To inspire, one must first be inspired, Time (May 26) rather pompously tells us. The magazine is drawing attention to its list of great politicians, doctors, jazz musicians and business leaders, designed, doubtless, to inspire the rest of us to follow in their successful footsteps.

Should commercial achievements leave you cold, perhaps a life in academia might be more your thing. No? Right, how about if I tell you that it means wearing a fedora and racing a Soviet spy through the jungle? Thought so. Indiana Jones deserves credit for inspiring people to be archaeologists, even if his films suggest that they spend their days looting treasure troves rather than painstakingly uncovering potsherds in ancient middens, New Scientist (May 17) says.

A less fun but cheaper form of inspiration can be found in careful use of screensavers, at least according to research by a brand of mineral water. It claims that taking a regular break from your spreadsheets to gawp at pretty landscapes on your computer can raise your alertness by 20 per cent and cut stress by 30 per cent.

But it might take more than pixellated scenery to make you happy at your desk, particularly if you’re a man aged between 19 and 25. Learn-direct, a careers advice firm, says that 62 per cent of the men it surveyed want to swap their job for something better. (Not that all of them will admit this to their mates: 43 per cent pretend to have very exciting jobs, perhaps as archaeologists, in an effort to impress people in pubs.)

The question this raises is why these blokes stick with jobs that they loathe at an age when, presumably, they are less likely than others to be tied down by mortgages, children and/or ageing relatives. Still, if they stick at their jobs long enough to rise into management they might end up having change thrust upon them. The number of senior executives in the UK being made redundant has more than doubled in the past 12 months, the Chartered Management Institute says.

Even those who escape the axe could be less than cheerful. BusinessWeek (May 26) reports that a new wave of absurdly high-achieving undergrads – who spend their spare time running investment funds or begging professors to give them more accounting homework – is about to race into our offices and make the rest of look truly uninspiring.

What else happened

“Respect my authoritah!” Eric Cartman in South Park may have had it right once, but today’s managers have to find subtler ways to influence people, says The Wall Street Journal (May 19). Less well-defined hierarchies mean lines of authority have been eroded, making peer persuasion a better strategy than barking orders.

Time to stop working. Well, almost. Long hours are linked to wasteful behaviour, reports Fast Company ( May). No prizes for guessing who tops both – Americans, who put in the most hours and take the least holiday. But workaholics drive more and eat more takeaways: if everyone adopted the US work-and-waste model, global temperatures could go up 4.5C by 2050.

From long hours to no hours? Job shortages are worrying new graduates, says Vault.com, a careers website. Fifty per cent of graduating students have not received job offers, with 44 per cent of the offerless “very worried” about finding work in the economic climate; 8 per cent of students who received offers have had them rescinded.

Are you about to graduate and starting to panic about what happens next? Then go to the National Graduate Recruitment Exhibition in London on May 30-31. Highlights will include presentations from leading recruiters, a mock assessment centre and a CV clinic. Careers advisers will be on hand throughout. www.gradjobs.co.uk

Times Recommends

• Inspirational leadership
• How to get a new job
• The reluctant CEO