Workers prefer Gen X bosses… Small business employees take less time off for babies… Selling on eBay the easy way… In-game ads work…

• Workers prefer Generation X bosses
• Small business employees take less time off for babies
• eBay the easy way
• In-game ads work 

Gen X bosses, please

Workers prefer GenX bosses to baby boomers saying they are more creative, less hierarchical and not as selfish.

A survey of 2000 people by Talent2 says 67% of respondents said they enjoy working for a Gen X boss more than a boomer and 37% say the workplace is changing dramatically because of Gen X managers.

Gen Xs apparently think differently to their parents. According to the research, Gen Xs are more confident and while they have the belief you can have it all, they value the fact that people work to live not live to work. They are less likely to insult employees than baby boomers and show greater gender equity.

They are also more flexible with better human skills and more open to change.

Baby, I must get back

According to the recent Australian Social Trends report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, women who worked while pregnant in 2005 took an average 34 weeks’ leave for the birth and care of their child. Women in the public sector took an average 37 weeks’ leave, followed by 36 weeks for those employed in organisations with 20 or more employees.

The two key factors that seem to indicate a woman will take less maternity leave (paid or upaid) are the period of time they have been employed with the business and the size of the business. Women employed for less than one year took an average 26 weeks’ leave, the lowest of any category. The category that took the next shortest leave was women who work for business with less than 20 employees, who took an average 29 weeks’ leave.

Selling on eBay the easy way

A new online service is helping more people get their share of the $US14.4 billion eBay merchandise market, according to Springwise.

Zippi has come up with a consumer hotline that allows you to list goods for sale on eBay without having to go through the rigmarole of taking a photo and monitoring the competing bids. When you phone Zippi with an item to sell, they use a database of trillions of past eBay transactions to appraise the value of the item, allowing you to accurately set a reserve.

Zippi then contacts a nearby affiliate (eBay sellers who have signed up with Zippi) who collects the item, lists it on eBay and takes care of shipping. Once the item is sold, you are paid, the affiliate receives his commission and Zippi take their cut.

The key to the process are the affiliates, who pay a basic enrolment amount $US49.95. For $US1399.95, affiliates can buy the Zippi Affiliate Pro Bundle, which includes a handheld device that enables sellers to go to a consumer’s home, photograph the sale item, scan barcodes, create a description through a template that’s pre-populated by Zippi’s call centre, and create a listing on the fly. For added revenue, affiliates can become ‘Zipsters’, recruiting and training other sellers and receiving a percentage of every commission they earn.

At the moment, Zippi only seems to be operating in the US, but given the popularity of eBay in Australia, a local presence is a matter of time.

In-game ads work

Advertising within computer games have significant positive impact on purchase consideration and ad recall, according to a Nielsen Entertainment study on the Massive videogame network reported by Marketing Charts.

The study compared 600 gamers, divided into a control group and a test group exposed to the car racing computer game containing advertising for a variety of products in the automotive, consumer goods, hospitality and technology categories.

According to the survey:

• Average brand familiarity increased 64%.
• Average brand rating increased 37%.
• Average purchase consideration increased 41%.
• Average ad recall increased 41%.

The car brands advertised achieved the best results – the study recorded a 69% increase in purchase consideration among likely car buyers from control to test groups.