AMEX 50,000: Via Mommy Points, we learn that the Amex Business Gold 50,000 point offer is back. You get the 50K points after a $5K spend in 3 months. The annual fee is $175 but is waived the first year.
This is a pretty good offer, though not a great one, and it has been offered periodically. If you’re in the market for a business card, grab it, but no big deal if you let it slide. If you’re not familiar with the Membership Rewards program, there is a pretty good variety of hotel and transfer partners. Amex periodically offers transfer bonuses as well, so if you time it right you can actually end up with more than 50,000 miles.
$200 BONUS FROM FIRST TENNESSE BANK: Thanks to Maximizing Money for pointing out that First Tennesse is offering a $200 Bonus if you open a premier checking and money marketing savings account (minimum deposits $500 and $10,000, respectively). The maximum is one bonus per household.
INTROVERTS, REPRESENT!: Over at Forbes, Susan Adams covers some cutting-edge research from academia:
In a paper called “The Downfall of Extraverts and Rise of Neurotics: The Dynamic Process of Status Allocation in Task Groups,” Bendersky and co-author Neha Parikh Shah, an assistant professor at Rutgers Business School, explodes stereotypes about how extroverts and neurotics perform on teams. It turns out that extroverts contribute less than team members expect and the contributions they do make are not valued highly over time. Neurotics, by contrast, are motivated to work hard on behalf of their teams, who wind up appreciating their efforts, in part because they exceed everyone’s expectations. In the end, extroverts decline in the teams’ esteem while neurotics rise in status.
The bottom line:
The lesson of the study: Bendersky says team leaders should be wary of extroverts. “The core of an extroverted personality is to be attention-seeking,” she observes. “It turns out they just keep talking, they don’t listen very well and they’re not very receptive to other people’s input. They don’t contribute as much as people think they will.” If she were putting together a team, says Bendersky,“I would staff it with more neurotics and fewer extroverts than my initial instinct would lead me to do.”
We’re generally in favor of things which benefit us, so we’re going to agree with Bendersky here. We figure financial blog readership skews toward the introvert end of the spectrum, so hopefully you’re nodding your heads as well. Let’s all pass this article along to our co-workers and management, okay?
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