{"id":120,"date":"2010-07-22T12:46:14","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T12:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterindia.com\/career-advice\/whats-eating-you-120\/"},"modified":"2024-07-17T12:03:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T06:33:44","slug":"whats-eating-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/whats-eating-you\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s Eating You?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Monster Contributing Writer<\/p>\n<p>Mad that you were passed over for a big<br \/>\npromotion again? Livid that the bootlickers always seem to get ahead in your<br \/>\norganization? Perhaps it&#8217;s time to consider whether the anger itself, however<br \/>\nlegitimate, is holding you back. Evidence suggests many of us are walking around<br \/>\nthe office feeling resentful, though we may be unaware of the cumulative toll<br \/>\nbitter actions take on our careers and coworkers.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report<br \/>\nby Donald Gibson of Fairfield University and Sigal Barsade of Yale University,<br \/>\none out of four employees is substantially angry at work. The study, &#8220;The<br \/>\nExperience of Anger at Work: Lessons from the Chronically Angry,&#8221; indicates most<br \/>\nworkers are not so angry that they&#8217;re ready to cause the boss physical harm, but<br \/>\nthey are angry enough to sabotage him.<\/p>\n<p>Workplace anger is not only<br \/>\npotentially harmful to the organization, but it can also cause serious health<br \/>\nproblems, including chronic anxiety, depression, high blood pressure and heart<br \/>\ndisease. Learning to deal with your anger constructively will improve your<br \/>\nwell-being and make you a more desirable and promotable employee.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Form_bold\">Why Are So Many Employees Angry?<\/span><br \/>\nAccording to Gibson&#8217;s<br \/>\nsurvey, workplace anger is most often directed at an employee&#8217;s supervisor or<br \/>\nthe organization in general. &#8220;Feelings of anger at the individual level are a<br \/>\nsignal that a wrong has been committed or that goals are being blocked,&#8221; Gibson<br \/>\nsays.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke with twelve employees from a variety of businesses about<br \/>\ntheir anger at work. Each felt that one or more of the following caused the<br \/>\nanger:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Employee was promised a raise, promotion or important project, and it did<br \/>\nnot happen.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Employee was told to do something he felt was wrong or incorrect.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Employee could not live up to a supervisor&#8217;s expectations, because the<br \/>\nexpectations were too high or continuously changing.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Supervisor was a micromanager and criticized employee frequently.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Employee felt better qualified and skilled than his supervisor.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Another employee doing the same job made more money.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sometimes<br \/>\nthe anger may stem from outside sources. Many times, employees are dealing with<br \/>\nstressful events in their own lives, and the resulting anger can carry over to<br \/>\nthe workplace. Divorce, a death in the family, financial pressure, and serious<br \/>\nillnesses can all cause an individual to become overwhelmed and irritated.<br \/>\nRarely are we taught to deal with loss and stressful situations, so we tend to<br \/>\nbury those feelings, which can turn to anger or rage over time.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Form_bold\">Steps to Control Anger Constructively<\/span><br \/>\nWe all become<br \/>\nirritated or angry every now and then. What can we do to control that anger and<br \/>\nbe more constructive? Gibson, who cowrote &#8220;Managing Anger in the Workplace&#8221; as a<br \/>\nfollow-up to the survey, offers the following strategies for controlling anger:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Avoid anger as much as possible. This doesn&#8217;t mean suppress your feelings,<br \/>\nbut rather improve your outlook on yourself and life so there are fewer<br \/>\nsituations in which you would become angry.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Think about your anger and determine if it really makes sense given the<br \/>\nsituation.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Control your physical response to anger by doing constructive things, such<br \/>\nas exercising, getting enough sleep and avoiding alcohol. The healthier you are,<br \/>\nthe more likely you are to respond appropriately to situations.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Let go of unmanageable anger. Many situations will be out of your control,<br \/>\nso it is important to let go of this type of anger. Ask yourself, &#8220;Can I resolve<br \/>\nwhatever it is that&#8217;s causing this anger?&#8221; If you can&#8217;t, then you need to let it<br \/>\ngo.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>If you feel anger and are having a difficult time dealing with it, see if<br \/>\nyour company has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). EAP providers typically<br \/>\nallow employees to see therapists in these circumstances. You don&#8217;t have to live<br \/>\nin a state of bitterness, anger or rage. If you deal effectively with your<br \/>\nanger, you will increase your chances of being promoted at some point &#8212; and of<br \/>\nbeing an effective leader when the time comes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When Anger Strikes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Take several deep breaths.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Repeat a calming word or phrase in your mind, such as &#8220;relax&#8221; or &#8220;stay<br \/>\ncalm.&#8221;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Slowly count to ten.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Ask yourself, &#8220;How would my favorite leader handle this situation?&#8221;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Avoid tensing up your muscles. As soon as you can, close your eyes and<br \/>\nconsciously think to unclench your jaw and loosen your muscles.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Listen to your favorite music.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>When you&#8217;re feeling angry after you leave work, change clothes as soon as<br \/>\nyou get home. This simple gesture will help you change your state of<br \/>\nmind.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monster Contributing Writer Mad that you were passed over for a big promotion again? Livid that the bootlickers always seem to get ahead in your organization? Perhaps it&#8217;s time to consider whether the anger itself, however legitimate, is holding you back. Evidence suggests many of us are walking around the office feeling resentful, though we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-work-life-balance"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11837,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/11837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}