 1: time Genius. All right, Mango, you promised this. You're going
Speaker 1: to give us some picks for the best ways to
Speaker 1: boost productivity at work, and you can't say nappods again.
Speaker 1: You've got to come up with something. Well, I've got
Speaker 1: something much better in mind, and it is cheaper, because,
Speaker 1: according to recent studies, one way to improve your job
Speaker 1: performance is just by making your coworkers laugh. That actually
Speaker 1: makes me think of like bosses starting to do impressions
Speaker 1: like they're Michael Scott in the office or something like that,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious, like whose performance does it actually help
Speaker 1: the joke teller or the person laughing. So that's a
Speaker 1: really great part about this. It affects both parties, and
Speaker 1: for the person making the jokes, the benefit is a
Speaker 1: boosting social status. In two thousands, sixteen, researchers at the
Speaker 1: Harvard Business School concluded that when an employee makes a
Speaker 1: coworkers laugh, that person is quote perceived as more competent,
Speaker 1: more confident, and higher in status. That's just some revolutionary
Speaker 1: research there. And so what about for the people laughing,
Speaker 1: They actually get something good out of it as well.
Speaker 1: They get stress relief, entertainment, and a stronger sense of
Speaker 1: engagement and collaboration. I mean, this is all studies backed.
Speaker 1: And then there's the physical changes like for example, laughing
Speaker 1: increases your intake of oxygen and that turned up to
Speaker 1: the amount of endorphins that your brain releases. Plus laughter
Speaker 1: can stimulate circulation and relax your muscles, so it's great
Speaker 1: for relieving physical stress, all right. So, just to play
Speaker 1: Devil's advocate on this for for for a second, have
Speaker 1: there been any studies on whether laughing actually improved productivity
Speaker 1: because stress relief, endorphins connecting with your coworkers, and it
Speaker 1: makes sense that it would make net positive results, I guess,
Speaker 1: but I'm just wondering if researchers have actually been able
Speaker 1: to prove this. Yeah, I mean that's fair. I think
Speaker 1: it's a little tricky just because every company is going
Speaker 1: to have its own different measures of productivity, so it's
Speaker 1: not like you'll be able to prove the fact of
Speaker 1: laughter across the board or anything. But uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I I did read about one study that came out
Speaker 1: of the University of Bristol a few years back where
Speaker 1: the researchers tried to determine if there really was a
Speaker 1: link between happiness and productivity. And what they did was
Speaker 1: they gathered a bunch of volunteers and split them into
Speaker 1: two groups, and the first group watched a funny video
Speaker 1: clip that was meant to make them laugh, and the
Speaker 1: second group didn't watch anything. And then the members in
Speaker 1: both groups were given a set of addition problems and
Speaker 1: charged with solving as many as they could within i
Speaker 1: don't know, like ten minutes or something. So in this case,
Speaker 1: productivity was measured by the number of problems solved correctly,
Speaker 1: and as you're probably guessing, you know, the result was
Speaker 1: the employees who laughed at the clip were a full
Speaker 1: ten percent more productive than the employees who hadn't watched
Speaker 1: the clip, so it's not definitive, but there's still a
Speaker 1: good reason to think that laughter in the workplace is
Speaker 1: kind of a win for everyone. I mean, it doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense when you think about in terms of headspace
Speaker 1: and how laughter can know of course, improve your mood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's actually the same thing that happens with music.
Speaker 1: Like I'm thinking about all those studies you see about
Speaker 1: how listening to music when you work and actually put
Speaker 1: you in a better mood. You know. I was actually
Speaker 1: looking at that this week because I wasn't sure how
Speaker 1: much truth there was to that claim. And personally, I'm
Speaker 1: some sometimes in one camp and sometimes in the other
Speaker 1: where I feel like music is like great in the
Speaker 1: background and I'm really humming along, and then sometimes I
Speaker 1: feel like it's so distracting. But I mean, I've read
Speaker 1: some of those studies that you mentioned as well, though.
Speaker 1: What was the verdict. Well, it turns out it kind
Speaker 1: of depends on what you're listening to. So if you're
Speaker 1: listening to music that you enjoy at work, then you're
Speaker 1: likely to experience a mood boost of about nine of
Speaker 1: the time, or at least that's according to one expert
Speaker 1: that there was this music therapy professor in Miami name
Speaker 1: Teresa Lessie Yuck, And the reason for that boost is
Speaker 1: that when you listen to music you like, it activates
Speaker 1: the pleasure center in your brain, which of course feels good.
Speaker 1: So by the same token, if you're listening to music
Speaker 1: you can't stand, then you probably won't get the same results,
Speaker 1: which makes sense. But now it feels like we're running
Speaker 1: into the same question you have with the laughter case,
Speaker 1: like does being in a good mood really make you
Speaker 1: a more productive worker or is that just something we
Speaker 1: kind of take as a given. Well, like you said,
Speaker 1: I mean, there probably isn't one single study that could
Speaker 1: prove all of this, But according to Lessieu, there is
Speaker 1: evidence that people are more productive when they're in a
Speaker 1: positive mood. And as you put it, when you're in
Speaker 1: that mood state, you're better at problem solving and thinking creatively.
