I like to sift the good articles from the dross and share the good stuff with friends and coworkers. That’s the purpose of this column, incidentally. I read stuff, find things that are both informative and interesting to working professionals, and offer it for your consumption.

A lot of good work is done by average people – The Economist

Today’s blog features a couple articles about workers and the workplace. Incidentally, has “worker” become a pejorative or politically incorrect term yet? With so many companies referring to their employees as “associates” or “partners” (at Leggett & Platt, we prefer “employee-partner”), “worker” seems harsh somehow, even to an avowed capitalist like me. Anyway, this article describes the criticism leveled at Yahoo recently when it was revealed that they use a “ranking and yanking” policy in assessing employees. The approach, which began in the ‘80s and ‘90s but went out of fashion, is considered by many to be a severe way of ranking employees, with part of the purpose to get rid of the ones at the bottom.

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Every week, I read stuff, find things that are both informative and interesting to working professionals, and offer it for your consumption.

For the week of Monday November 18, 2013:

To sleep better, limit your bedroom activities to sleep and sex – The Economist

Here at Leggett & Platt, we sell good sleep. We do it through the marketing of our comfortable bedding products. (Marketing example: as a copywriter, instead of writing that our products are “comfortable,” I might write that they’re “ultra-comfortable.” I learned how to do that in college.) But through the Adjustable Bed Group, we are also realistic in our marketing, knowing that the bedroom – and the bed – has become a place for many other things, such as watching TV, using a laptop, and reading. This article emphasizes that if good sleep is your number one goal, you should limit the number of things you do in bed.

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