How anxious are you?

A week ago the following story appeared in the press, which made interesting reading:

The United States Coast Guard has located a cruise ship crew member who reportedly jumped overboard near Miami.

A Thirty-one-year-old crew member was found treading water off Cutler Bay about two hours after the the Captain of the cruise shipissued a distress call, citing imminent danger to the sailor.

The company which owns the liner says that four witnesses reported watching the sailor jump overboard. Officials said he was recovering and in good condition.

Undoubtedly a full scale enquiry would be put in place at the very earliest and both the sailor and the company will have much to answer for.

Interestingly, the cruise ship would have offered great living conditions in terms of food & entertainment as well as working environment. So why did the member of the crew take the extreme step in jumping overboard, as reported, putting not only himself, but his ship in danger?

The only conclusion, that I can draw, from the episode is that the member of the crew in question was neurotic, which is a personality trait, that manifests itself fairly regularly these days.

Who is a neurotic?

Neurotics feel anxiety, and worry often.Anxiety can make them emotionally unstable, and they are more likely to struggle with depression and sadness. This Big Five Personality Trait can lead to physical ill health and extreme mood swings. Neurotic people behave irrationally on the job and can be a source of distraction to their team in the least. In extreme cases they are dangerous.More often than not neurotic workers need sympathy and counselling and its the manager's job to identify a problem and suggest corrective action.

Neurotics are the last people you want on ships, where sound physical & mental health is a priority ( not that it is not elsewhere).While this is an extreme case, having emotionally stable people at the workplace is a requirement that recruiters would have to keep uppermost in their minds while selecting a person.The tragedy is that, a persons mental state can take a beating while working in high risk/high stress areas such as ships that constant monitoring would be a called for.Many employees and organizations are guilty of not taking care and pay a heavy price in time.

A few organisations are incorporating personality testing in their selection processes and those who do not test are doing so at their own peril!

There are high rises on land........................!