Tag: work

Working from home inhibits innovation. But researchers know how to fix it

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: When you work from home, you tend to communicate more with the members of your own team. This is good for implementing ideas. On the other hand, you also communicate less with other groups, which does not encourage the creation of new ideas. But all this can be fixed.

Report: Midwives can suffer hearing damage from the screams of women giving birth

The average noise level during childbirth can pose a risk to those working in the delivery ward. Paediatric nurses and midwives are particularly vulnerable, a report shows.

These are the European countries with the most labour strikes

Why is Norway one of the tops in Europe when it comes to strikes?

Over 55 and looking for a job? Here are one researcher's tips for succeeding

Researcher Anne Grethe Solberg has interviewed mature job seekers. She clearly sees what works and what doesn't work in getting a new job.

The media almost never write about age discrimination

Older workers are very rarely mentioned in the press. To the extent that they do appear, they are most often about happy outcomes. Very few articles are about negative events or bad attitudes towards the elderly.

The average Norwegian employee costs 85,000 USD

An average Norwegian employee costs his employer well over 50 USD an hour, when all costs are taken into account.

Who is best at getting refugees into the workforce — Norway, Sweden or Denmark?

Wail Kadem, a refugee, an employee at the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, and a student from Iraq, has a clear answer as to which country is best.

What time of day is the best time to exercise?

Working out during the morning or in the evening can have quite different benefits, a new study shows.

Many immigrants in Norway are overqualified for their jobs

Around 40 per cent work in occupations with lower competency requirements than their education dictates.

Negative attitudes towards the elderly have a profound effect on society

International research shows that age has become the most widespread basis for discrimination in working life.

Tired employees are more exposed to bullying

Employees who were tired more often stated that they were bullied in the workplace more often than those who were well-rested and alert. It's important for management to have routines for handling such conflicts, a Norwegian researcher says.

Norwegian researchers work on average 46 hours per week

Researchers with foreign citizenships work the most – and thus contribute to increasing this average.

The less a manager interferes in idea development, the better

OPINION: Only very few companies succeed consistently in developing new ideas. But those that do have one factor in common. The boss doesn’t interfere.

More than twice as dangerous as Norwegian professional drivers

Western and southern Europeans are the most dangerous. Truckers from other countries have up to two-and-a-half times more accidents with injuries than their Norwegian peers.

Older employees are not given as advanced work tasks as their younger colleagues

Employees aged between 50 and 59 have lower potential than their younger colleagues, a new Norwegian study reveals. Age researcher Per Erik Solem disagrees. When you have experience, you can work more efficiently, he believes.

Foreign trade certificates are no help against social dumping

Getting a foreign trade certificate approved in Norway doesn’t do much to help foreign workers, when it comes to pay, working conditions and social dumping.

How are Polish and Lithuanian workers actually doing in Norway?

Researchers believe it’s time to talk about the lack of integration of working immigrants.

Almost half of us belong to the working class. But workers have become more invisible, researchers say

Norwegian social scientists have given the workers a voice.

Polish people with PhDs work as cleaners and builders in Norway

Even if they eventually learn the language, some jobs are simply not available to Eastern Europeans in Norway, according to one researcher.

Skipping lunch break can be bad to your health

Skipping your lunch break at work increases the risk of physical and mental exhaustion, according to a new study from the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences.

Kindergartens in the olden days

A lot has changed since childcare centres in the 19th century. But the reason children went to them was the same as today: parents needed to go to work.

Why are Norwegian trade unions opposed to the EU's minimum wage proposal?

The EU is proposing to introduce a system of statutory minimum wages in EU and EEA member states. But in Norway, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) adamantly opposes the EU Directive.

Having a foreign name decreased chances of being called for a job interview by 25 per cent

Using identical fictitious applications, researchers in Norway were in 2012 able to track who was and who wasn’t called for an interview - those with a Norwegian or those with a Pakistani name. But the study raised some ethical issues.

More people are getting permanent jobs in Norway

The share of permanent jobs have increased in the last 25 years. There are no signs of an increased use of temporary employees, according to a new report.

The hidden threat of the home office

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Working from home has given many people the opportunity to arrange their working hours more freely than usual. But has it really given us more freedom?

Fewer people in Norway are getting permanent jobs these days

More immigrants, “bike messenger jobs,” and what researchers call gig economics. Put together, these trends challenge traditional working life.

