The upside of seeing red at work
Research indicates expression of anger can have both positive and negative outcomes
The workplace can be a tinderbox that sparks anger – as anyone who has worked in an office can testify.
US studies have shown the average employee gets annoyed at least 10 times a day, while the American Institute of Stress reports that up to 42 per cent of workers say they have witnessed incidents of yelling and other verbal abuse in their workplaces.
In Australia, mental health issues have recently overtaken physical injury as the cause of the longest absences from work, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and anger is a common symptom of anxiety.
And yet surprising new research from UNSW has shown that anger may not be all bad – it’s wrong to view it simply as a destructive emotion. The expression of anger can produce positive outcomes in a variety of organisational context, including in situations involving leadership and conflict resolution.
But allowing anger to fester among employees exacts a high toll on businesses. The cost of workers’ compensation claims for stress-related mental disorders is estimated at millions of dollars a year.
Indeed, according to the work, health and safety regulator for Australian federal government employees, Comcare, there has been a 54 per cent increase in mental stress claims as a proportion of total accepted claims since 2007.