Avoiding the anxiety zone

The term 'status' refers to our position in society, or our value to society (de Botton, 2005). That status might spring from a legal, professional, or social base (de Botton, 2005): our 'worth' as an artisan or creator, for example, might over time become iconic; or fade from the social gaze. It is our societies which confer status on desired people - e.g. warriors, priests, or seers - but in the West, we seem to venerate making money (de Botton, 2005). Having high status brings benefits: money; more resources than others; respect; and - potentially - self-importance (de Botton, 2005).

Being viewed as high status may be openly sought - such as in the USA - but may not be sought in all nations (de Botton, 2005). For example, the answer to the question "what do you do?" tends to give us a speedy idea of a person’s societal status (Inkson et al, 2015), yet in a society such as New Zealand, where we have societal values of egalitarianism and equality, the question may be asked and answered simply out of interest.

The idea of status then leads us onto status anxiety (de Botton, 2005). This is the fear that we fail to meet society's standards of success; worrying we will lose social respect if we fall behind what is 'expected' of citizens (de Botton, 2005). Our anxiety can be triggered by job transitions, by over-comparison with others, or through social pressure (de Botton, 2005); either real or imagined.

It seems to me that status anxiety is where we see our self-worth as EXTRINSIC to ourselves, instead of being intrinsic. That perhaps we worry too much about the 'look' of things, and not enough about the content (form over substance). If we are anxious, we tend to be reluctant to try new things; to make suggestions, or to ask those around us for help (Edmonson, 2022). Our anxiety may paralyse us (Edmonson, 2022). This can be compounded if we are working in an environment where we are watched over and tightly controlled; in a climate of negativity (Daft, 2007). In such situations our anxiety may increase, potentially leading to burnout.

There are connections between "status anxiety and job dissatisfaction" where, if "status anxiety reduces" we "could potentially increase job satisfaction and, in turn, employee performance and productivity" (Keshabyan & Day, 2020, p. 9). With more workplace trust, we can move ourselves from the anxiety zone into the learning zone, where we are able to collaborate, to innovate, and to learn by guided trial and error (Edmonson, 2022). We end up in a positive workplace (Daft, 2007).

And a positive workplace works for all of us.

Sam

References:

Daft, R. L. (2007). The Leadership Experience (4th ed.). Thomson South-Western.

de Botton, A. (2005). Status Anxiety. Penguin.

Edmonson, A. C. (2022). Psychological Safety Does Not Equal “Anything Goes”. https://amycedmondson.com/psychological-safety-%e2%89%a0-anything-goes/

Inkson, K., Dries, N., & Arnold, J. (2015). Understanding Careers (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Keshabyan, A., & Day, M. V. (2020). Concerned whether you’ll make It in life? Status anxiety uniquely explains job satisfaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1523, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01523