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The Straight Skinny
Under Damocles' Sword Research shows that when the fear system of the brain is active, exploratory activity and risk-taking is turned off
By Carol Archer |
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Memories of the staggering first wave of consolidation after passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 remain vivid in radio's collective consciousness, like the bloodletting came down yesterday. Some survivors adopted it-is-what-it-is as a survival attitude; other experienced those events in shock, anger and disillusionment. Either way, wholesale staff-cuts exacted a devastating toll on the vibrant medium of radio and decimated the music business, along with the entire country. The cost in human terms, which continues to be taken today amid economic recession, is incalculable. Is it any wonder that fear pervades our industries?
Though business practices of massive corporate entities – by which I mean primarily owners and lenders -- inform criticism among such enterprises' workforces; as well as scathing indictments from many other quarters, the fact remains: People must work. Never have so many professionals possessed, or needed, such keen awareness of Damocles' mythical sword, which hovers invisibly overhead, poised to fall – out of the blue, to separate them from their livelihoods -- like that – as they do today. This sword dispatches victims not like the executioners' blades that beheaded Henry the Eighth's many wives; rather, in keeping with current reality, the blow generally manifests in the now-ubiquitous refrain: "It's nothing personal, just business." Bloodless, perhaps, but also accurate: decisions regarding jobs are about profits -- money, not individuals.
Job loss ranks among the hierarchy associated with life's most harrowing emotional challenges: The death of a spouse or one's child, divorce and diagnosis of a life-threatening illness are other first-magnitude stressors. Considering the rampant anticipatory fear of being laid-off afoot throughout business today, I explore the emotional terrain of fear, as well as implications of new scientific data relative to the workplace – perhaps yours. This is the first of two parts, which conclude next week.
Frank Herbert, the author of the classic sci-fi tome "Dune," famously deemed fear "the mind-killer." Now neurological research studies confirm his creative instinct, and reveal an array of penetrating insights into the profound effect of fear in the workplace. Let's begin with the Skinner box, which was invented by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner in the 1950s and later inspired the phrase, "think outside of the box." |