Understanding work, your own included

The finding has been stable for forty years and in every country measured. Successive reforms have not reversed the gradient.

A firm may have an interest in paying more than necessary. The theory is old, and empirical tests give mixed results.

French law requires employers to monitor the workload of staff on annual-day contracts. No reference instrument says how.

Since 1990, one survey has asked comparable questions in more than thirty countries. It is the field's most solid source, and it has its limits.

The longer a spell without work lasts, the lower the probability of leaving it. Separating selection from the effect of duration itself required particular designs.

Absenteeism is measured everywhere, presenteeism almost nowhere. Available estimates nonetheless suggest a cost of the same order.

Setting a target changes behaviour in the direction of the target, including when that was not the intention. The mechanism has been documented since the 1970s.

A 2013 study announced that nearly half of American jobs were automatable. Later revisions divided that figure several times over.

The phrase describes an invisible barrier. Translating it into statistics requires showing that the gap widens at the top of the hierarchy, which is not always verified.

The claim that a small share of employees is engaged has circulated for twenty years. It comes from a private instrument whose method is not fully public.

About one employee in five works outside usual hours in Europe. The documented effects concern health; those on social life far less so.

The two figures are published side by side and differ markedly. Their gap is itself information about the shape of the distribution.

The share of short contracts in hiring has risen sharply, while their share in employment has barely moved. The two figures describe different things.

Exit interviews ask people who are leaving why they are leaving. It is the least reliable method in the repertoire, and the most used.

A few firms have abolished their titles and their bosses. The rare documented cases show that power shifts rather than disappears.