Good days, bad days:
Inside, outside influences can affect mood at work
Problems that occur during the workday are often enough to send angry employees to the brink but for many employees, it’s the things that happen outside the workplace — an argument with your partner, a notice from a collection agency, a noisy neighbor — that put them in a negative mood.
People are certainly entitled to bad days, says John Albert, a social worker in Miami, Florida, but people often get angry over things that happen outside the office and end up taking it out on their co-workers. “They carry that dark cloud with them around the office. Someone may have a text argument with a spouse, and that argument sets them off on a bad path for the rest of the day,” says Albert. “Or what about bad news that’s financial, like being rejected for a mortgage, or seeing $10 in your checking account with payday still a week away?”
Albert, who specializes in dealing with family and workplace conflict, says workers who know their mood negatively impacts their work need to develop their coping skills. “Your mood affects your relationship with your peers, with clients and with your boss,” Albert says. “It can impact how you work, what you work on and how much effort you put into your day-to-day responsibilities.”
Mad about work
Still, not all 9-to-5 anger comes from the outside. In many cases, that anger emerges because of something that happens at work.
The American Psychological Association’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace says there are usually three types of triggers that set people off at the workplace:
1. Fairness: People may feel resentful when they think they’re being treated unfairly by supervisors — in terms of title or salary — or by their co-workers — being left out of lunch plans, getting stuck on a bad project.
2. Inability to achieve goals: People get angry when they feel there is an obstacle to their success that they can’t control
3. Interpersonal conflict: Arguments with managers and peers that may be based on different demeanors and personalities.
Research suggests that lower-level employees are more likely to get angry for the above reasons but are less likely to express that anger at work. And because of their lack of perceivable anger, their managers are more likely to think that things are going well for their employees or, in cases of conflict, perceive that the problem has been resolved successfully.
When it’s the boss who has a problem with anger, there are fewer solutions for the employee. In some cases, after the situation has subsided, it may be appropriate for the employee to politely address the boss’s reaction and explain how it was perceived. But many times, employees deal with their bosses’ anger until they can find other jobs.
Looking within
When things go badly at work, sometimes the easiest thing to do is to remove yourself from your present situation. Nicole Vallick, a marketing specialist in Austin, Texas, says most times, she can seek comfort in music. “I pop my earbuds in and keep to myself for an hour or so, and I really dig into my work,” she says. “I think that isolating myself, at least mentally, pays big dividends. I’m not falling behind in my work or causing a scene. I’m just centering myself with some music to keep things moving forward.”
Vallick says that within her department, employees with earbuds on are automatically assumed to be in a do-not-disturb zone. “If you’re busting your butt to finish a project, you either work from home or make yourself off-limits at work, but since we’re in an open office, it’s kind of hard to get away. So, you can escape a bit by putting some music on and people generally respect that.”
To deal with onset anger, others often find a quiet place to meditate. “Meditation and mindfulness are practices — often using breathing, quiet contemplation or sustained focus on something, such as an image, phrase or sound — that help you let go of stress and feel more calm and peaceful,” according to the American Heart Association.
Outside assistance
Albert says that self-generated actions like meditation can certainly help a person relax, but he cautions against using any method exclusively, especially one that, by design, focuses on an isolated effort. “I think meditation is amazing and can have benefits for all of us, whether we’re dealing with a bad situation or not, but I know that people can’t rely on it to solve problems that will still exist when the meditation session ends,” he says. “We can’t live our lives in a meditative state, especially at work, so it pays to have some strategies in place to help us maintain our balance.”