Sex and the workplace

According to Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula, ‘sex skiving’ is a growing trend among staff. A poll of 1,269 employees suggests that 7 per cent had taken a day off to recover from an "all night romp" and 48 per cent said they'd had a sexual encounter in the workplace. However, the main question posed by Michael Miller of Personnel Today is: is sex interfering with work? Perhaps it should be the other way round!

A report by the Chartered Management Institute suggests organisations need to be more energetic and dynamic if they are to match the needs of their staff. It would seem that a key finding from the report is that there appears to be a worrying mismatch between what managers hold dear to their hearts compared to the values of their employer. See the actual report - Motivation Matters for much more detail.

Some more news emerged today about two forms of web-based communication technology. In the first example, it is reported that Yahoo, Apple and the BBC are all jumping on the podcasting bandwagon. However, the main question to be asked is: where does the broadcasting revolution go from here? It's probably best to read the article for yourself - A word in your ear by Bobbie Johnson of The Guardian, but I liked one comment made at the end of it that suggests Podasting is not so much about discovering new talent for large corporations it is more about being:

...an outlet for personal expression, much like blogging, and is not intended to compete with the professionals.

A second article takes at look at how large corporations appear to be taking an even bigger interest in new based technologies such as instant messenger. In Yahoo! and Microsoft join forces to seize instant messaging initiative by Richard Wray of The Guardian, a telling comment by MSN vice-president Blake Irving outlines how the merger of two services, "...heralds a new way for customers to create closer communities". However, a more critical eye suggests Yahoo and MSN are keen to join forces, i.e. share knowledge and new data on IM users as a means to inflitrate a range of thriving and enthusiastic on-line communities. See a previous post of mine on big business and blogging for a similar take on emerging business interests in web-based communication technologies.