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Labour law’s (mis)management of menopausal workers
Get PDFAt the core of this paper is a critique of labour law’s engagement with menopausal workers in the UK. The critique is framed by an overarching discussion of the coping strategies adopted when lived realities of menopausal workers disrupt traditional organisational cultures, especially its manifestation in the ‘ideal worker’ norm. At the core of the paper is an argument that the legal treatment of menopausal workers is failing to encourage effective management of menopause / workplace tensions and, as a result, validates the promotion of this problematic ‘ideal worker’ norm within organisational cultures. Effective labour laws could however better support menopausal workers: Labour laws could encourage long term individual and organisational resilience by adopting more effective anti-discrimination and dismissal protections and more strongly centring negotiation as a realistic strategy for menopausal workers and employers when navigating any tensions that arise
An assessment of puberty status in adolescents from the European Upper Paleolithic
Get PDFChildhood and adolescence are two life history stages that are either unique to humans, or significantly expanded in the human life course relative to other primates. While recent studies have deepened our knowledge of childhood in the Upper Paleolithic, adolescence in this period remains understudied. Here, we use bioarchaeological maturational markers to estimate puberty status of 13 Upper Paleolithic adolescents from sites in Russia, Czechia, and Italy to: 1) evaluate the feasibility of the application of bioarchaeological puberty assessment methods to Upper Paleolithic (Homo sapiens) skeletal individuals, 2) estimate the timing and tempo of puberty in Upper Paleolithic adolescents compared to other archaeological populations analyzed using the same method, and 3) characterize adolescence in the Upper Paleolithic by contextualizing the results of this puberty assessment with data on individual and population-level health, morbidity and burial practices. Our results revealed that while puberty had begun by 11–14 years of age for the majority of individuals, there was a lot of variability, with the adolescents from Arene Candide (AC1 and AC16), both aged around 16 years when they died, taking several years longer to progress through puberty than their peers. Assessing the age of menarche was challenging due to the paucity of female adolescents, but based on the available evidence, appears to have occurred between 16 and 17 years of age. For some, full adulthood had been achieved by 17–22 years, similar to the patterns seen in modern wealthy countries, and in advance of historic populations living in urbanized environments. The bioarchaeological analysis of puberty among Upper Paleolithic adolescents has important implications for the study of the emergence of adolescence within human life histories, as well as for understanding the developmental plasticity of sexual maturation across past and present human populations
The role of consciousness in adaptive behavior: a philosophy for the science of animal consciousness
Get PDFWhat is the role of consciousness in nature? The science of consciousness has largely neglected the question through its emphasis on human experience. In this précis of A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness, I outline how we can move from a top-down approach that begins with investigations in humans to an evolutionary bottom-up approach that targets the adaptive origins of even the most minimal forms of subjective experience. I will also offer an introduction to the central thesis of the book, i.e. the pathological complexity thesis, according to which consciousness evolved in order to enable animals to adaptively respond to their life history challenges
‘Alone on the road’: loneliness among digital nomads and the use of social media to foster personal relationships
Get PDFThe ‘digital nomad’ (DN) neotribe includes professionals who work remotely from different locations. Despite the benefits of digital nomadism (e.g., work flexibility, high mobility, leisure-centeredness) and opportunities for meeting like-minded people, one of the consequences of the lifestyle may be loneliness. By using 30 in-depth interviews, this study explores the interaction between digital nomadism and loneliness. We conceptualize the DN lifestyle as a continuum that may, but does not have to, lead to feelings of loneliness. External factors such as lack of social support, often related to the capacity to stay in a place long enough to build a network or the social competence skills to connect with others, may contribute to greater levels of loneliness. Conversely, in line with networked individualism, it examines how DNs seek more control over constructing their own social networks in the context of a hyperindividualistic society. Instagram, Facebook groups, Slack, MeetUp, CouchSurfing, and Tinder are identified as key platforms for DNs to connect with people, especially for bridging social capital, whereas WhatsApp is used more for bonding social capital. The paper offers a timely discussion of the way that DNs use different social media platforms to overcome loneliness, forge intimate connections, and build community
The exploration of users’ perceived value from personalization and virtual conversational agents to enable a smart home assemblage – a mixed method approach
Get PDFAdvancements in smart home technologies are beneficial and valuable for both users and firms. Nevertheless, users’ acceptance of these applications are considerably influenced by the need for user personalization, complex and dynamic within a smart home environment, and thus, can present limitations. Additionally, the role of a virtual conversational agent, both as an individual entity and as part of a collective network, in the setup and management of various smart home devices warrants further exploration. To
investigate the enablers and inhibitors of smart home adoption and the role of virtual conversational agents, a
mixed-method design was employed, comprising two studies: a survey of 1,403 users (Study 1) and a topic modeling approach based on 355,340 Reddit posts (Study 2). The findings indicate that the usefulness of personalized applications and services, as well as the integration of a virtual conversational agent as a central component, are crucial in facilitating smart home adoption. The empirical analyses provide significant implications for research and practice by extending existing technology acceptance and use models to include smart device assemblages
