Huckleman2000
It was something I ate.
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2004
- Posts
- 4,400
I'm fond of describing my own chronic depression as something like diabetes, except diabetes doesn't make you want to kill yourself. As little (or as much) as we know about depressive illnesses, suicidal tendencies are a common symptom. This raises the question, "How does depression survive in the context of evolution?"
I had sort of an epiphany today. At the end of the day yesterday, I was informed that my position was being eliminated. (The one at my job, you with the dirty mind. The Kama Sutra, thankfully, is intact. Thankfully for you, anyway.
) While they are being quite decent about it, in terms of severance and so forth, the fact of the matter is that my depressive illness (of which they are aware and is documented under FMLA procedures) is probably part of the cause. Sometimes I have severe insomnia and panic attacks in the morning, so I'm late. I stay late or take work home to make up the time, and I haven't missed deadlines, and the quality of my work has been very good. But, and they certainly can't admit this, dumping me at this point is a tacit acknowledgement that tolerating my unorthodox work habits is beyond what they care to accomodate.
The emails that I've received today aren't just "Sorry to see you go!" or "Good luck!". They're "I'm surprised...", "I'm confused..." or "They'll regret this...". The layoff is being positioned as a "business decision", but the feedback coming my way is that it's perceived as a totally piss-poor business decision.
I'm a research analyst. Earlier this week, I delivered the last of a series of presentations about a large piece of research that I conducted over the last quarter. The research was about broader market sizing of a customer segmentation that I developed last year, determining the most profitable segments to target, and learning what brand attributes they were most responsive to. Also, which segments are the best targets for planned product launches later this year and into 2007.
Now that this research is completed, it was decided that there wasn't any more research to do and they can't justify a full-time research position. Not surprisingly, the ones who're confused are the product managers. To them, this research is the beginning - to management, the research seems to be an end.
Which leads to the epiphany: Depressed people are around because their brains will take them to the edge of perceiving threats to the group that others won't countenance. Sometimes, the consideration of these threats is pretty dismal, but essential to the survival of the group. The perception of the threats is contingent upon the realization of inaccurate perceptions among existing group leaders - unless one goes against the precepts of the existing leadership, one will not perceive the threats.
Thus, to counteract the prevailing group leadership, the threat of death has to take precedence. It's a total drama-queen instinct, but in the context of a subsistance group, it's the one that gains attention, and maybe some serious consideration. Despite its going against the grain of the prevailing wisdom of the group leadership.
So, this "depressive instinct" to perceive threats that aren't apparent to the lemmings of the group, has an evolutionary basis.
But in the event that one is not in a group of hunter-gatherers or subsistance-farmers, or product-launch teams or productivity-enhancement workgroups, this instinct becomes self-destructive. In the latter circumstances, where management has their own self-preservation instincts that override those of the group, the leadership behavior can become contrary to instinctual behaviors, leading to overall failure, even if the leader becomes successful while the group fails. The stakes in the corporate world aren't life and death, as in the bush. And depressive personalities can therefore be marginalized - their insights into threats co-opted, and their consequential suicidal tendencies marginalized.
Sorry, I'm in shock.
I had sort of an epiphany today. At the end of the day yesterday, I was informed that my position was being eliminated. (The one at my job, you with the dirty mind. The Kama Sutra, thankfully, is intact. Thankfully for you, anyway.
) While they are being quite decent about it, in terms of severance and so forth, the fact of the matter is that my depressive illness (of which they are aware and is documented under FMLA procedures) is probably part of the cause. Sometimes I have severe insomnia and panic attacks in the morning, so I'm late. I stay late or take work home to make up the time, and I haven't missed deadlines, and the quality of my work has been very good. But, and they certainly can't admit this, dumping me at this point is a tacit acknowledgement that tolerating my unorthodox work habits is beyond what they care to accomodate.The emails that I've received today aren't just "Sorry to see you go!" or "Good luck!". They're "I'm surprised...", "I'm confused..." or "They'll regret this...". The layoff is being positioned as a "business decision", but the feedback coming my way is that it's perceived as a totally piss-poor business decision.
I'm a research analyst. Earlier this week, I delivered the last of a series of presentations about a large piece of research that I conducted over the last quarter. The research was about broader market sizing of a customer segmentation that I developed last year, determining the most profitable segments to target, and learning what brand attributes they were most responsive to. Also, which segments are the best targets for planned product launches later this year and into 2007.
Now that this research is completed, it was decided that there wasn't any more research to do and they can't justify a full-time research position. Not surprisingly, the ones who're confused are the product managers. To them, this research is the beginning - to management, the research seems to be an end.
Which leads to the epiphany: Depressed people are around because their brains will take them to the edge of perceiving threats to the group that others won't countenance. Sometimes, the consideration of these threats is pretty dismal, but essential to the survival of the group. The perception of the threats is contingent upon the realization of inaccurate perceptions among existing group leaders - unless one goes against the precepts of the existing leadership, one will not perceive the threats.
Thus, to counteract the prevailing group leadership, the threat of death has to take precedence. It's a total drama-queen instinct, but in the context of a subsistance group, it's the one that gains attention, and maybe some serious consideration. Despite its going against the grain of the prevailing wisdom of the group leadership.
So, this "depressive instinct" to perceive threats that aren't apparent to the lemmings of the group, has an evolutionary basis.
But in the event that one is not in a group of hunter-gatherers or subsistance-farmers, or product-launch teams or productivity-enhancement workgroups, this instinct becomes self-destructive. In the latter circumstances, where management has their own self-preservation instincts that override those of the group, the leadership behavior can become contrary to instinctual behaviors, leading to overall failure, even if the leader becomes successful while the group fails. The stakes in the corporate world aren't life and death, as in the bush. And depressive personalities can therefore be marginalized - their insights into threats co-opted, and their consequential suicidal tendencies marginalized.
Sorry, I'm in shock.
