Managing anger at work

What is anger? Anger is a feeling of displeasure, an unpleasant emotion, but it’s also a normal, healthy emotion. Unfortunately it is amongst the most abused and misunderstood emotions.

For me it is more or less an alarm that tells you something is wrong in a situation and is a very natural response to perceived threats.

Psychologists have defined anger as a well-developed coping mechanism that we turn to when our goals are frustrated, or when we feel a threat to ourselves or to people, things and ideas we care about.

It helps us to react quickly and decisively in situations where there is no time for a careful, reasoned analysis of the situation. Anger becomes a problem only when you don’t manage it in a healthy way. It can motivate us to solve problems, achieve our goals, and remove threats.

Anger is a powerful and strong emotion, both for good and bad. Used irresponsibly, it can jeopardise your relationships, your work and your health.



What causes people to become angry?

I would like to call this era the best era that creates best opportunities for people who are little ambitious about their future and faster in achieving their goals – both business and personal goals.

The business world is competitive than ever and it will take only a split second to fall or to succeed in business. Those who join the competition with their talents will thrive in businesses by taking full advantage of the opportunities.

Yet, the negative side of this scenario is that people today are faced with multiple stressors due to the continuous and rapid change of the environment. There is a lot of stress in society in general and in our personal lives as well – financial issues, drugs and alcohol, peer or family pressure, health care issues, work load and above all, unnecessary pressure and stress from the boss. There are so many things to feel threatened and helpless about, and some people respond in a negative way.

The famous reaction that any person would come up with is the ‘anger’. Most people don’t just walk around feeling mad all the time. When someone explodes with anger, usually there is a triggering event, such as a disagreement at work, being stuck in traffic, etc.  There can be a lot of events and incidents being bottled up in the mind which pops out all of a sudden.

For instance, when we start the day there can be a problem in the water tank, and then traffic on the road which of cause makes you impatient, then at office, your computer is causing you problems — it just won’t do what you want it to do, you are running late for a deadline and your co-worker starts cracking jokes. What do you feel generally? These are very simple examples but pause a little to think how you choose to respond to all these events?



Anger is both positive and negative

As mentioned earlier, anger is a complete natural response, and everyone experiences anger from time to time. In some situations, anger can have positive effects. It spurs/motivates us to take actions and change an unsatisfying situation, and it helps us fight the injustices we see in the world. If we do a little bit of research, we can see that almost all the great social movements started with a seed of anger.

The up side or positive side of the anger is that the managers can get the work done. It is natural for managers to get frustrated and angry when the employees are inefficient and unproductive. In this sense, anger is an appropriate and beneficial emotion to the organisation and the individual.   



Disadvantageous of anger at work

However, anger is just short outbursts that will drain every bit of our inner strength and will take our thinking capacity away. Excessive anger causes damage to almost all aspects of our personality.  

It is easy to get angry – the hard part comes with expressing our anger in a way that is productive. The outcome of anger is often worse. Further, when we have an extreme emotional response to something, it is very rarely relating to the situation that triggered it. It is more likely that the situation has reminded our subconscious of a past event that has not yet been healed.

Employers would like to think that people leave their emotions outside the workplace but this will actually never happen. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Life is one indivisible whole. Man cannot act one way in one department of life while he acts in another way in another department of life.”

However, anger cannot be justified at work in a destructive way which could be harmful to the employees. Especially the mangers that carry responsibility on their shoulders face a huge problem when it comes to anger management. They have a big role in controlling anger and other forms of negative emotions of employees.

As leaders, they have to take charge of every business aspect and everything that might affect the business process – including workplace turmoil among employees. When conflict escalates into anger in the workplace, the manager has to do all s/he can to prevent further damage in the workplace.

With anger you will not be able to get a correct decision which is crucial at work. Every decision is a risk that can lead to destruction or growth of the business.

Whether you are a manager or a normal employee, anger will definitely interrupt the smooth functioning of work. It will also cause a negative impact to peer relationship within the office. Relationships can be damaged as people find working with or for an irritable and angry person, a challenge.

Subsequently, the behaviour and the performance of the employees will be affected and will decrease the efficiency and the productivity of the company. In the case of a service company, if an employee is angry and reacts to a customer in a hostile manner, it will affect the revenue and reputation of the business. Remember that bad news has wings while good news ‘walks’.



How to manage anger

At times, things will make you angry at work. Bosses may go on power trips and colleagues will be rude and annoying sometimes. Equipment will break down. Your reaction is important. Many people get into trouble at work because they exhibit negative behaviour and have no grasp over being angry. Some tips to manage your anger:

•    Maintain good physical health and exercise every day. When you are in poor health or over-tired it is much easier to become angry very quickly.

•    Plan ahead for days when you feel angry. Think ahead about all the options you have at work to reduce anger.

•    Have a ‘buddy / friend’ that you can ring if you feel your anger is getting out of control. Talk this over with someone you trust, tell them what they can say and do to help you if you have to phone them.

•    Think the situation through. Right through to the end so that you can see the consequences of losing your temper at work. In the worst case you could lose your job, at a minimum you may look and feel foolish if you lose your temper at work.

•    Read the biographies of famous personalities

•    Find out the causes of your anger and write them on a paper.

•    When you get angry, think about one humorous scene in a cinema.

•    Ask yourself, “What I am going to achieve by exhibiting this anger?”

•    Change your way of thinking and be positive and be patient

•    Smile

•    Count at least 50 (not 10) numbers, the anger will leave you.

•    Try to transform your anger into another form, may be to creativity, love etc. we should not forget the fact that life is all about transforming one energy to another. It is a perpetual transformation.

•    Think positively. Remind yourself that the world is not out to get you, but rather you’re just experiencing some of the rough spots of daily life.

•    Manage stress. Make sure to set aside personal time to deal with the daily stresses of work, activities, and family. ( Listening to music, Exercising, Meditating)  

•    Remember, alcohol does not dissolve anger…it aggravates it!



(The writer is the Managing Director and CEO, McQuire Rens Group of Companies. He has held regional responsibilities of two multinational companies of which one was a Fortune 500 company. He carries out consultancy assignments and management training in Dubai, India, Maldives, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. He is a much sought-after business consultant and corporate management trainer in Sri Lanka.)