This is a repost from last November. I feel that the stress now in April is much much higher than then so I am reposting it:
Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky’s long work with baboons has revealed that the big stress is on those lower down in heirarchical systems. Those at the top don’t get the stress related illnesses in near the amounts we do. These findings, described in a National Geographic special a few years ago, should wake us up. We, as the underlings in our work worlds, should be aware of how stress in our sick buildings is of a much more serious nature than we may have ever thought. The stress in our jobs is now so serious that we can’t just ignore it, which is what we typically do. We can’t play the “ignore it” card anymore. And now, with the increased finger pointing from above, the union busting, the fights over the best way to teach, not to mention the skewed use of data to evaluate what is a really human, not robotic, process of language sharing, we must become aware of our daily stress and do something about it. We don’t really have a choice.