Travelling back in history thousands and thousands of years ago we will find our ancestor women sitting around the fireplace, socializing and taking care of the children. Looking further around the cave, we will find the footsteps of our ancestor men; following them they will lead us far down to the savannah, where the men get prepared to hunt a buffalo. Having a closer look at them, we can see that they already spotted an animal. As we look at their hunting formation we can clearly recognize a hierarchical organization among them. There is one leader who is the decision maker. He distributes the different tasks and gives instructions. The youngest guy was sent out to collect leaves and twigs for the camouflage, which they are putting on right now. The guy with the wild look gets the task to distract the animal and the other men are sent out to surround the target. On command of the leader they attack the buffalo and bring it down successfully.
Proud of their success the men hang the animal on a branch and carry it to the cave. On their way home they seem to chat and laugh with each other about their great victory. But looking closer at them we see that each of them is gloating only about his own contribution to the victory. This is the most important part during the hunting event for them as it serves as confirmation for the hierarchical pecking order. Status is achieved by the demonstration of strengths and therefore the men enter a constant competition.
The women are seeing them from far and await them at the entrance to the cave. Reaching the cave the competitive behaviour among the men becomes even worse as it also serves as a tool to impress the women. Only the strongest, wildest and most courageous ones will have free choice among the women… Now tell me, how much is this different from the actions that we can observe every day at our workplace? After all, it is just a caveman in the office.