Employees at Norwegian kindergartens really enjoy their work

On average, these employees stay at the same workplace for nine years.

Young social welfare users: Mandatory activities are ok, but benefit sanctions can feel unfair

Young people under the age of 30 who receive social assistance in Norway are now required to participate in work-related activities. Young people find the attendance requirement reasonable, but many find benefit sanctions unpredictable, according to a new study.

Low levels of competence among those who work with the intellectually disabled

Just one in 10 employees who work with the intellectually disabled in Norway has trained as a social educator. This percentage has been at a near standstill since the early 1980s, according to a new report.

The police lack systematic plans to increase expertise, according to new research

Gang crime, digital fraud and transnational crime are increasing. But the police lack systems to increase agency competence, according to senior managers in the Norwegian Police Sverice.

Why are fewer Norwegians working than before?

The lower employment rate is not only due to the ageing of the population or the fact that more immigrants have come to Norway, according to a new study.

Fewer educators want to become school principals

Has the principal's job become so burdensome that no one wants it?

Older workers feel welcome at work, but their managers are more lukewarm

Managers are happy with the older workers that they have - but they don't necessarily want more of them.

Women are not formally discriminated against in Norwegian academia – but they still don’t become professors

As long as their CVs are equal to that of the men, women in academia in Norway appear not to be discriminated against. Systematic differences however persist, to the detriment of the women’s careers.

People who work in open-plan or shared offices get sick more often

Employees in open-plan workspaces take more sick leave than those with their own offices. If you share an office with one or more colleagues, your risk of taking sick leave increases significantly, a new Norwegian study shows.

How fair are today’s pensions?

“We clearly see from this research that people’s self-interest plays a role when they tell us what they think is a fair retirement pension,” says one researcher.

Academics hide, play dumb, don't care or over-perform. Everything to oppose the system and administration.

“You can get away with a lot if you just pretend you haven't heard about the rules,” one professor said.

We don't need special measures to keep older people working longer, says researcher

Lifelong learning is important for employment. But we’re totally missing the mark if we think of it as a senior initiative, says economist Simen Markussen.

Discrimination: Thirty-five per cent of Muslim immigrants say they did not get a job they were qualified for

Non-religious immigrants experience discrimination in Norway to the same extent as their more religious counterparts. Muslims seeking work are the exception.

Older Norwegians have almost doubled income in 20 years

Women and people with the lowest incomes have experienced strong income growth in Norway over the last 20 years. But wealthier older people have had the strongest increase during that period.

Who chooses to work past age 67?

Not only people with higher education choose to work longer. A recent research project on seniors in working life reveals several surprising findings.

When a flood of immigrant workers becomes a trickle

When Poland joined the EU in 2004, unemployment was at 20 per cent, and a flood of workers left the country for higher wage lands such as Norway. Now the tide has turned, and Norway faces labour shortages as Poles stay home.

Men are stricter than women when it comes to sick leave

More men than women find it unacceptable to stay home when work is stressful or they’ve just had a breakup, a new study shows. Other studies suggest the opposite.

Here’s why you dread brainstorming at work

Brain storming and group think meetings could be killing off the very creativity that they intend to promote. Here’s how to make it work for everyone.

Norwegian academics face serious work-family life conflicts

Norwegian academics say that their jobs demand such a huge commitment that they don’t have time for their families, a study of workers at three major Norwegian universities has shown.

5 reasons why a holiday can boost your workplace creativity

OPINION: Emerging research suggests that taking some time off could be just what you need to boost your creativity at work.

People over 60 prefer to work with 30-year-olds

A minority prefer people of their own age as work colleagues.

Poker players aren’t like other gamers

Poker is a game played primarily by boys who get good grades in school. It’s an intellectual martial art, according to a researcher.

It is tiring to be gay in the workplace

Young people from the LGBT community feel their sexual orientation puts limits on the types of jobs they can comfortably pursue.

No one can "shrug off" bullying at work

A new study punctures the myth that certain people have strong enough mental armour to emerge unscathed from bullying on the job.

Firms hiring more persons over 55

Norway’s national pension reform in 2011 has made it easier for private businesses to “rid themselves of” older employees. But a new study shows it has also made it easier to hire older workers.

