Stress and Lies

Got this in an Iconoculture newsletter some weeks ago:

According to a Watson Wyatt Worldwide study, stress is the leading cause that prompts people to quit their jobs. Yet stress is not even among the top five reasons cited by employers, who instead believe insufficient pay is why people generally leave.

Well, as this startling discrepancy shows, it is not just the stress but also a lack of communication that drives people to leave their jobs. And that should ring a few alarm bells, because forecasts tell that enterprises will need more than attractive pay in the future war for talent.

So what does it take to build a stress-reducing, communicative atmosphere? It’s a wide field... One does not need the gift of clearvoyance to see a big market for enterprise consulting coming up. From collaborative software to motivational interior design everything is on sale already. And I predict that the time has come for graduates of social studies and psychology to enter the consulting profession big time and tell top management about practical implications of non-verbal communication, group dynamics or the latest in anthropology.

That reminds of a “breakthrough idea” which Paul Root Wolpe and Daniel D. Langleben shared in the February issue of Harvard Business Review (see all ideas here):

Accurate, reliable lie detection using functional MRI technology may well be within our grasp. The potential applications in business and elsewhere are many, but peeking inside people's brains is a delicate matter that interested firms will want to handle with the utmost care

Eek, that does not sound very trust-enabling… But leaving initial concerns aside, such technology might actually help finding out in which situations employees feel uneasy or nervous – and how measures such as office redesign or a certain communicative conduct reduce or increase the stress level.

An easy to use gadget that puts a figure on the feel-good-factor of an office. Wow, that would help figure-fixated employers comprehend the power of stress. And I bet investors would love to get their daily update on the stress level of CEOs, too...