Defuse workplace anger

by Alan Joch

March 5, 2001 —

Do you feel your blood pressure rising as you sit down at your desk each morning? If so, the cause may not simply be the aftereffects of a stressful commute. Psychologists and HR consultants say that today, like never before, workers feel stress and unrequited anger at their jobs, which is leading to lost productivity, derailed careers, and, in extreme cases, assaults on others.

While incidents like last December's shooting rampage at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield, Mass., which resulted in seven deaths, grab the biggest headlines, verbal and physical assaults occur daily in our pressure-filled offices. As many as 18,000 workplace assaults are reported each week in the United States, says R. Brayton Bowen, president of The Howland Group, a Louisville-based management consultancy.

The Justice Department indicates that about 85 percent of the violent incidents reported each year involve a male perpetrator. "Men tend to get more physical about anger sooner, though women tend to stay angry longer," says Lynne McClure, a Phoenix-based management consultant and author of Anger and Conflict in the Workplace: Spot the Signs, Avoid the Trauma.

With its spate of firings and drop-dead deadlines, the technology sector is especially vulnerable to anger-induced assaults, Bowen adds. "We've been downsizing 800,000 to 900,000 jobs a year; this year we'll probably hit a million," he observes. "The people who are left have to do more with less, and the pressure is on. Any one of us, regardless of how productive we are, could lose our job tomorrow. There's some concern that in the process of all this downsizing, somebody will create a virus and take down a system or entire company," says the creator of a public radio series on anger and the author of Recognizing and Rewarding Employees.

According to a Yale University study on workplace anger, the greatest catalyst for employee rage is a real or imagined slight by a supervisor or manager. Next is a perceived lack of productivity by coworkers, followed by tight deadlines and heavy workloads. The study warns that these factors help create "underground chronic anger," an emotion that isn't expressed overtly but nevertheless affects one-quarter of the working population. The ill effects of chronic anger are high job stress, working below potential, and lack of teamwork with peers.

"The individual suffers -- in terms of decrements in happiness, satisfaction and feelings of betrayal, and the organization suffers -- individuals feeling angry put in less overall effort and their stress is likely to have an unknown but potentially substantial impact on effectiveness and productivity," the report concludes.

If a company creates a positive environment -- where workers receive regular and honest appraisals about economic threats, for example -- the likelihood of destructive employee anger is reduced, Bowen says. Mishandled, job pressures will cause "the weakest link" to snap, he says.

How can you overcome the debilitating effects of workplace anger? The first step is an honest self-assessment, says McClure. She describes seven warning signs that your anger or that of an associate is about to spill over:

Keeping away from others
Failure to take responsibility for one's actions
Rigid and controlling behavior
Acting out anger, or seeing things from a singular point of view
Talking one way and acting another
Addictive behavior, used to escape reality
Actions out of character, done to shock others

Unfortunately, these traits often go unnoticed in a work setting. "When an employee pounds on the desk or swears at somebody, managers often say, 'That's just how they are,' and don't do anything about it," McClure says. Other managers may believe erroneously that outward hostility is simply "creative tension" that can actually lead to better performance. "That's a great rationalization," she remarks. "Today, for all kinds of reasons -- legal risks to companies, demands of the customer, fewer employees to choose from -- we have to make a more attractive workplace," McClure believes.

The first thing to do to keep anger from sapping your productivity and derailing your career is to acknowledge your feelings. "Anger builds because we never said anything [about a problem] in the first place," McClure says. "Go to the person you had the problem with and use your conversational skills to settle the matter."

Employees also should encourage their companies to sponsor formal assistance programs designed to train people how to constructively deal with anger.

Finally, maintain balance in your life. Employees need a combination of love, work, and play to stay healthy, says Bowen. "Work is important, but so is taking time for relationships and play," he says.

With effort, stressed out workers can stay focused on productivity and not pugilism.

ITworld.com