"There needs to be higher rewards for working"

Society should be doing more to motivate young people to work. The future economy of Norway depends on this. Mandatory activities for persons on welfare could be instrumental, thinks a University of Oslo professor.

How to get young adults into jobs

Paying wage subsidies to employers is the best way of getting unemployed young people into jobs. Job-training initiatives and close follow-ups of young people are other ways.

Increasingly harder for teens to find employment

Or don’t Norwegian kids want to bother with work because their parents have become filthy rich?

Ambiguous bosses cause recruits to quit

Newly hired employees are often unclear about what is expected of them, according to a new study.

Women choose family-friendly public sector jobs when they have kids

The more children a woman has, the higher the probability is that she will chose a public sector job. But a high percentage of women without children also prefer public sector jobs.

Finding tomorrow’s military leaders

Psychologists are studying how the Norwegian military selects tomorrow’s officers. Here, hopeful candidates have to crawl through the mud, help the injured and avoid mines. But is that the best way to identify good leaders?

Are leaders born or bred?

Genes explain some reasons — but not all — for why certain people seem to be born leaders.

How to make your boss do what you want

The more energetic and decisive your boss, the easier he or she is to manipulate. All you need to do is show how much you have in common.

This makes us miss the mark in completion time

Your estimate will probably be off when you are asked how long a job will take. But when the boss indicates a time frame you could miss by even a wider margin.

Insecure people find it hard to hold jobs

Insecure and frightened people often end up on the dole – living on disability pensions. Dishonest and manipulative people retain their jobs, according to a new Norwegian study.

How to avoid the pitfalls of job interviews

A new study shows that an employer’s gut feelings often decide who gets a job. Researchers were flies on the wall as five companies recruited staff.

Little malingering among Norwegian employees

Norwegians rarely take extra days off work on the false pretence of being sick. The risk of pay-back time when salary raises are granted could be an explanation.

Efficient meetings can prevent conflicts at work

Managers should distinguish between meetings for daily operations and meetings for development.

Not cycling – even if the boss were to pay

Employers cannot expect much success with initiatives to get staff to ride bicycles to work. But better and safer roads might do the trick.

How bosses can shed prejudice

Companies risk letting the best job applicants pass by when they pigeonhole them through bias. But there are methods for escaping such mental straitjackets.

Economic security for young Nordic adults wanes

Circumstances for jobless persons under the age of 25 in Sweden, Finland and Norway have changed dramatically the last 15 years. Many have become poor.

Tourism cannot sustain North Norway

Norwegian national planners have a tendency to tout the importance of tourism for northern Norway. But tourism does not necessarily make a local community in the North more vigorous.

Young cancer survivors too often end up on public benefits

Children and adolescents who have suffered brain tumours, leukaemia or bone and muscle tissue cancer are all too likely to get permanently side-tracked from prospective educations and careers.

Careers – with a little help from our friends

A solid education and an extensive network of contacts are no guarantees for landing a good job.

Sick Swedes keep on swigging

Even though alcohol consumption can delay a return to work, a new survey shows that Swedes like their liquor, particularly at sporting events, and even when they are on sick leave.

Immigrant workers undermine wage growth

Immigrant workers, mainly from other Nordic countries, have a negative effect on the pay checks of Norwegian employees. Workers with minimal skills and little experience are the most vulnerable.

Shift-working nurses need more shuteye

Nurses suffer insomnia and fatigue because of shift work, especially if they work night shifts and three-shift rotational schedules.

Biased toward Norwegian job applicants

New experimental approach confirms that prejudiced bosses would rather hire ethnic Norwegians than applicants with strong ties to an immigrant background.

Prostitution in old Oslo

Prostitution was illegal in Norway at the end of the 1800s but allowed in Oslo as long as the women submitted themselves to mandatory medical scrutiny. A new exhibition documents the lives of these women.

Can we blame the brain?

A Frenchman led a perfectly normal life for years, but a brain scan later revealed that his skull was nearly hollow. Neuroscientists use this as an extreme example of how misleading it can be to link brain images to behavior.

Polish workers get stuck in stereotype

Some 140,000 Poles have migrated to Norway since 2004. Many of them find jobs in construction work, but the contracts are usually short-term and cultural stereotypes bar them from higher positions.

How much of a workaholic are you?

Norwegian researchers have developed a new tool enabling you to find out how hard it is for you to leave your work behind. Test yourself here.