Casualties of the porn crunch
An IT manager friend tells me how his company is experiencing a strange, yet not uncommon, problem.
In this grim economic climate, employees are facing the very real prospect of redundancy and possible closedown. All staff are being consulted, and nobody knows who the first casualties will be. Tensions throughout the business are running high.
Just like any switched on enterprise, there is a company policy for internet use. This applies to the office, and remote home workers. No Facebook outside of lunch hour, no explicit or offensive sites; standard HR rules.
At this difficult time of looming redundancy, you might expect some bending of the rules. Exceptions are being made for job sites, recruitment forums and the emailing of CVs. But what else has my IT manager friend noticed? A growing amount of porn sites are appearing on his activity report.
So how do we explain this? Why would employees take such risks, especially at a time when their careers are under dire threat. The answer is that for some individuals, porn has become a primary coping mechanism.
Sex therapist Dr. Aline Zoldbrod puts it like this:
Which would you rather do right now: agonize about whether you are about to lose your job or your home; take on some unpleasant but necessary household or yard task that you used to pay someone else to do; open your investments statement and find your savings are down 40%; or sit in front of the computer, look at unnaturally sexy women doing outrageous things, touch yourself, and be transported directly to the pleasure center in your brain?
For many people, reliance on seeminly harmless coping habits can prove damaging to their long-term prospects. The insecurity of potential redundancy can be numbed by surfing porn. The reality of becoming unemployed can be numbed too. The discomfort of finding a job or retraining can be numbed. You can see where I’m heading here; it’s a downward spiral of avoiding painful reality.
A final quote from Dr. Zoldbrod:
None of us likes stress, and most of us procrastinate in various ways. But guys, back away from that mouse.
You can read the rest of her excellent article here.
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