As you may have noticed, we are one of many hierarchically organized species. Take work, for example: are you the top of the food chain or at the bottom? who do you think has the most taxing position?
Dr. Sapolsky, in his article "Sympathy for the CEO" for Science Magazine, points out how physiology tends to arise from an individual's position in the ranking. And citing another study, he shares that risk of cardiovascular diseases varies with socioeconomic status among us humans.
Yes, there is plenty of evidence linking subordination with abundance of stress hormones (causing hipertension, immune suppresion and insulin resistance); but interestingly, they've found that stress is even more prevalent among higher-raking individuals, who show barely different stress hormone levels among them.
A very interesting factor for, say, baboons, is that they're constantly looking over their shoulders because there's another high-raking individual trying to take over. Sound familiar? Aren't a lot of us often talking about wanting to be the CEO or perhaps chasing after a managerial position in our brach or store or department?
What about the lowest-raking individuals? They experience virtually the same huge amounts of stress than those in higher ranks, but for different reasons. And personally the most notable one, pointed out by Dr. Sapolsky, is that for them (lowest-raking individuals) stress comes from being constantly beaten up or assaulted by those in higher ranks who need to let out their frustrations.
As an avid reader of his work, I've found that these stress-relief mechanisms can be mitigated or enhanced by several factors: how frequently are these individuals emotionally cared for by others (grooming)? Are they facing scarcity, or there are plenty of resources to go around? Are there other threats outside the group? Has their habitat been signifficantly reduced, leaving too little space for everyone to feel comfortable?
It's very tempting to extrapolate these scenarios word-by-word onto our corporate reality, although that wouldn't be the right thing to do. However, what we can learn from our distant zoological relatives is that we're not so different after all when we take a closer look.
No, we're not going to evolve into "beings of light" any time soon or wake up one day and find the planet has become one big Scandinavian-like society. But we can take precautions by ensuring we're well-fed, cared for, and surrounded by kind people before, during or after our shifts as much as possible. Or we can take some boxing classes a couple times a week, go for a jog — anything to manage the different colours of stress that even primates face, whether or not they work a 9-to-5 job.
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