Much has been written about motivating employees who spend time unproductively doing things they know they shouldn't (hello, Facebook). But what about tasks that are sanctioned or even mandated in your organization that are just as unproductive? See if your employees waste time in any of these ways.

A book called Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer may have had good intentions, but in the story, Barbie is incapable of doing more than designing a game—it's the men who do all the coding. What does this say about the challenge of engaging girls in computer science? How can we help that?

Shared workspaces are becoming popular because they're said to encourage collaboration and interaction among employees. But a study of forty thousand American office workers found that they thought the downsides—increased noise levels and decreased privacy—outweigh the upsides. Let's take a look.