Popcorn payoff leads to pricey penalty
Getting paid peanuts sucks. But getting paid off in popcorn is unethical. New York officials last week revealed that city parking judge Alan Rubin was dismissed last year for accepting at least six bags of free popcorn from a food-delivery driver whose traffic tickets he voided, according to the New York Post. One of Mr. Rubin's co-workers reported the gift when he offered to share his windfall around the office. Besides losing his position, he is expected to pay a $2,500 (U.S.) fine to the Conflicts of Interest Board, the Post says. No amount of extra butter-flavoured topping is worth that price.
By the numbers: Relax at work, stress at home
43
Percentage of men and women who say their managers stress them out, according to Britain's Daily Mail.
58
Percentage who say their spouses are the ones who lay on the pressure. The survey of 3,000 individuals, conducted by electronics and health care manufacturer Philips, indicates spouses are a bigger source of stress than bosses, the Daily Mail says, adding you may find more relaxation at the office than at home.
Punk'd-worthy interview gaffes
"I find myself peering out my blinds to see if Ashton Kutcher is on my office balcony with a camera crew." - Daphne Batts, vice-president of human resources at publisher Bankrate Inc. in Florida, commenting on the shockingly inappropriate behaviour of certain job candidates
Ms. Batts is among several recruitment managers from various companies who reveal in The Wall Street Journal the most outrageous blunders they've seen job-seekers make. One candidate reportedly asked his interviewer if she could treat him to lunch afterward, pointing out that he was a poor student and she could expense the cost to the company. Another produced a sandwich and asked if he could eat it in the middle of a job interview since it was his lunchtime. Yet another job applicant sent a horribly misspelled résumé with an accompanying note asking the company to assign a staff member to correct the mistakes. Somewhere, TV prankster Mr. Kutcher is likely kicking himself for not catching these moments on tape.
Women excel at taste test
Women may still struggle for gender equality in many workplaces. But when it comes to "the best job in the whole world," women outshine their male counterparts, The Wall Street Journal reports. British company SABMiller told the newspaper that female professional beer-tasters tend to be more adept at picking up the complexities of flavours in beer. Women are also better at detecting the "skunky" taste of chemicals present in spoiled beer and have a better sense of smell. It's perhaps ironic that women dominate in a role that many men covet. But then, as Jason Pratt, a yeast and fermentation scientist at the MillerCoors brewery, explains, there tends to be more camaraderie than competition between male and female employees. "Let's be honest," he told the WSJ. "We are getting paid to drink beer."