Monday, June 12, 2017

"Colours affect mood, performance"/ "For a happier workplace, get beyond the small talk"

Oct. 25, 2015 "Colours affect mood, performance": I cut out this article by Carole Kanchier in the 24 News on Sept. 24, 2012.  It's a fun job and psychology article:

When I wore black to business meetings in San Francisco I was perceived as sophisticated. However, when I wore black to meetings in certain small school districts, I was considered aloof. A change of wardrobe colour altered perceptions.

Colours you wear may affect your mood as well as how others perceive you. Work environment colours also matter.

At a subconscious level colours affect people in different ways. Using colours effectively to dress, decorate your office or design your web site can put you ahead of the competition.

Research on the psychology of colour consistently demonstrates that colours evoke emotional, behavioural and physical responses. Advertisers know a product can have different impacts if the packaging colours are changed. Psychologists have found certain colours in our environment help or hinder performance of certain tasks.

Generally, warm colours such as red and its neighbouring hues on the colour spectrum are active, exciting. Cool colours such as light green, blue and violet are passive, calming. Reds tend to stimulate the central nervous system, while cool colours release tension. Meanings change with lighter or darker shades of colours.

Select colours that suit you and project your desired image. Surround yourself with favourite colours to lift your spirit.

USING COLOUR POSITIVELY

Red exudes power, energy, excitement and passion. Wear red when you want to be assertive, need an energy boost or exude sexuality. Avoid red when you feel nervous or want to avoid attention.

Orange represents creativity, confidence, joy, sensuality and ambition. It has positive effects on emotional states.Wear orange when you want to have fun, heighten creativity or heal emotions. Avoid it when you want to relax.

Yellow is associated with happiness, freedom, optimism and mental concentration. Wear yellow when you need to attend to details, maintain mental alertness or feel happy. Avoid yellow when you're fearful, want to evade attention, want to relax.

Green suggests security, abundance, love, growth, luck and balance. It's also associated with envy. Wear green when you want to see things from a different perspective, need to feel grounded, calm or generous. Don't wear it when you feel stagnant or want to be alone.

Blue represents authority, structure, communication, dependability, trust and loyalty. Too much blue can project coldness. Wear blue when you want to exude power, have mental control, be conservative, respected or communicate important messages. Don't wear blue when you feel isolated, depressed or critical.

Grey is practical, timeless, cautious, successful and solid. Some shades are associated with aging. Excessive use may lead to feeling invisible, but a touch adds feelings of stability. Wear grey when you want to feel self-sufficient or isolate yourself. Avoid it when feeling lonely or stressed.

Brown is associated with stability, honesty, practicality and commitment. Wear brown when you need to work hard, be a team member or organized. Avoid it when you want to expend energy, play or feel insecure.

Pink represents love, affection and serenity. Wear it when you want to feel feminine, lovable, need to concentrate and listen. Avoid pink when you feel vulnerable, insecure, fragmented or are giving more than receiving.

Purple is associated with prosperity, spirituality and sophistication. Wear purple to project wisdom, trust or release destructive emotions. Don't wear it when you want to evade societal regulations.

Black represents power, elegance, discipline and mystery. Sometimes, it's associated with evil or grieving. Wear black to communicate an authoritative image or protect emotions. Since too much black can overwhelm some, don't wear it to establish rapport.

White symbolizes purity, cleanliness, safety, completion, strength and neutrality. Wear white to feel peaceful, convey a well-balanced, optimistic personality. Too much can project coldness, isolation.

Make a great impression. Create your desired effect. You're that first flash of colour others see.

WHAT COLOURS SAY ABOUT YOU

Personality traits are reflected by your preferred colour.

Extroverts like red, introverts blue.

Yellow is the choice of intellectuals, and well-balanced individuals tend to wear green.
-- Dr. Carole Kanchier is a registered psychologist, coach, speaker and author of Dare to Change Your Job and Your Life. Reach her at carole@daretochange.com or visit Daretochange.com.



Dec. 24, 2015 "For a happier workplace, get beyond the small talk": I cut out this article by Susan Pinker in the Globe and Mail on Aug. 15, 2011  Here is another good psychology article related to the workplace.  I work at my restaurant mostly on the weekends, and I can only see this one co-worker Je at that time.  I usually write down a list of things I want to talk to him about during the week and then ask him.  It's usually movies coming out that weekend, or if he got a chance to read any of the articles I had cut out for him.

I also cut out a few articles for M.  We discuss those articles.  This article is about having deep and meaningful conversations:

At a time of economic turmoil and increasing consumer anxiety, workplace colleagues can be forgiven for limiting their social contact to small talk. “What’s up?” or “Did you see the game last night?” is unlikely to unleash an angst-ridden response. Whether people are afraid to upset or provoke others, or think that upbeat chatter creates a positive atmosphere, there’s often a Don’t Worry, Be Happy approach to office banter.

