Jaco45er
04-06-07, 20:31
Off the back of my other post about the Radio 5 phone in today to do with stress and work, another interesting discussion took place.
During WWII, the RAF was worried about the stress level of pilots and crew of thier bombers, particuarly since duiring the most intense times, a bomber crews life expectancy could be as short as 1 week.
Knowing that the whole procedure of getting a bomber in the air, flying over occupied Europe and carrying out a sortie (mission) mean't that each crew member would have to carry out his duty to the full, and that a failure of this by any member of the crew could in effect render the mission void.
The lady guest did not go into detail about how exactly the tests were carried out to see which crew member had the most stress but the results were interesting:
The Pilot had the least stress
The Navigator was 2nd, and the rest of the crew had higher stress levels.
The rear gunner, he was found to have the most stress/fear on average.
It was concluded that, as the pilot was controlling the plane, and the navigator planned the route, these were considered to be jobs with the most control over the mission.
The rear gunner however, had no real control over the mission, his position and the rear of the plane, mean't that his destiny was controlled but the other crew members at the front of the plane (or if he was really unlucky, the enemy fighter planes on the bombers rear).
This was an early study into stress. From this discussion, many people called in to say that they felt thier manager or boss put too much on them, and this was a factor in thier stress.
So is anxiety merely a loss of control over our lives? or a fear of loss of control.
Who knows.
Jaco
During WWII, the RAF was worried about the stress level of pilots and crew of thier bombers, particuarly since duiring the most intense times, a bomber crews life expectancy could be as short as 1 week.
Knowing that the whole procedure of getting a bomber in the air, flying over occupied Europe and carrying out a sortie (mission) mean't that each crew member would have to carry out his duty to the full, and that a failure of this by any member of the crew could in effect render the mission void.
The lady guest did not go into detail about how exactly the tests were carried out to see which crew member had the most stress but the results were interesting:
The Pilot had the least stress
The Navigator was 2nd, and the rest of the crew had higher stress levels.
The rear gunner, he was found to have the most stress/fear on average.
It was concluded that, as the pilot was controlling the plane, and the navigator planned the route, these were considered to be jobs with the most control over the mission.
The rear gunner however, had no real control over the mission, his position and the rear of the plane, mean't that his destiny was controlled but the other crew members at the front of the plane (or if he was really unlucky, the enemy fighter planes on the bombers rear).
This was an early study into stress. From this discussion, many people called in to say that they felt thier manager or boss put too much on them, and this was a factor in thier stress.
So is anxiety merely a loss of control over our lives? or a fear of loss of control.
Who knows.
Jaco