Speaker 1: You take in more options and don't narrow your focus.
Speaker 1: And that kind of tracks because you know, your pleasure
Speaker 1: center isn't the only part of the brain that lights
Speaker 1: up when you listen to good music or when you laugh.
Speaker 1: The other area that gets stimulated is the specific neural
Speaker 1: pathway that runs through the limbic system all the way
Speaker 1: up to the orbital frontal cortex. And as I'm sure
Speaker 1: we all remember, I only remember because I'm looking at
Speaker 1: my notes here to be honest with you, that that's
Speaker 1: the part of the brain that deals with decision making.
Speaker 1: So essentially, when that part of the brain is stimulated,
Speaker 1: the result is this spike in creativity and problem solving.
Speaker 1: And here's how you can tell that there's truth to this.
Speaker 1: So several companies are trying to cash in on these
Speaker 1: neurological ben fits by creating music that's specifically designed to
Speaker 1: improve your mood and productivity at work, and it's called
Speaker 1: streamlined music. It's pay special attention to the key and
Speaker 1: tempo of songs in order to maximize the effect they
Speaker 1: have on an employee's limbic system. So the jury is
Speaker 1: still out on how well the system works, but the
Speaker 1: takeaway so far is that it really can improve the
Speaker 1: quote perceived focus, task persistence, precognition, and creative thinking of listeners.
Speaker 1: So if nothing else, at least we've got a good
Speaker 1: excuse to listen to music in the office. Now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it'll go over well if you just tell
Speaker 1: your boss your head banging and working on your Excel sheets,
Speaker 1: that you're just stimulating your limbic system, I guess, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure they won't have any follow up questions to that.
Speaker 1: So speak of being things awkward at work, there's one
Speaker 1: more unusual innovation we should mention for office workers, and
Speaker 1: that's a roma therapy. I mean, it's funny because I've
Speaker 1: seen these office diffusers online, like you just squired a
Speaker 1: couple of drops of your favorite essential oil into this
Speaker 1: scent pad thing and then plug it into your US
Speaker 1: speed port. It is pretty weird, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: I know, And initially it sounded like less a way
Speaker 1: to improve the workplace and more like a good way
Speaker 1: to alienate your coworkers. I remember when the Internet was
Speaker 1: just starting and and and people were talking about what
Speaker 1: the future of the Internet would be, and people were
Speaker 1: saying that, you know, having sent through your computer to
Speaker 1: like enhance the roma of of a food article or
Speaker 1: whatever would be exciting. And then the response to immediately
Speaker 1: was that trolls would hack your system and send out
Speaker 1: fart bombs, and so that's sort of smell vision of
Speaker 1: the internet hasn't come about. But this is a much
Speaker 1: safer way to make sure you're surrounded by good smells
Speaker 1: and and being more meditative about your work. I guess well,
Speaker 1: speaking of focus, how about we keep our eye on
Speaker 1: the prize, not not Tristan's employee the month prize, but
Speaker 1: the fact off prize. Sounds good. M all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start with my favorite office perk of all time.
Speaker 1: It's the sixty five ft tall indoor ferris wheel. It's
Speaker 1: permanently housed in the headquarters of Acuity Insurance in Sheboygan, Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: and these lucky employees there get to write it basically
Speaker 1: whenever they want. And if this all sounds a little
Speaker 1: bit decadent, keep in mind that the rides primary purpose
Speaker 1: is to serve as a fund centerpiece for fundraising events
Speaker 1: for local charities, so in fact, it's even nicknamed the
Speaker 1: Charity Wheel for that very reason. That's really sweet, but
Speaker 1: it also seems like a good way to sell insurance,
Speaker 1: like maybe you need some insurance before you hop on
Speaker 1: this giant old ferris wheel. Actually, Acuity has these other
Speaker 1: unusual perks going forward as well, including a forty five
Speaker 1: foot tall climbing wall of four hundred foot tall flagpole
Speaker 1: and a dress code that's described as jeens friendly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the last one is a real selling point. But you know,
Speaker 1: for me, probably the coolest park I came across is
Speaker 1: the maternity leave program for employees at a company called
Speaker 1: Vota Phone. They're a UK based telecommunications provider and a
Speaker 1: few years ago they noticed a troubling pattern in their workforce.
