3 ms·
It's not poverty. It's stress. Poverty is very stressful. Any kind of stress stops people from acting the way they normally would be inclined to act. It tak
by dbg31415 9y ago
It's not poverty. It's stress. Poverty is very stressful. Any kind of stress stops people from acting the way they normally would be inclined to act. It takes a lot of conditioning and practice to deal with stress without having it impact you and your performance.
Take a little stress off your staff, and instantly everyone starts making better decisions, their work seems more focused. As a manager, the best thing I can do for my team is try and shield them from scope creep, angry clients, and unreasonable deadlines. And make sure everyone has time off when they need it.
Take care of your team, team will take care of the work.
- mc32 9y agoIt's also mental. When I was poor and finally got a "student" class credit card, i knew paying off the month's bill was the best option economically, i still could not get around the idea of giving up all my "cash" (money in the bank) to pay off the debt. Even though i could have simply paid off and then should something come up, use the zero balance credit card. No, i still wanted cash available. Knowing this was not the logical option.
- dredmorbius 9y agoThe value of cash liquidity seems deep within much economic activity. It's what, essentially, Adam Smith railed against in Wealth of Nations, arguing that wealth was not gold and silver (liquidity) but real produce and labour capacity. And yet much present economic theory and practice is only so much neomerchantilism. This makes me suspect a real foundation, at least psychologically, to the behaviour.
- hyperdunc 9y agoA little "positive stress" can increase performance in the short term. The classic example of escaping a hungry lion translates into modern-day scenarios like meeting an important deadline. It's when stress is sustained that major health problems arise.