But a recent study shows that this may not be such a good thing. Genuinely satisfied people have deeper, more meaningful conversations more often than unhappy people do. “Our data are pretty clear in that the happiest person had 10 per cent of small talk [in their social interactions],” and had twice as many substantive conversations as unhappy people, said Matthias Mehl, a professor of social psychology at the University of Arizona, and lead author of the study.

In contrast, unhappy folks were three times more likely to engage in small talk, and were also more likely to spend time alone. “I think that there are very strong scripts about what you talk about in business,” Prof. Mehl said, adding that although we generally think of small talk as a social rule in the office, happiness is so strongly linked to health and productivity that it should be considered an important goal. “I’m not denying that small talk is important,” he said. “The question is, how can we get one level deeper, and what are the consequences?”

Prof. Mehl and his three colleagues were ingenious in the way they captured the content of people’s conversations without violating their privacy. Their research subjects wore a small digital recorder called an EAR (electronically activated recorder) clipped to their belts, which was programmed to start and stop automatically, without them being aware of what was being taped. The device recorded 30-second snippets of conversations, every 12 minutes during their waking hours, for four days. The researchers then coded the resulting 23,689 recordings based on how banal or meaningful the content.

A speech sample was rated as small talk when only trivial information was exchanged – if the participants were neither engaged nor truly informed by the discussion. If the participants learned something meaningful, it was rated as a substantive conversation. “It wasn’t necessarily personal disclosure – it could be about the iPad, the financial crisis, or about relationships. It’s a question of the degree of depth, not the actual topic,” Prof. Mehl explained.

For example, the following bits were coded as “meaningful” conversation: “If you educated kids and they actually have a future, they’re not going to cause problems in society.” Or, “People are downloading it from their computers. It’s free, but somehow they make money every time it’s shown.” Examples of small talk included “What’s up with you?” and “What do you have there? Popcorn? Yummy!”

Along with bits of their conversations, the researchers also collected information about the subjects’ levels of life satisfaction and their personality types. These were based on the subjects’ self-ratings, as well as on questionnaires filled out by their friends and acquaintances.

The study’s results linking happiness to more meaningful conversation – and more time spent with other people – held true regardless of the person’s personality. Whether a person was an introvert or an extrovert, whether he or she was open to new experiences or neurotic, those who engaged in more substantive conversations were happier.

The question is why, and what should we do with this information? Correlational studies such as this one can’t tell us anything about causes and Prof. Mehl’s view is that happiness and substantive conversation are inextricably linked, in any case. Happy people tend to talk about more meaningful things, and doing so makes them happier still. “People like to hang around others who talk about substantive things. Happy people attract good conversations,” he said, adding that such social contact helps create meaning while also engendering a sense of belonging and connection “in a chaotic, meaningless world.”

Interestingly, the researchers also have some preliminary data showing that prescribing one additional substantive conversation a day can boost people’s moods. “After two weeks we can make them a tiny bit happier,” he said, concluding that “maybe we should make our small talk just a little less small.”


My week:



Jun. 1, 2017 Hackers: I was looking for a job at the Well Environmental Enterprise company.  I clicked on it and this came on:


$ Hacked BY Mustafa Alrbeai $
[ 3F-Team ]


Get Assist: I found about this at the Shaw Conference Centre job fair.

GET MORE NETWORK FROM YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK!

Are you tired of connecting just for the sake of connecting? Isn’t it time for today’s social media to make our lives better in a practical way? GetAssist is a purposeful Social Network that connects you with other like-minded people and local businesses to share information, advice, ideas, and to get the kind of help that makes everyday life better.

There's one for small businesses, family and friends, communities, hoa's, volunteers, teams, clubs and classes.

I like the 2 min. 30 sec video with animation that shows you how to use the site, and how helpful it is.  You can monetize your skills.

There are so many other sites out there like Facebook to connect with friends and family.  You can go to the YMCA website and look up classes and teams.

https://www.getassist.com/?galogout=true

Jun. 5, 2017 Recycle: Today is my day off and I stayed at home looking for and applying for jobs.  I read the newspaper.

Then in the afternoon, I finally went to the Staples in Oliver Square and recycled all these pens and batteries.  The last time I was there was in Aug. 2016.  I recycled a lot.

Job interview: After that, I went to a job interview in downtown.  They said to come at this 2hr window.  I got there at the beginning, and there were like 18 people sitting there already.

I waited for like 40 min.  This 20 yr old blond woman says I should go next.  There was this like haphazard line.  I thanked her and this other young Asian woman who was supposedly to go next.  I did the interview with this Asian man boss.

There were 4 bosses interviewing all the applicants.

It was a mediocore interview.  They were hiring for 2 departments. 

Pros:

1. The pay is good like $15/hr.

2. The guest service department was more of a fit for me with data entry and customer service.

The other was more out there on the floor, walking and interacting with customers.

