Even though office gossip is generally frowned upon, many studies show that gossip in organizations is not only inevitable, but can even be a positive communication tool. However, by gossiping in the wrong way, employees can easily lose the trust of their colleagues and be perceived negatively very quickly.

Research shows that people who claim to never gossip tend to be considered as socially inept, but those that are constantly gabbing at the coffee machine are quickly seen as untrustworthy....

Petrus De Man geniet als schilder en tekenaar faam voor de creatie van een bijzonder poëtisch universum met rauwe, geconstrueerde en vaak erg kleurige accenten. Kind-mannetjes, gevangenen van hun lot maar tevens bezeten van een drang naar vrijheid, zoeken een plaats binnen de beslotenheid van muren en betoverde tuinen, tussen melancholie en schalksheid, in een wereld gecreëerd op hun maat. Aarzelend tussen existentiële bokkensprongen en een soms versteende stilte, evolueert die wereld same...

Candles is a photographic essay by Tim Onderbeke. Fascinated by the sacred, ritual, and cerebral act of lighting a candle, the artist began collecting images of candles and candlesticks in an artistic or art-historical context. In Candles, Onderbeke uses his own work and that of others to research what he calls “the colour of darkness,” or negative space – a concept he borrowed from the Japanese writer and essayist Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. Tanizaki describes this intense experience he ha...

An insatiable hunger for pictorial and formal experimentation fuels the practice and particularly diverse body of work of this artist. Various styles and media are blended in a flamboyant ode to painting – an eruption of composition, color, materials, and sculptural interventions. Belgian artist Narcisse Tordoir (born 1954) challenges the viewer to sharpen their gaze and question the status of the image. For him, that image, and by extension visual art, is a place of wonder and mystery, a g...

This dissertation puts together planning documents and multiple archival sources to demonstrate how urban planning and the role of planners have evolved in an ever-changing transnational context of Iran. It challenges the prevailing approach in the literature of Tehran urban studies that simply flattens the complexity of local-foreign collaboration and labels transnational planning of Tehran a top-down “Westernization” project. To depict a more nuanced picture of Tehran master planning at...

Provision of daylight without the risk of discomfort glare is one of the aspects that determine the quality of the classroom environment. Although discomfort glare from daylight is under investigation for a long time, a knowledge gap concerning the applicability of the existing metrics to the spatial conditions of the classroom is identified in this work. An investigation on the applicability of existing metrics to the prediction of discomfort glare in classrooms has been carried out based on...

In the context of rapid urban transformations, this thesis explores the possible preservation strategies for historic military systems that used to be embedded in extra-urban settings, but that now are absorbed in the development dynamics of complex metropolitan areas. The research stems from the main peculiarity of these heritage systems: namely, the coexistence of cultural and natural values, and their being at the crossroads of the architecture and landscape domains. Although the need to a...

Tales of Terror and Mystery is a volume collecting 12 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in 1922 by John Murray. The collection is divided in two parts : Tales of Terror with horror stories, and Tales of Mystery with stories with strange schemes. This volume presents some of Conan Doyle s unduly neglected masterworks. Each begins in a quietly factual way, making all the more dramatic the crescendo of fear and puzzlement that ensues as each new circumstance is reveale...

William Stubbs (1825–1901), is one of the leading historians of his generation, pursued his academic research alongside his work as a clergyman. He was elected Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1866 and ap-pointed a bishop in 1884. Stubbs was a major figure in medieval English historiography, with special interests in legal and constitutional history. This work was first published in 1870. It begins with an outline of English constitutional history, which he urged should be pa...

Worldwide developments, including economic and health crises, global competition, technological developments, and demographic changes prompt a highly dynamic and hard-to-predict labour market. Over time, part of the workforce is thus expected, requested or forced to leave their current jobs. Along with the risk of (future) job loss, a vulnerability and risk of unemployment among employees develops. The aim of this book is to broaden the employer perspective towards a responsibility of keeping...