Affected by the Effects

The 'big move' is complete and the office has been officially turned upside down. Simon and I are very happy with our shiny new desk, glossy blue floor and big windows. In fact we're so happy we think we may even be working a bit harder. Although not hard enough to avoid a brief peek at what the oracle Wikipedia has to say about the effect of changing your office space...

After some extremely thorough research we are pretty convinced that we are prime examples of both the Hawthorne effect and the Pygmalion effect. "What are these?, tell us more!" I hear you cry. Well...

The term 'Hawthorne effect' was coined by Henry A. Landsberger in 1955 when he was studying some experiments held at the Hawthorne Works in Chicago in the 1920s-early 1930s.

Hawthorne Works commissioned a study to see whether their workers would work more or less productively in different levels of light. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the higher the level of light, the more productive the workers. Other changes examined included keeping work stations clean, getting rid of obstacles on the floor and moving workstations. Here at Hoipolloi HQ all these changes have taken place, and we are sure we're working harder, although maybe this is a result of the Pygmalion effect....

The Pygmalion effect refers to the phenomenon of placing a greater expectation on someone, in order to make them perform better. Perhaps we're just expecting to work harder because we've perused the world wide web and become enlightened about the Hawthorne effect, which has now smoothly taken us directly under the influence of the Pygmalion effect...

But now I'm just confused, so, moving swiftly onwards to certain territory, the really exciting news for this weekend is that...drum roll please....

Hugh Hughes will be performing his award winning show, 360, at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich on Sunday. If you are nearby, or fancy a jolly Sunday evening outing to Ipswich we would love to see you at the show. You can book tickets by clicking here.