3. It's close by, 1 bus to get there.

Cons:

1. They need lots of open availability.  It is mainly evenings and weekends, because they're not busy in the day.

2. I just don't like that kind of environment.

My opinion: I'm probably not going to get hired because of my availability and I wasn't that interested in it once I learned more about it.

I got an email that invited me there.  I have applied to this big company quite a few times for other positions.  I guess the company emailed all the people that ever applied there.

Jun. 6, 2017 Pepsi Max commercial: This is related to the above.  I have wrote about this before way back in 2012.  It's where Tom Lenk (Andrew from Buffy) goes to a job interview and beats himself up.  He makes noise like it seems like the boss is beating him up.  All the other applicants are scared and run off.

I made a complaint on twop.com "TV moments that Angry up the Blood."  I complained how unrealistic it was because:

Why aren't the applicants calling security?

Also why are there like 15 people outside waiting for an interview?  There should be like 1 or 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu25lUDJZgY

Real life example: There were so many people at the interview I was at yesterday because they were "screening" first.  Next week, they will call people for a more in-depth interview.

AIL: Another example, I was at the American Income Life insurance company.  I was there and 5 people were in the waiting room and filling out applications.

That job interview yesterday really motivated me to apply at more cafes and restaurants, because it's more of a fit for me.

MyEffect: When I was at Staples, it showed about "Clean my City" so I looked it up and found this:

Change does not happen in isolation and neither should our solutions!

MyEffect's multi­sector model brings every type of Change Leader together to take action for a common cause. We facilitate easy collaboration between community organizations and companies, and provide members with a central hub to find, track and celebrate positive action!

https://myeffect.today/welcome

Jun. 6, 2017 Social event: I went to this event.  It starts at 7pm.  By 8pm, not enough people were there and it was cancelled.  It wasn't a total waste of time, because I was reading my book.  It was mediocre.

Jun. 7, 2017 Filmmakers meetup: I went to work and was tired afterwards.  I still went to the Meetup.  Only 4 of us including me.

A- she told me she still hasn't seen the TV show Emerald City, and maybe when she has time.
R- he is getting ready to produce a script that we have read at the Screenwriters Meetup.
S- he told about getting a permanent job.  He also mentioned how he hasn't written anything for that project in 8 months because of work.

I can relate to not writing because of more important things like work.  It was a short meeting like 45min.  It's usually longer because there are more people.

Jun. 8, 2017 Job search: Today I went out and passed some more resumes in downtown to get restaurant job.  I walked into a couple of places, and they said they weren't hiring and didn't get my resume.  It was a nice and sunny day outside to pass my resumes.

I found this old business card: There was a booth that sold this Aboriginal jewelry.

https://www.facebook.com/UrbanN8tiveCree8tiveDesign/

Jun. 10, 2017 Sitcom 'Mom' donates $250,000 to Planned Parenthood: I don't watch the sitcom, but I thought it was good news:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/cbs-mom-donates-emmy-campaign-budget-planned-parenthood-1004904

How much TV do you watch?: I found this article "Thanks Tony" by Chris Harvey.  It's about the TV show The Sopranos, which I never watched.

"One survey last year suggested that we spend eight years, 10 months of our life watching TV — and around eight months talking about it. "

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/regina-leader-post/20170607/281556585797514

My opinion: When I watch TV, I watch what I love or at least like.  I sometimes watch shows that are average like Zoo.  It's only in the summer when there aren't that many shows to watch.

Woman helping blind Cubs fan hail cab will warm your heart:


A kind-hearted woman is being recognized and applauded worldwide after helping a blind Cubs fan hail a cab near Wrigley Field.

According to Fox 59 in Indianapolis, 26-year-old Casey Spelman was visiting Wrigleyville with some friends on June 3 when she came upon the man, identified as Yusef Dale, standing near the street attempting to hail a cab. Without hesitation, Spelman approached Dale, who CBS reports is an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago, and asked if she could assist him.

“I just said ‘Hi, are you trying to get a cab’ and he said ‘Yes’ and I said ‘Would you like some help’ and he said ‘That’d be great.’ ” That’s how Spelman described the quick exchange.

Shortly thereafter, she was able to flag down a cab driver. Before entering the cab, Dale asked for a hug. Then he went on his way. As did Spelman, never once expecting her kind actions would be noticed.

But it turns out they were. Ryan Hamilton was on the rooftop at Old Crow Smokehouse watching as the scene played out. He even snapped a few photos and posted them to Facebook with a nice acknowledgement.

He didn’t know who either person was. He just knew he’d witnessed something genuinely kind that other people needed to know about.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/woman-helping-blind-cubs-fan-hail-cab-will-warm-heart-165134943.html

Jun. 12, 2017 Riverdale: For the last week and a half I was watching this on DVR:

"A subversive take on Archie and his friends, exploring small town life, the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale's wholesome facade."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5420376/?ref_=nv_sr_1

My opinion: It was surprisingly pretty good.  There was a murder mystery and I wanted to know who did it.  This show was the highlight of the week.

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