Boredom is an important fact of life – deal with it!

March 27, 2009

I recently read a really interesting piece in the Observer newspaper by David Mitchell, the comedian, broadcaster and columnist and I’ve been meaning to write a post on it for a few weeks. He was reacting to the government’s plans to tackle the problem of teachers who deliver boring lessons at school and his point was that a certain amount of boredom and concentration (that feels hard for pupils) is required to achieve anything that is worthwhile. He makes the argument that if every lesson was a thrilling kaleidoscopic experience filled with multimedia and teacher charisma it would be a poor preparation for the realities of working life. In the future we would end up with armies of disillusioned and confused young employees wandering around our workplaces looking in vain for the thrills that they enjoyed in their school years.

The principle underlying the article was that dealing with the boredom that is so often just part of doing things properly is an important skill in life and in work – and I agree wholeheartedly with this point. In this view of the world, those who get bored easily and have short attention spans are not only seen as creative and dynamic souls (so often seen as a positive thing in our society), but people who are lacking certain fundamental life skills.

Business Psychologists often talk about the pressure / performance curve which describes the relationship between the input of pressure and the output of performance. Too much pressure and you get stressed out; too little and you get ‘rust-out’ ….or boredom. Useful though this model is for explaining a key principle, it runs the risk of leading us to believe that all boredom is bad. The relationship between pressure and performance holds up over the long-term because if you feel bored most of the time at work your performance will suffer, but this does not mean that we need to ‘ban boredom’. Think about your own career – what has been your greatest achievement to date? Most people answer this question by recalling something that was challenging – a task that stretched them, but one in which they ultimately succeeded. The attainment of difficult goals is almost always driven by some extended period of effort which, at the time, probably feels boring and tempts you to go and do something more pleasurable. However, when you look back all of this is forgotten and you remember the sense of achievement you felt when you reached your goal.

When we find ourselves in these situations – having to do something that we know is boring, but worthwhile – we are faced with a choice.  Either grit our teeth and tackle it, or give in, telling ourselves that ‘we don’t do boredom’.  And it doesn’t matter how you find the resources to cope with the boredom – there is a myriad of ways that can be effective for each of us – the fact is that you just have to cope with it sometimes. There will be those that would argue that those who consistently find a way to do this successfully are, in fact, the ones that businesses should be identifying as high potential employees and that, rather than tagging them as dull or geeks, we should be putting them on the fast-track and rewarding them!  Maybe the French poet Pierre Reverdy got it about right “creativity is to think more efficiently”.

You can read David Mitchell’s full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/11/david-mitchell-comment-is-free

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Posted by Cary Cooper

I’ve been made redundant, what now?

March 25, 2009

Last week we passed the two million unemployed mark in the UK – something we haven’t seen for nearly two decades.  The recession is setting in, but it will come to an end; hopefully by the end of this year if we are positive and resilient enough as a society.  In the meantime, what should people do if they have lost their job? The most important thing to do is to stay positive and be active.  Losing one’s job is similar to the grieving process; shock, anger and despair are all common.  And the term ‘redundancy’ says it all; because those affected often feel like they are literally of no use, not needed as a result of what’s happened to them. (In fact, it may be time for a new phrase to describe the process that is more helpful and constructive for people who find themselves in this situation). However, those affected must tell themselves over and over again, ‘it was my job that was made redundant, not me as a person!’  With so many people losing their jobs, it is important for people to stay as purposeful and positive as they can, even though it may seem easier to see what has happened as rejection. ‘Purpose’ is a key word here – because a job can give us all a strong sense of purpose and having it taken away can be very demoralising. 

There are a variety of ways of staying positive though… and they are all about being active.  This does not only mean active job seeking behaviour, which is of course vital, but also engaging with opportunities for gaining additional skills through one of the government’s training or retraining schemes; or going to night school to learn something useful (e.g. a language); or doing voluntary work in schools, hospitals, hospices or in some local community project. The more people do during their job hunting the more their self-confidence will grow and the better they will start to feel about themselves.  And by helping others (e.g. when volunteering) the unemployed can start to contextualize their own problems leading to more positive and optimistic feelings and emotions.  The government provide fantastic resources for the unemployed on the www.direct.gov.uk website – including information about volunteering, job opportunities, benefits, training and more.