Speaker 1: It seemed that a high number of female employees were
Speaker 1: leaving the company soon after returning from maturity leave, and
Speaker 1: in nearly two thirds of these cases, the women did
Speaker 1: so within a year of having their baby, so obviously
Speaker 1: not an ideal retention rate. Vota Phone decided to change
Speaker 1: their policy and attempt to combat the problem, and the
Speaker 1: result is one of the most compassionate maternity leave programs
Speaker 1: in the world. So women who work at Vota Phone
Speaker 1: are now entitled at least sixteen weeks of fully paid
Speaker 1: maternity leave, and it's followed by thirty hour work weeks
Speaker 1: paid at full salary for six months after they returned
Speaker 1: to work. Actually, speaking of pregnancy, and I know that
Speaker 1: there's going to be an age gap and too who
Speaker 1: knows this fact and who thinks this is really weird?
Speaker 1: But actually getting pregnant used to be a fireable offense
Speaker 1: in the US, which is just sort of mind boggling.
Speaker 1: It sounds made up, But until the late nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: employers were permitted to fire women just because they were expecting,
Speaker 1: and the practice was considered like a cost cutting measure
Speaker 1: aimed at saving a company money on you know, maternity
Speaker 1: leave health benefits, and it was pretty pop or two so,
Speaker 1: according to the Department of Labor, during the mid nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: only of first time mothers worked while pregnant, compared to
Speaker 1: a close to seventy today, And the crucial factor behind
Speaker 1: that uptick was the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which finally put
Speaker 1: an end to this firing practice, and that happened in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight, the year before the two of us
Speaker 1: were born, thank you. Yeah, And obviously there's so much
Speaker 1: work to be done on that front to make it
Speaker 1: a truly level playing field. You know, this next one
Speaker 1: is something surprising that I kind of wish I hadn't
Speaker 1: learned this week. So, you know, all those long running
Speaker 1: rumors that you hear around the office, but like the
Speaker 1: one about Tristan winning the pick leading contest at last
Speaker 1: year's Atlanta County Fair was that one that rumorable? I
Speaker 1: don't know if that one's true, but but if you
Speaker 1: do hear an office rumor, there's a good chance it
Speaker 1: is true. Or at least that's what researchers found at
Speaker 1: the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of South Australia.
Speaker 1: According to them, a workplace grapevine is like one big
Speaker 1: truth detector. Baseless gossa gets dropped fast because one person
Speaker 1: or another can usually debunk it. But if there's truth
Speaker 1: to a rumor, it tends to persist and all the
Speaker 1: embellishments and guesswork around it are gradually shaved away. So
Speaker 1: this is what one of the authors behind the study
Speaker 1: said about it. Quote. In a workplace setting, what we
Speaker 1: call a stable organizational grapevine, people are very good at
Speaker 1: figuring out the truth. If you tell me something and
Speaker 1: I work closely with you, I know whether you're a
Speaker 1: credible source. But even if I'm not so sure, in
Speaker 1: workplace settings, it's easy to cross check information. So, in
Speaker 1: a weird way, the longer that a rumor is circulated
Speaker 1: among employees, like the pickle one about Tristan, the more
Speaker 1: accurate it is. You know, It's weird because it kind
Speaker 1: of feels like a reverse game of telephone, like the
Speaker 1: message actually gets clear from person to person, which is
Speaker 1: not not what you would think would happen. But alright,
Speaker 1: well here's a quick one. The largest office building in
Speaker 1: the world is actually the Pentagon in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: So even though it's only seven stories tall, the building's
Speaker 1: unique shape makes it super a along like giving it.
Speaker 1: I think it has a whopping three point seven million
Speaker 1: square feet of floor space, So that's three times the
Speaker 1: square footage of the Empire State Building and room enough
Speaker 1: for more than twenty three thousand employees. That's crazy. So
Speaker 1: here's what I like. There's one Starbucks in the world
Speaker 1: that will never spell your name wrong on the order,
Speaker 1: the c I A Starbucks also known as Store Number one,
Speaker 1: and it's apparently the only store of the more than
Speaker 1: twenty th Starbucks that will never ask for your name,
Speaker 1: and that's because, thanks to CIA rules, it is not allowed. Well,
Speaker 1: so how did the baristas know what you ordered? I mean,
Speaker 1: they're just that good. Like they have to go through
Speaker 1: intense training and background checks, and then when they finally
Speaker 1: get the job, they just quickly learned to pair drink
Speaker 1: orders with faces. I love that and it makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. Yeah, I mean it does. But it
Speaker 1: also seems like the CIA is smart enough that people
Speaker 1: could make up fake names, right, Like my father in
Speaker 1: law just decided that his local Starbucks he'd only be
Speaker 1: known as wand so when he walks in, everyone greets
Speaker 1: him as one like he's wanting to tars. But I
Speaker 1: guess not having to say your name is easier. That's
Speaker 1: pretty great, all right, Well, I think because of that,
Speaker 1: both the great fact and the story about your father
Speaker 1: in law, you've earned the trophy for today. So congratulations,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, and and that is all for
Speaker 1: today's Part Time Genius, but from Gabe Lowell, Will and me,
Speaker 1: thanks as always for listening, and I think we'll be
Speaker 1: back soon with another episode. Part Time Genius is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.