MANAGING TODAY’S ANGRY WORKFORCE
Shareholders and board members expect corporate growth, no matter the state of the economy. To make that growth happen, top management are putting pressure on their workers, using employee cutbacks to increase profits if there aren’t any other ways. The backlash is twofold. Where jobs are plentiful elsewhere, employees leave. If employees are stuck, and are unable to do what is demanded, they react emotionally with endless complaints, angry outbursts, and even fistfights with co-workers. This may explain why anger in today’s workplaces has grown to epidemic levels.
Conflicts aren’t new in the workplace – indeed, disagreements can help select the best among good ideas – but todays’ offices seem more prone to excessive conflicts. This doesn’t mean that the anger always erupts into violence. According to Dr Teri Domagalski, former professor of management at Florida Institute of Technology, anger and violence aren’t synonymous. When conflict is unchecked, however, it can lead to trashed offices and acts of violence against co-workers. His research has found that feelings of powerlessness, unjust treatment, and domineering incivility are causes of much expressed anger. Anger is triggered in managers and supervisors when they feel caught between lack of support from the top of the organization and poor performance from the lower ranks.
Some individuals are speechless when angry, while others yell themselves hoarse; still others have to take some physical action. Regardless of the way they respond, the factors that trigger anger seem to be common. Anger is triggered by the threatened loss of something greatly valued. In the workplace, this comes down to five factors:
- Downsizing or the threat of job loss
- The pressure to do more with less, or the loss of existing resources
- Unrealistic expectations, with deafness to plead for help
- Disempowerment or the loss of control over the work to be done
- Lack of confidence in those in charge whose demands shift from day to day
The high stress conditions in today’s offices make it difficult to achieve teamwork or creativity, but the bigger problem is that they set the stage for unstable people to act out their anger, pushing them over the edge to violent behavior. Circumstances ranging from unresolved conflict with a coworker or supervisor, to a bad performance evaluation, to a major change in work procedures can contribute to heightened anxiety and, in turn, draw raw anger. If an individual has a predisposition to aggressiveness and perceives the workplace as a hostile environment, experiencing stress can trigger violent behavior.
Defusing Anger
Companies should initiate such programs before workplace anger impedes corporate performance or violence erupts. Reference checks in the case of both new hires and promotions are also important to minimize the likelihood of violence. We can expect a skill war in the near future and, with it, there will be a shortage of talented workers. Companies shouldn’t let the rush to fill vacancies cause them to ignore reference check, opening the way to negligent hiring or promotion.
Among corporate policies should be one that demands an immediate response in the event of a threat to a coworker or manager. Equally important, executives and managers need to be trained to handle on-the-job conflicts and outbursts and consequently avoid b the dangers associated with them.
A Management Problem
Besides the physical and damage associated with anger, there are management problems that excessive conflict can create. Its existence in the workplace can increase absenteeism and decrease productivity of both assailants and their victims. So, coping with anger in the workplace is a management issue.
Warning Signs
To begin with, managers and executives need to know when someone might be a good candidate for anger management training. Warning signs are relatively straightforward, such as being chronically irritable, impatient, short-tempered, argumentative, or sarcastic. Such people confuse aggressiveness with aggression, and think they are responding assertively to a situation rather than exhibiting passive-aggressive or aggressive communication styles.
But not all angry staff members use verbal abuse to express their feelings. Because they don’t want to get fired or disciplined, they will express their anger through back-stabbing, rumor-mongering, and engaging in turf wars with peers.
Corporate programs are less likely to identify individuals who have difficulty expressing their anger as assailants in the making. For some, rage is less an explosion than a slow burn. Still, this shouldn’t discourage corporate effort to address anger in the workplace. Consider workers throughout the organization, from entry-level employees to top-level executives. According to psychologists, the one thing that many of these individuals may have in common is unrealistic expectation. They work hard and they expect to be awarded for their efforts. When their efforts go unacknowledged, they lose control and become resentful and angry.
As an individual, if you find yourself provoked to anger, you need to learn to take a “time out.” Practice deep breathing or visualize a place with positive connotations to regain control over your emotions. Ask yourself, “What can I do to respond to this situation that might help resolve it rather than make it worse?” If you have one of two choices – to lose control or walk away – then choose to walk away from the situation. To identify what situation trigger a heated retort, write down those incidents to identify a pattern. Certainly, don’t threaten the other party. If you find you can’t control your emotion, then seek out help through your organization’s Employee Assistance Programs (AEP).
Corporate Training Efforts
According to security experts, an organization that conducts training seminars on preventing workplace violence should go beyond spelling out policies. Top management should be quick and stern in dealing with violations. One security expert compared corporate response to the heightened use of the police to fend off terrorist attacks.
Employees need to be trained to understand that threats aren’t appropriate and will be dealt with very seriously. Employees can be placed on unpaid leave or fired if found guilty of making remarks perceived as threatening since they challenge a company’s responsibility to secure the workplace and protect the other employees.
Companies need to take seriously the issue of growing anger and uncivil behavior among coworkers. Left unchallenged, in certain individuals it can trigger violent incidents that can be costly beyond the safety of coworkers and customers. Businesses are facing recent judicial trends that find employers liable for acts of violence due to negligence in hiring, supervision, or retention.
Aside from instituting violence prevention/anger management programs, companies need to look more closely at surveys that show pervasive anger within their rank and file. Anger in the workplace is a signal that there’s something wrong in the company’s culture. It is management’s responsibility to investigate the corporate climate, identify the causes, and with its workforce, collaborately and collectively seek effective solutions.
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