Gallop Poll Shows Positive Worker Outlook

A poll by Gallop brings discusses improvement in worker perception of employment. 58% of full and part-time workers say they are completely satisfied with their jobs as compared to 50% in 2009-2013. The growth in the economy, lower unemployment rates, and improving employment opportunities are having an impact on worker perception. 

The numbers also spotlight a few areas of concern. The amount of work, physical conditions, relationship with bosses, job security, recognition and workload are above 50%. Areas below 50% are opportunities for promotion, retirement, health insurance, earning power, and job stress. 

Benefits such as health insurance and retirement have taken a significant hit in the current market. Employers often cut back on these expensive benefits due to the inherent increasing costs with little direct return to the employer. Employees will be asked to pick up a higher percentage of these costs. 

A problem results when earning power is not sufficiently rising, making increased contributions to such programs difficult. As the cost of medical care shifts to employees with lower incomes new ways of doing things become necessary. The health care system itself is expensive beyond the cost of insurance. 

Another important issue to workers is retirement. The traditional pension is nearly gone and the 401K is the standard approach. In today’s transient world the 401K offers more portability but also requires higher employee contributions. This can be difficult for people at lower income brackets. 

As a country we still have some work to do and the positive employment perceptions follow suit with the improving economy. New ideas on how to manage retirement, higher savings rates, a more efficient medical care system, and a focus on improving income opportunities for all Americans is necessary. The numbers can slide as quickly as they rose. 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/175190/americans-satisfaction-job-security-new-high.aspx

Kenpo: Opponents at Sides Variations

Opponents at Sides are important tactics that helps to understand how to leverage speed and precision movements to handle two people at one time. Because two skilled opponents have way more hands, weight, and confusing actions the overall goal is to be quick and decisive by not allowing them to use their numbers. Failure to hit vital areas may not have sufficient impact and will allow the opponents to counter attack. 

This need to hit vital areas quickly is one reason why I would suggest either the neck, bridge of the nose, or the groin. Hitting the neck causes a gag reflex, the bridge of the nose is a major pressure point, and the groin will force them down on the floor leaving just a few moments to escape. 

Kenpo may have aggressive tactics but they are designed as a method of removing yourself from difficult situations. Kenpo is a peaceful self-defense system that hopes to teach students self-restraint even when one is being manhandled. Only that force which is necessary to protect oneself and flee is needed. 

Opponents at Side-A (Opponents Hold Shirt at Shoulders)

-Step to the right into horse stance and deliver right hand chop to the throat of the opponent on the right. 

-Spin to the left to face the left opponent and deliver a right handed forward chop to the opponent’s neck. 

Alternative Opponents at Side (Opponents Hold Shirt at Shoulders)

-Step right into a horse stance and deliver hammer to groin, chest, neck, or face. 

-Spin to the left and deliver hammer to groin, chest, neck or face.

Eating Bread for Improved Health and Weight Loss

You have read the diet books and browsed the health magazines and finally came to the conclusion that all bread is very bad and should be avoided at nearly any cost. That isn’t the whole truth as some bread leads to weight loss and improved physiological health. Health enhancements depend on the manufacturing process and what is retained inside the flour. Don’t be fooled by coloring, name, or natural ingredients. The most important aspect of all bread is it’s the natural grain you find in it. 

Weight Loss:

According to a study conducted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition women who eat whole grain wheat were more likely to lose weight while those who ate refined wheat were more likely to gain weight (1).  The more refined wheat found in white and enriched bread is unhealthy and likely to have an adverse impact on your body. 

Health: 

Whole grains are rich in fiber and improve the overall functioning of the body while protecting against diseases (2). Benefits range across the entire body and include reduced risk of stroke 30-36%, type 2 diabetes 21-30%, heart disease 25-28%, asthma, inflammatory disease, blood disease, and gum disease.  The ingredients of bread are a basic component to proper nutrition.

The Right Kind of Bread:

Forget the color, fancy names, and labels. If it isn’t whole grain then you don’t want it (3).  Rye, wheat bread, white bread, pumpernickel, multi-grain, and just about every other type offered are not that good for you. They extract the most important ingredients in bread and end up leaving the processed flour enriched with vitamins and coloring.

Economic Growth through Societal Motivation

Economic engines are fostered through the patterns of human development and the creation of an environment that allows them to realize their fullest potential on the market. The economic system should encourage exploratory entrepreneurial behavior that leads to tangible rewards for societal members to ensure momentum continues to thrust forward. The same mechanics that apply to organizational motivation also apply to national motivation as each member determines whether or not they will engage the market with their skills and abilities. 

The book Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty outlines how wealth is increasingly accumulating into fewer and fewer hands thereby retarding the financial growth of the middle class. Wealth distribution tied directly to performance helps to encourage greater levels of motivation and innovative ideation.  Higher performance should be encouraged throughout the layers of society to have the highest development of the economic system. 

Expectancy-Value Theory:  People will determine how much effort they are going to put forward to obtain goals. If the system doesn’t offer these rewards or if people are effectively blocked due to issues such as racism, religious bigotry, sexism, nepotism, corruption, or improper wealth allocation national motivation will decline. 

Path-Goal Theory: It is not enough to offer the rewards without offering the right rewards for the right kinds of activities. Employees that work hard, develop new products, and create better ways of conducting business have a right to increased income. The rewards must match the path to ensure the highest amount of effort.

Cultural Reward Systems: Each culture has their own embedded reward systems that encourages higher levels of motivation within that particular cultural context (Rosenblatt, 2010). Once the culture is set it will change the vantage points of societal members and influence what actions will lead to effective rewards that adjusts social intelligence and thinking. 

Skill Set Creation: To think, build, and produce requires the motivation to learn and develop. The system must reward employees who successfully complete training, obtain certificates, graduate with degrees, and improve their earning potential in some way. The closer learning is associated to current societal needs the higher the alignment of effort and skill. 

Ideation to Production: When good ideas are ignored only because they didn’t come from the “right” person with the “right” social connections the system suffers as less people learn to open their ideas to unjust criticism. Development of a nation requires the ability to explore various types of ideas from multiple sectors of society. 

Treaties and Agreements: Opportunities are based on the ability to sell products on the global market that obtain rewards for societal members. The types of agreements developed for trade and information sharing will determine the potential opportunities generated. The agreements influence the productive structure of a nation.

Wealth allocation should impact all segments of society to be effective. Developing a stronger society requires all-hands-on-deck through offering appropriate rewards, effective paths that help the greatest amount of people, the skill-set to produce, open-minded enough to accept new ideas, and having the international agreements in place to develop new opportunities.

The way the system operates and develops has a natural impact on the methodologies people use to make decisions. Every person uses judgments to determine whether or not additional effort will lead to increased rewards or other valued benefits. A lifetime of rewards, punishments, successes, and failures will determine the overall way in which a people think and becomes embedded into a nation’s culture. 

It is the entire system and its impact on the population that will determine whether or not a nation will succeed or decline or suffer the fate of history. Each member is surrounded by the factors of their environment and the way in which other people think that creates social perception as encased in culture. It is this cultural perception matched with appropriately pathways to success and tangible rewards that will determine if the system has the capacity to continue to grow in the future. 

Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA. ISBN 9780674430006

Rosenblatt, V. (2010). Social axioms, values and reward allocation across cultures. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings.