Gloomy Weather Makes Your Boss Very, Very Happy

Early this afternoon in Vermont, it was overcast, chilly, damp, raw.

I took an extremely brief break while working hard
at my home office in St. Albans, Vermont to take
this shot of a gloomy early afternoon.
Apparently, we're more productive in this weather.  

Yucky.

Which means your boss is probably overjoyed at this point.

Hat tip to The Capitol Weather Gang today for alerting us to a study that shows bosses like lousy weather because it makes employees more productive, i.e. profitable for the company.

The study is sort of a Captain Obvious document, because admit it, when it's gorgeous outside and you're stuck in the office reviewing accounts receivables budget spreadsheets, you're distracted and would rather be outdoors.

The University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School compiled research from Japan that showed productivity in banks is higher on rainy days than on nice days.

Researchers also looked at the quality and quantity done in workplaces in the United States and were able to show that more work got done on gloomy days.

This might mean investors might want to locate their offices in cloudier parts of the country. Are you listening, Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development?

Of course, if we start advocating Vermont's cloudy skies to businesses, it might set off a war with another agency, the Vermont Tourism Department.

However, if your company thrives on risk taking rather than productivity and accuracy, maybe cloudy cities aren't the answer. Risk taking improves in sunny weather, according to UNC.

Now, I have bad news for your boss if he or she happens to be in Vermont. I notice as of 1:30 p.m. that the rain is beginning to taper off in the Champlain Valley, and patches of blue sky seem to be approaching from the west.

So you'd better get that spreadsheet work finished, pronto.