If people still find it difficult to get a job after a long period of job hunting, it may be time to consider retraining, starting a new business or about taking their skills to a new sector.  Losing a job can sometimes be the turning point in terms of actually doing something new that one may have been thinking about for a long time.  If this is the case, it’s important for people to think carefully about what they would like to do next, what skills and competences they have and what new skills they need – then it’s time to do something about it! Success here is all about taking control and being active – this approach will pay personal dividends in terms of your job search and any new venture you decide to pursue.

1 Comment | Motivation, Productivity, Public Sector, Uncategorized, Well-being | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper

Can night shifts cause cancer?

March 18, 2009

Working nights has long been associated with health risks – usually because of the changes to our circadian rhythms that occur as the body and mind react to sleeping in the day and being awake all night. Add to that the increased likelihood of poor diet and disruptions to family life and it’s fairly obvious why health problems occur. The usual symptoms are not dissimilar to those associated with stress – including disturbed sleep, fatigue, digestive problems and a greater risk of accidents at work. However, these pale into insignificance compared with developing cancer – a condition which research recently reported shows an associated with night shifts, and for which the Danish Government has recently paid compensation to shift workers.

A United Nations agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), has ruled that night shifts probably increase the risk of developing cancer and this has prompted the pay-outs to female workers who had worked night shifts for many years and then developed breast cancer. As an example of the kind of roles in question, the BBC reported that one of the women had spent 30 years flying through the night as a flight attendant – when she stopped she developed breast cancer. In all, around 40 Danish women have won compensation so far, but several cases have also been rejected – particularly when there is a history of cancer in the family.

Clearly, the crux of these cases is proving cause and effect – in this sense there are parallels with well-known cases of asbestos poisoning and other types of chemical contamination that have led to pay-outs in the past. According to the IARC classification system known carcinogens like asbestos are seen as ‘Category One Risks’ but, startlingly, night working is now just one level below that and is classified as ‘a probable cause of cancer’.

The obvious difference for night shifts, however, is that there is no poison or external agent involved – the courts that awarded the compensation recognised that structuring working life using night shifts significantly contributed to causing cancer. Employers have to take some of the responsibility here, but employees often decide to work nights because they prefer it and want the extra money associated with this way of working. They surely share some of the responsibility for the health outcomes of their actions in these circumstances, provided that employers did not put them in foreseeable danger. There may be parallels with the active military service here – in that soldiers know that there are risks associated with their roles and if they are killed or seriously injured compensation is due.  The difference around night working after these research findings will be that employees can argue that the danger is foreseeable!

Realistically, night shifts in certain sectors are never going to be abolished – e.g. emergency services, the airline and oil & gas industries. However, it might be time to re-design shift patterns, and jobs that involve shifts as a whole, to minimise the risks of cancer. This might have some negative effects on productivity in the short-term, but that might be the price we have to pay as nothing is more important than workers’ lives.

The HSE have commissioned research to look into this area in the UK and this is a good move, but the results will not be due until 2011, according to the BBC report. Employers might feel that they need to move sooner, especially if they see the spectre of large compensation pay-outs looming. The result may be changes to employment contracts that limit employers’ liabilities should employees get cancer further down the line. All-in-all it’s a difficult area in which we have incomplete information at the present time – but one thing’s for sure, we have to take this issue seriously if lives are at risk.

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Posted by Cary Cooper

Hardwired Happiness?

March 9, 2009

In my recent podcast and in previous blog posts I’ve talked about the importance of being positive during the recession – but now it seems that some of us might be able to get a little help…..from our genes!

The Guardian newspaper recently reported the findings of researchers at Essex University who have discovered what the reporter called ‘a Brightside gene’ – that is, a genetic predisposition for having a positive outlook and seeing the glass as ‘half-full’.

I’ve talked before about the benefits that positive psychology can offer us as individuals and as a society, but I was very interested to see that researchers are now pursuing a possible genetic link. Of course, as per the nature vs nurture debate there is still an experiential aspect that determines our how we think and behave, but this research confirms the genetic component in relation to our tendency to have positive thoughts and emotions.

There is a strong link here with what we know about human personality as psychologists; most personality assessments include a measure of ‘optimism’ (or conversely pessimism if we’re feeling negative!). Personality can change to an extent over time, but some fundamental aspects of it are pretty much hardwired – for example, somebody who is naturally very introverted is very unlikely to turn into an outgoing extrovert as they go through life. The same is likely to be true of the optimist and the research by from Essex University seems to confirm this.

