Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Part of last night's discussion on Newsnight between Evan Davis and Stephen Dubner, co-author of 'When to Rob a Bank'

Evan Davis: .. why is Britain's productivity - hourly productivity - lower than France's?

Stephen Dubner: Yeah, if I had to take a guess, I would say the one thing we know from this new field of what's called "workforce science" which is where you gather data on your workers on many dimensions - one thing we've learned is that salary, which most economists would say is the most important thing to making people happy and productive, is actually a very distant second, if that. The single most important thing in productivity is whether or not your boss and immediate co-workers are jerks.

Speaking of which, Newsround Blog is awaiting a response to the following email dated 13th May 2015:

FAO: Lord Hall, BBC Director-General

Dear Lord Hall,

I've recently been in touch with your Managing Director of Finance and Operations regarding misappropriation of funds. As I explained to Ms Bulford, whilst a licence fee of £2.80p per week may seem very reasonable, for those on the breadline and forced to rely on foodbanks and handouts, it is a significant sum of money. With that principle in mind, I trust you appreciate why I'm concerned about the wrongful use of licence-payers' money by a senior manager who is paid the better part of £200,000 per year.

Yours sincerely,

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