Don’t blow a gasket: Talk
As you’re sitting there, about to throw an office chair, your temperature and heart rate rising, know that it isn’t all in vain.
Getting angry in your office does have a positive side. Anger can motivate you to respond to perceived injustice. It can also be useful in negotiations.
But it can also lead you to make poor decisions, say something you’ll regret and even make you more physically violent.
Given the mixed consequences of anger at work, you shouldn’t feel justified in hitting a fellow employee, but recent research suggests a little anger in moderation is all right.
The most common cause of workplace anger is being treated unjustly, according to an early but influential Australian study. Researchers also found we don’t tolerate being the target of immoral behaviour like laziness or theft and being disrespected by our coworkers.
The professional benefits of anger are mostly in relation to negotiation and leadership situations.
In studies of negotiation, people who expressed anger had better outcomes.
However, this is usually only when the angry party has the greater power, or when the recipient of the rage has poor alternatives to negotiating.
A 2016 study found anger in leaders can make them appear more powerful, yet less effective. Intense anger in leaders motivates their subordinates to increase their effort but also means they will be more deviant. Another study found anger enhances performance, but only when followers have conscientious and agreeable personalities.
More generally, research finds anger has positive consequences at work when it’s expressed verbally and is of low intensity.
Since anger is beneficial in some instances, it raises the question: should employees strategically act out anger to bring about positive outcomes?
Although some research supports this, other studies suggest caution.
For example one study demonstrated that faking anger in negotiations is detrimental to resolving the conflict. A better strategy than faking anger is to communicate it when it is real, but to do so in a controlled manner.
There’s only one type of person who seems to be an exception to this advice: machiavellian employees are those who operate strategically and manipulatively at work in order to achieve their goals. They can be highly angry and are likely to use it, and aggression, strategically to enhance their success.
Aside from making you very unpopular in the workplace, anger has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. Fortunately, there are things you can do to manage anger in the office.
You don’t have to be a zen master to learn to regulate your emotions through mindfulness and emotional intelligence training. One simple strategy involves calming down through deep, slow breathing. Overall, the research seems to suggest merit to both expressing and controlling anger.
It’s generally not a good idea to use anger to manipulate, but when something makes you angry, express it — it might lead to positive outcomes.