These findings don’t mean that people who are not genetically positive can’t learn tools and techniques that will help them to stay positive – it just means that being positive will be more of an effort and may not come naturally for them. You can learn to be cynical and look on the dark side – but equally, you can learn to stop doing this as well – particularly if your experience of being positive reinforces the benefits of this way of thinking by making you feel better and delivering positive outcomes in your life.

Elaine Fox, Head of Psychology at Essex University, told the Guardian that the gene seems to underlie some people’s ability to deal with daily stresses. She concluded that those without it are likely to have a gloomier outlook on life, and suffer more from psychological problems such as depression. This has several possible implications and applications.

The Government is investing heavily in generally supporting the psychological well-being of the nation at the present time. In the future, these efforts could become much more sophisticated – targeting help where it’s most needed. This kind of information could be invaluable for anticipating who is likely to need support, and for directing preventative services there before problems with mental illness and stress actually manifest themselves. As with all genetic research, care is needed to ensure that findings are valid and that applications of this knowledge are completely ethical, but this is a space I will be watching with great interest.

You can read more about the research at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/25/optimism-brightside-gene-mental-health

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/4799930/Looking-on-the-bright-side-of-life-is-in-the-genes-claim-scientists.html

http://www.essex.ac.uk/news/event.aspx?e_id=522

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Posted by Cary Cooper

Haunted by bad memories? Don’t worry, just take this pill

March 5, 2009

Last week I read a story reported in the Daily Mail describing a new pill that’s been invented by ‘scientists’ – one that has the power to eradicate bad memories. This is an idea that, in the minds of many, will be in the realms of science fiction and I immediately thought it was worthy of comment.

The Daily mail summed up the experiment involving the new drug as follows:

“Dr Merel Kindt of Amsterdam University subjected the human guinea pigs to a bizarre test involving scary pictures of spiders and electric shock treatment.

Some of these volunteers were then drugged to see if their negative associations with the spider could be forgotten. When positive results came back the experiment was deemed a ‘success.’”

Clearly, the paper is putting a ‘1984’ spin on the story, but it’s still a thought provoking idea. If a pill like this could really work it raises several really difficult moral, ethical and psychological questions. I’m a psychologist so I’ll focus on the latter. There are obvious issues concerning identity here – about needing to feel the pain that bad memories provide in order that we can learn from our experiences and become the people we are. But let me flip the dilemma round and ask the question – could the use of this drug ever be justified with anyone in any circumstances? I’m not saying that it could or couldn’t, but it’s helpful to think broadly about such big concepts. For example, could there be a case for letting someone who was the victim of a terrible act take the pill if it was by their own choice? Imagine a soldier who saw his/her colleague killed or victims of sexual abuse. There are parallels here with the Euthanasia debate in relation to the terminally ill – can we argue with people who want to end their lives by choice – even if we would not take that course of action ourselves? In this case, if someone wants to kill a little part of themselves for a good reason can we stop them?

I think we have to distinguish between trying to lose memories that are a result of a person’s own actions and those which have been caused chiefly by the actions of others. This is a grey area and the line between cause and effect in terms of what happens to us is almost a philosophical matter. Ultimately, we come back to this fundamental point that in nature things happen to people (wherever the cause lies) and they learn based on whether the outcome made them feel good or bad. We maximise the good (however we gauge that) and minimise the bad. By artificially removing a portion of the bad we would find ourselves making judgements based on only half the story. Then, whether life is better or worse depends on how we adapt psychologically – for example, now really bad memories are gone do we focus on the next worst memory and recalibrate our thinking? We may even start to work on developing a pill to eradicate that memory too!

Of course, if the pill actually worked the precision of such a ‘treatment’ would be an important factor – how do you ensure that you don’t lose memories that you value as well as the ones you want to rid yourself of?  It is well known that human brains do not all behave in the same way in response to medical interventions and you could imagine a lot of trial and error being required along the way. The outcome might be the loss of cherished memories, even whole identities!

On balance, I think this is a dangerous road for us to go down. How we behave as people is determined by our genetic make-up and the experiences we have in life. Some experiences are almost too horrific to cope with, but the vast majority of us end up handling what life throws at us – eventually. As a result we change as people and develop skills to cope with adversity. I can see parallels here with our over-reliance on antibiotics – if we remove the need to deal with bad events in our memories we weaken our capacity to deal with ones that we know will inevitably come along in the future.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1146298/HARRY-PHIBBS-Why-pills-remove-bad-memories-stuff-science-fiction-nightmares.html#

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Posted by Cary Cooper

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