Indonesian Lantern March 2014 | Page 7

Indonesian Lantern Magazine − 7 www.discoveramerica.com Photo credit: Reuters Mediabristo.com The Happiest & Healthiest States are in the Midwest US Military Bans ‘Made in China’ Employees Are More Productive American Flags When They Can Tweet A bottom. The annual survey interviews more A G 178,000 American adults from all 50 states. star-spangled banners made in the U.S. are hamper workplace productivity, they might not be The well-being index scores states on various just too expensive. Under a new law signed the costly distraction companies think they are, factors, including life evaluation, emotional as part of the 2014 omnibus appropria- according to a study by two members of the So- health, work environment, physical health, tions bill, any flag purchased by the Defense ciety for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. healthy behaviors, and access to basic neces- Department is required to be 100 percent ‘’Having workers take small breaks on their phones sities. made in America. Rep. Mike Thompson, D- throughout the day may positively influence their Hawaii was formerly the reigning state for Calif., who wrote the legislation, said he did perceived well-being at the end of the workday,” the last four years, but it dropped to 8th this so for economic as well as symbolic reasons. said Sooyeol Kim, one of the study’s authors and a year. Based on the 2013 data, the states in “I thought it was appalling our Department doctoral student at Kansas State University. the Midwest and West were generally the of Defense would have flags made in other To better understand what effects smartphone highest scoring, and the South had some of countries,” Thompson, told CBS San Fran- usage had on employees, researchers surveyed the lowest scores. Other states reigned in cisco shortly after the legislation was signed 72 workers from various industries in South Korea. their own well-being factors. For instance, into law. “But it’s also important because we They also downloaded a specially designed app to Nebraska ranked highest for Life Evaluation need to be making more in America.” (Fox their smartphone that measured the Index, Alaska had the greatest score for Emo- News) during the workday on their phone and also sepa- new Gallup survey of nationwide well-being ranks North Dakota at the top and West Virginia at the very merican flags made in foreign lands will no longer fly over military bases, but the rule won’t apply to other federal facilities because lawmakers decided iving employees time to play around on their smartphones every day could actually benefit businesses, new research suggests. Even though it might seem like smartphones would time spent tional Health Index, and Vermont held the rated the phone usage into three categories: social top spot for Health Behaviors. (TIME) media, entertainment and leisure, and personal and informative. They found a positive relationship between using smartphones to take short breaks for things like texting friends and how employees felt at the end of the workday. (Mashable.com)