About a month ago, I blogged about an article examining praise in a major Danish newspaper in which I’m quoted as being all in favor of praise. Katrine Dahl who is currently writing her phd thesis on collaborative writing processes sent me an email saying:

And I am quoted in that same article for saying something to the effect that general and superficial praise can be pointless or at its worst negative.

Praise should be specific and concrete (as should criticism!). Don’t say: I love your website. Do say: I love the way you create a friendly community on your website by actually reading and commenting so sincerely on the comments made by your readers. You pay attention to detail. You listen to their stories and connect them with your ideas. You try to give useful advice. You are not afraid of being open about your flaws. I specifically noticed the way you replied to N’s comment, that was…

Giving specific praise is extremely difficult. Paying attention, analyzing, reflecting is necessary. We need to get engaged, to get into stuff, to care.

Unlike sending off non-commital superlatives in all directions, which is pretty easy, but not particularly useful in any other terms than making the receiver feeling momentarily good about herself (which is a very good thing, I am totally with you on that).

The point is, that in order to learn from praise, so that we can do more of what it was that we did well, we need to know specifically what it was.

This dimension of praise is often overlooked. It shouldn’t be. The psychological dimension and the learning dimension of praise can so easily go hand in hand. In fact, I am convinced that the psychological benefits of praise are greater if that praise is given in a specific way.

I could not agree more – praise needs to be specific to be valuable. Thank you Katrine for adding to the topic in such a positive, interesting and useful way :o)

I think we’ve all experienced how getting too little sleep makes us tired and crabby. So it can hardly be a good thing that:

• 8 out of 10 Americans report at least one negative professional side-effect of getting a poor night’s sleep
• Only 27 percent of Americans get the recommended eight hours of sleep each work night
• 17 percent of Americans only get 5 hours of sleep Monday through Friday (Studies show that getting only 5 hours of sleep per night for a week induces an impairment level equal to a blood alcohol level of 0.1 percent.)
• Of the overwhelming majority of workers suffering from sleep deprivation, 44 percent say they experience bad moods and unfriendliness

It’s a classic dilemma: We want to get more work done, so we work longer hours and sleep less. This in turn makes us less efficient at work, so we work even longer hours and sleep even less and, boom, you have a negative spiral going.

Also, spending your work day being tired and irritable is not exactly the recipe for happiness at work :o) What good is it to make your day an hour or two longer by sleeping less, if losing that sleep means you can’t really enjoy your day?

The Better Sleep Council has some very specific tips on how you can increase productivity by getting the sleep you need, including:

1. Pay your sleep debt. It’s important to schedule 8 hours of sleep each night (7.5 to 8.5 is optimal) and maintain a regular sleep and wake schedule, even on the weekend.
2. Bedroom business. Use your bedroom for sleep and sex only.
3. Kick the caffeine habit. Avoid tea, coffee and soft drinks close to bedtime.

Or maybe the solution is different for you. According to a new movement called the B-Society, some people are just not made to function optimally early in the morning. Even if they do get 8 hours of sleep, they only really kick into gear around 10 in the morning, and businesses should cater to these people also.

The first Danish company has just been b-certified, meaning they acknowledge that this is how some people work, and structure their jobs accordingly.

To me this is just common sense. Few business really need every employee to show op around the same time and could they just as easily leave this up to the individual employee, so they can decide what works best for them.

That will certainly make them happier at work!

Related:

• The Cult of Overwork
• The top 5 myths about workplace stress

A while back I wrote about keeping salaries secret in the workplace and why I think it’s just a darned silly idea. It’s easily the most controversial post I’ve ever written, with 70% of the (many) commenters disagreeing vehemently. I posted a comment round-up as well.

Now Elana Centor revisits the issue in a post called The Last Frontier: Sharing Your Salary With Co-workers. She also finds that the idea of sharing salary information is not widely accepted.

Talk to most employee consultants and they say talking about salaries with co-workers is a bad idea.

My online search found just one consultant who agrees with me – Alexander Kjerulf who consults on how to be happy at work.

She cites some interesting articles. One horrible, horrible article on USAToday keeps telling us to never discuss our salaries – without ever once mentioning why. Except of course that it’s more convenient for the boss if you don’t.

It also blithely tells the story of an employee who was nearly fired for talking salary – even though US law explicitly says that “employers cannot interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in exercising their rights to discuss their wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment for their mutual aid or protection.”

More relevant is a CNN article that tells us to proceed with caution, but at least acknowledges that sharing salary information can be useful.

More tellingly, one commenter tells the story of finding a fax with all her co-workers salaries in it. The result: She is frustrated because she feels she is paid too little relative to her co-workers – but she can’t complain because she can’t admit to knowing their salaries.

I’m still convinced that keeping salaries secret is bad for both employees and businesses. It may seem easier and more convenient here and now, but the net result is an increased focus on compensation.

The question is of course how we break the taboo – it seems that in some workplaces talking about how much money you make is akin to discussing your sexual preferences. Any ideas?

Leandro from Brazil wrote in with a classic and crucial question: Do you need a college degree to be successful? Leandro is 21 and currently studies computer engineering and does NOT like it. His parents think he absolutely needs the degree – he doesn’t :o)

My take: No. You don’t need a college degree to be happy and successful.

I myself have a university degree (a masters in computer science) – but I chose my studies 100% based on my interests at the time. I was a major geek and my studies let me do some pretty cool stuff.

And while I would not have gotten my first “real” job without my degree, I would of course have gotten another job – even without the degree. And anyway, my first job sucked :o)

I believe success comes from doing something that:

1. You’re good at
2. You like doing
3. Someone is willing to pay you for

You need all three. Does this such an area currently exist for you? Be realistic!

If such an area does not currently exist, you can make one for yourself – and one way to do this is to study.

But considering how many possibilities are out there, I refuse to believe that this can only be achieved by suffering through 4-5 years of boring, unpleasant studying, just so you can wave a piece of paper around after you graduate.

Also, ask yourself this: If you truly do not enjoy your studies – how much can you possibly enjoy working in the same field later?

For a long time we’ve been telling people that “Sure, studying is not much fun, but you just have to get through 4-5 years of it and then everything is gravy.” First of all, this rarely turns out to be true, and secondly, this tends to make higher education an exercise in conformity – not learning. Those who complete their studies are not necessarily the best and the brightest, but those most willing to knuckle under and do as they’re told.

If I were in Leandro’s shoes, I would either:

1. Find a way to make my studies fun. Study with some fun people, go for some fun classes, work on my strategies and the way I spend time.
2. If that’s not possible, I’d witch to some kind of studies I really liked and found interesting or to a different school, where they didn’t make things as boring.
3. Or alternatively get a job or start my own company and do something really cool

What’s your take on this? Did you enjoy studying? How did you choose your studies? Are you happy and successful with or without a degree?