Are you Hungry?

Babies/ toddlers/ young children cry when they are hungry; they become fussy and irritable. As parents we recognize the symptoms and take care to feed our children regularly. However as adults we feel we are above the physical needs. We believe hunger, lack of sleep, physical discomfort etc does not impact our work. How many of us skip lunch or take a half bite at 3pm?

What if we find the timing of our meals are impacting our productivity, our decision making, creativity and our interpersonal relationships? Would we not take food@work more seriously?

Hangry Kya?

No, its not a typo. Hangry is a composite word made out of Hunger and Angry, it describes the anger which is triggered or escalated by the fact that one is hungry. Remember the snickers ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLDZ-gAKbqo . When we are hungry, our blood sugar levels dips we become light headed and irritable. Our behaviour deteriorates and relationships suffer. Hunger causes bad behaviour it also exaggerates our negative feelings. This impacts our decision making ability.

If we acknowledge the symptoms of "hanger" in ourselves it could be very useful in controlling our negative reactions to situations and people that we repent later. Better to take a fruit/meal break than to appear like a out of control maniac!

If we recognise the symptom in others we could help them manage it or at least cut them some slack.

In scheduling events and meetings ensuring meal times should be a scheduling priority.

Decision Making vis a vis Lunch time?

According to a new study from the University of Dundee in the UK, making any kind of decision while hungry can lead to poorer choices for the long-term. They found that when people are hungry they are far more inclined to choose options which are gratifying in the short term. For example, people were offered to take X amount of money now or take double that after some time. They were willing to wait 90 days to get double the money when not hungry but only 40 days when hungry. So clearly, we shouldn't be doing financial planning on a hungry stomach.

Another study which looked at the parole decisions of judges in Israel during the day found that the likelihood of a favourable ruling to grant parole peaked at the beginning of the day, steadily declining over time from a probability of about 65% to nearly zero, before spiking back up to about 65% after a break for a meal or snack. They surmised that when hungry and tired the judge were less inclined to apply their mind, were risk averse and tended to stick to status quo therefore no parole.

What can we do?

·     We could plan our day to ensure that strategic decisions, difficult decisions are taken in the early part of the day when the mind is fresh and hunger is satiated.

·     We can ensure that work which involves creativity, risk taking, complicated thinking is not undertaken on a growling stomach.

So friends lets give our meals their due importance and ensure that we do not damage our relationships, make a bad impression and reach bad decisions simply because we did not take a bite off the apple. Unlike Adam and Eve this bite may save us.