As many people spend a large part of their lives working and advancing in careers, these places can also be a source of negative emotions and stress. One of the negative emotions that people experience in the workplace is anger.
Anger in the workplace can be triggered by wide variety of things. It can be triggered by something that we see as not being done correctly or feel threatened ourselves (Understanding Anger in the Workplace, 2018). Some other causes of anger in the workplace include not getting a fair share of something, receiving more than the fair share of the workload, feeling as though your rights have been violated, being threatened, your pride feels threatened, or someone threatens your position (Understanding Anger in the Workplace, 2018). These are only some of the ways that make people feel angry in the workplace.
When anger strikes people in the workplace, it is important to be able to recognize this early so it doesn’t escalate. There are also important components of the anger the worker could be experiencing that may not be related to work that is vital to understand.
This anger may be coming from previously unsolved anger at work that is intensified by an event experienced at work (Understanding Anger in the Workplace, 2018). They may also be having thoughts such as blaming or judging someone for something said or experiences. They may also be taking out their anger at work from something that is going on at home (Understanding Anger in the Workplace, 2018).
When someone is angry at work the best thing is to try to understand the full situation without getting fully absorbed into the situation (Pearson, 2017). If multiple people are involved, separate them and listen to them each one-on-one (Pearson, 2017). The person listening to them should be someone who can remain neutral through the entire process and won’t be siding either way (Pearson, 2017). This will allow all parties involved to be heard equally. These workers may need time to regain themselves, but appropriate action should be taken and then they should carry on with work if that is possible (Pearson, 2017).
The phases that people can go through when they are angry are attacking, extreme, aggressive, destructive, dominant, discrediting, hostile, and combative (Anger Management, 2018). It is important to recognize the anger in first phases to avoid any unwanted statements or actions.
These negative emotions can make it hard for good co-worker relationships. Anger can make it so co-workers do not want to work with you on a daily basis or they do not want to say things for fear of making you angry. They don’t want to be the person involved in the incident so they may start to avoid this person. Some people who have anger issues may need to work on techniques to control this if it becomes a problem. One of the best things they can do is recognize when they notice a trigger and try to calm themselves at that point.
I think that this article points out some good things that I hadn’t thought of. Many of times we are taking feelings to work and then a little thing sets off a negative emotion. I see that a lot. Although none of us mean for it to happen it does. I think that more of us could be better at focusing on what we are at work to do and leaving home stuff at home. I also think that if someone is better at something than me, so what? I ask them to help me. Many people do feel threatened by that and we have made the workplace like that. I think that we as nurses need to be better of offering help, educating each other, and recognizing when someone is having a hard time.
