Short vs Tall (no pirate content)
Tribune staff and wire reports
Published October 26, 2003
Being tall doesn't just pay off if you're in the NBA. No matter the job, tall people earn considerably more money than their shorter co-workers, according to a new study.
How much more? For each inch in height, add about $789 a year in pay, says researcher Timothy Judge.
"These findings are troubling in that, with a few exceptions such as professional basketball, no one could argue that height is an essential ability required for job performance," said Judge, a University of Florida management professor whose study will appear in the spring issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Judge and Daniel Cable, a business professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, analyzed results of four large-scale studies in the U.S. and Britain that followed thousands of participants from childhood to adulthood, examining details of their work and personal lives. The study was controlled for gender, weight and age.
"If you take this over the course of a 30-year career and compound it, we're talking about literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of earnings advantage that a tall person enjoys," Judge said.
Greater height boosted subjective ratings--such as supervisors' evaluations of how effective someone is on the job--and objective measures such as sales volume, he said.
The relationship between height and earnings was particularly strong in sales and management but was also present in less social occupations such as engineering, accounting and computer programming, the study found.
Being tall may boost self-confidence, improving performance. Others may also ascribe higher status and afford greater respect to a tall person, giving them an edge in negotiating sales.
Blocking porn at work
E-mail porn is invading cubicles at work, raising a concern that employers could be held legally accountable for failing to block the spam.
A national survey by Insight Express of 1,500 online users found that more than half of all respondents say employers have a responsibility to stop offensive messages from reaching their e-mail inboxes at work. And 62 percent of respondents said pornographic spam could contribute to a hostile workplace environment.
Some legal analysts say employers could be subjected to a wave of lawsuits if they don't take steps to stop the spam.
"It really becomes a notice issue . . . once the employer has been put on notice, do you have an obligation to provide a safe work environment? I think you do," Patricia Griffith, a partner with the Atlanta law firm Ford Harrison told the Washington Times.
Companies less flexible
A survey of more than 400 employers released last week by CCH Inc. shows a sharp dropoff in companies offering some of the most popular work/life benefits.
"It's hard economic times," said Lori Rosen, a workplace analyst for CCH, a Riverwoods-based business information publisher. "People are saying where can I cut? And it's looking like they're saying, well this is a benefit. I gave it. I can take it away."
According to the survey, companies offering job-sharing dropped from 37 percent to 30 percent. Those offering compressed workweeks--programs that let workers put in their hours over four days rather than five--fell from 49 percent to 40 percent. Telecommuting fell from 47 percent to 45 percent.
He's far from lonnggg gone
Here's one senior moment that's golden: Recently, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan signed the former Detroit Tigers baseball announcer Ernie Harwell to be the public face of its company. At age 85, the legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster agreed to a 10-year deal, with a 10-year option.
In other words, Harwell potentially has a job locked in until age 105.
Harwell began as the voice of the Tigers in 1960 and as a major league announcer in 1948. In 1991, outraged fans accused the Tigers of ageism when Harwell, then 73, was fired. A new team owner later brought Harwell back as the team's announcer, and he retired--on his own accord--last year.
As part of his job, he'll tour the state, talking about walking and fitness and pitch the value of generic drugs. He also will pen a series of newspaper columns about fitness and health, said the insurer.
"The way I see it, if a guy can do the job, whatever his age, he should stay in it," Harwell told the Wall Street Journal.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
Re: Short vs Tall (no pirate content)
Quote:
Originally posted by truth
No matter the job, tall people earn considerably more money than their shorter co-workers, according to a new study.
This is obviously due to that Randy Newman song.