Under pressure: employee work stress, supervisory mentoring support, and employee career success
Get PDFDespite consistent findings that stressed employees benefit from social support, these employees do not always have access to such support. We propose and test a conceptual model suggesting employee work stress will negatively affect supervisory career and psychosocial mentoring support. Drawing from social exchange theory, we predict this will indirectly affect employee career success (lower career satisfaction and promotability ratings, fewer promotions), and that the relationship between employee work stress and lower supervisory mentoring support can be explained by lower levels of work engagement experienced by, and attributed to, stressed employees. We tested our model across three studies. In Study 1, we collected four waves of multisource field data (254 employees, 127 managers, and company records) at a large postal organization in the United Kingdom (UK). Employee work stress was negatively related to supervisor career and psychosocial mentoring support, and indirectly affected career satisfaction and manager promotability ratings of employees via supervisor career mentoring support. Cross‐lagged panel analyses in a supplemental study additionally supported the proposed directionality of relationships. Study 2 included data across three waves from employees in Hong Kong (n = 137) and showed that employee work stress had indirect effects on supervisor career and psychosocial mentoring via lower employee engagement. In Study 3, using data from supervisors in the UK (n = 240) we showed that supervisor perceived employee stress had indirect effects on their provision of supervisor career and psychosocial mentoring support via lower perceived employee engagement
Bond supply expectations and the term structure of interest rates
Get PDFThis paper investigates the influence of forward-looking government bond supply information on changes in the term structure of interest rates. While traditional arbitrage-free models suggest that bond supply should not impact bond yields, models accounting for preferred-habitat investors and imperfect asset substitutability raise this possibility. By analysing debt supply expectations derived from Germany’s Treasury press releases, we find that news about expected bond supply affects bond yields, supporting the notion that supply expectations influence current interest rates. Our study also extends macro-finance models, highlighting the significant role of supply expectations in term structure dynamics. Additionally, we provide insights into the puzzle of German government bond yields falling below the ECB deposit rate
Evolution, complexity and life history theory
Get PDFIn this paper, we revisit the long-standing debate of whether there is a pattern in the evolution of organisms towards greater complexity, and how this hypothesis could be tested using an interdisciplinary lens. We argue that this debate remains alive today due to the lack of a quantitative measure of complexity that is related to the teleonomic (i.e. goal-directed) nature of living systems. Further, we argue that such a biological measure of complexity can indeed be found in the vast literature produced within life history theory. We propose that an ideal method to quantify this complexity lies within life history strategies (i.e., schedules of survival and reproduction across an organism’s life cycle), as it is precisely these strategies that are under selection to optimise the organism’s fitness. In this context, we set an agenda for future steps: (1) how this complexity can be measured mathematically, and (2) how we can engage in a comparative analysis of this complexity across species to investigate the evolutionary forces driving increases or for that matter decreases in teleonomic complexity
Soil moisture–atmosphere coupling amplifies the change in extreme heat in inner East Asia under rapid summer warming
Get PDFInner East Asia (IEA) is an important component of the global grassland ecosystem and has experienced a more rapid increase in extreme surface air temperatures compared to the summer mean in recent decades (2001-2020, relative to 1971-1990). This excess hot-extreme warming is particularly pronounced in the southern IEA, where extremely hot temperatures have increased twice as quickly as the summer mean warming, which itself already exceeds the global-land warming by more than threefold. A quantitative analysis based on a Lagrangian temperature-anomaly equation along air-parcel backward trajectories initiated on the hot days across IEA reveals that the observed excess hot-extreme warming is primarily attributable to increased diabatic heating, which predominantly occurs from two days before to the hot days. Meanwhile, the changes in heat-prone synoptic-scale circulation only exert a limited influence on the excess warming. Soil drying within the IEA appears to be a critical factor contributing to increased diabatic heating through soil moisture–atmosphere coupling, as it limits evaporation and enhances sensible heat flux, thereby triggering positive soil moisture-temperature feedback. Our analysis underscores the significant impact of local soil moisture deficits on the intensified extreme heat. Urgent implementation of grassland and livestock management strategies, coupled with drought mitigation measures, is essential for adaptation and ecosystem conservation
Marshallian agglomeration, labour pooling and skills matching
Get PDFBetter skills matching has long been proposed as one of the key advantages of agglomeration economies. Yet, support for this improved matching has remained largely founded upon indirect proxies for skills such as wages and education. This paper contributes to the literature by offering novel empirical evidence on the relationship between specific measures of localised skills deficiencies and agglomeration economies, in the form of industrial density. Developing an instrumental variable approach and controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and other region-industry idiosyncratic effects across a panel dataset for the period 2009-2019 in England and Wales, our analysis reveals a positive effect of agglomeration economies in reducing both skills gaps within the employed workforce and skills shortages in the labour market external to the firm. We consider these findings in the context of persistent regional imbalances and the importance of strengthening skills provision within current regional industrial strategies