From:
http://www.thetimes.co.za/Careers/Article.aspx?id=804080
Desk Rage
Nearly half of US workers report shouting and verbal abuse
on the job. One-sixth reported property damage.
Anger in the workplace — employees and employers who are
grumpy, insulting, short-tempered or worse — is surprisingly common and
probably growing as Americans cope with the woes of rising costs, job
uncertainty and overwhelming debt, experts say.
“It runs the gamut from plain rudeness to pretty abusive
behaviour,” said Paul Spector, professor of industrial and
organisational psychology at the University of South Florida. “The
severe cases of fatal violence get a lot of press, but in some ways
this is more insidious because it affects millions of people.”
Nearly half of US workers report shouting and verbal abuse
on the job, with roughly a quarter saying it has driven them to tears,
research shows. Other research shows one-sixth of workers reported
anger at work has led to property damage, while a tenth reported
physical violence and fear their workplace might not be safe.
“It’s a total disaster,” said Anna Maravelas, author of
How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress. “Rudeness, impatience,
people being angry — we used to do that kind of stuff at home, but at
work we were professional.
Now it’s almost becoming trendy to do it at work,” she
said. “Now people are losing their sense of embarrassment over it.”
Contemporary pressures such as rising fuel costs fan the
flames, said John Challenger, head of Chicago’s Challenger, Gray &
Christmas workplace consultants. “People are coming to work after a
long commute, sitting in traffic watching their discretionary income
burn up. They’re ready for a fight or just really upset.”
Added to that, he said, are financially
strapped workers having to cut back on paying for personal pastimes
that might serve as an antidote to work pressures. “People come to work
after a weekend and they haven’t been able to let off any steam,” he
said.
Spector said his research has found 2% to 3% of people
admit to pushing, slapping or hitting someone at work. With roughly 100
million people in the US workforce, that’s three million people.
Maravelas said she conducted a seminar in Iowa recently
and asked participants if they thought anger was increasing at the
workplace. Everyone raised their hands. She cited research showing 88%
of employees think rudeness is on the rise at work. “Many of us sense
that we’re losing ground economically and socially. The safety net is
unravelling. Hence, anxiety and unease are rocketing,” she said.
People reassure themselves by blaming others and “find
comfort in believing that their suffering is caused by a callous,
incompetent or selfish organisation, leader, supplier, union or
regulatory body”.
The worst offenders are overachievers, said Rachelle
Canter, a workplace expert and social psychologist.
“The usual profile is Type A, really smart, with
impossibly high standards they set for themselves as well as for
others. They are so invested, maybe over-invested, in success and in
everyone being every bit as driven as they are that they lose their
sense of perspective, and they can lash out at other people,” said
Canter, author of Make the Right Career Move.
But desk rage extends across industry and class lines, and
firms pay dearly in terms of lost productivity, sagging morale and
higher absenteeism, Spector said. The worst cases end in violence .
“Somebody didn’t just come to work one day and shoot somebody. There’s
probably been a pattern leading up to it.” — Reuters
'Desk Rage' Supersedes Road Rage
From:
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=383107&rel_no=1
A new phenomenon, "desk rage," is said to be
sweeping the United States. It has taken over from "road rage" and is
leading to extremely abusive behavior in the workplace, according to
new research.
Almost half of American employees surveyed revealed
they had been subject to "yelling and verbal abuse" at work, while 10
percent said they had suffered physical violence and feared their
workplace "might not be safe." Experts are blaming pressures such as
the rising cost of living -- and particularly rocketing fuel costs --
for this increase in unacceptable behavior.
People are arriving at work stressed out, having had a
weekend when they cannot afford to enjoy any leisure pursuits to
unwind. And then, they are forced to sit in traffic jams, seeing their
vehicle's highly expensive fuel burning away before their eyes, before
arriving for more pressure at their place of employment.
Surveys have shown 88 percent of US employees
believe "incivility" is increasing at work, while 3 percent have
admitted to "pushing, slapping or hitting" a colleague. But this
behavior is not confined to the US.
As long ago as November, 2006, statistics compiled
by the National Readership Survey revealed sales of daily "popular"
papers were down 4.95 percent compared with November 2005; daily
midmarket papers were down 2.18 percent and daily "qualities" were down
2.74 percent. So the total daily market was down 3.72 percent. The
situation worsened last year, with all the U.K.'s regional morning
newspapers suffering a fall in sales in the second half of 2007. (...)
Advertising revenue is widely said to be in decline as a
result of recession.
And while many newspapers try to exist side-by-side with
their associated Web sites, it is a widely held belief that the boom in
Internet-based news will eventually kill the old-fashioned printed
press.
Many people at my workplace, for one, have been in
the traditional newspaper industry for some 20-plus years. They are
from the "old school" of journalism, whereby a printed newspaper is the
end product. Mention the newspaper's new Web site and they recoil in
horror, seeing it as a threat to their traditional working practices
and the eventual loss of jobs in the printing and sub-editing industry.
(...)
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=383107&rel_no=1
Workplace Coach: What you can do to reduce job stress
By MAUREEN MORIARTY
From:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/367887_workcoach23.html
(...) According to a Northwestern National Life survey,
one out of four workers view their jobs as the No. 1 stress in their
lives (40 percent of workers surveyed said their job was "very or
extremely stressful"). I help my clients find ways to decrease work
stress factors that contribute to a long list of health concerns
(migraines, anxiety attacks, sleep deprivation, etc.). Many report
working 80-hour weeks and routinely facing morning inboxes with more
than 200 new messages -- with no end in sight. The price is high:
skyrocketing illness, friction between co-workers ("desk rage") and
lower productivity. Workers return home to their families
short-tempered and depleted, often anxious about unfinished work,
resulting in an inability to recharge. (...)
What causes workplaces to be in this state of constant
overdrive? Increasing global competition, a tightening economy and
excessive performance expectations all drive the ever-spinning hamster
wheel. The information age is our blessing and our curse. Technology
has made it easy to communicate and difficult to ever get away from the
job. BlackBerrys, PDAs and laptops keep many workers tethered to their
work, including on the well-deserved family vacation to Hawaii. If you
find yourself sneaking out of the hotel room late at night, or slipping
off the beach to compulsively check just "a few e-mails," you might
just have a problem. (If in doubt, ask your family.) (...)
