Content provided in partnership with

Business Services Industry

Employees behaving badly: how managers can recognize and combat employee 'desk rage.' - Management Tools

HR Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Laura Stack

A Dallas newspaper printed a story last year about a man who got upset at his washing machine, dragged it out the front door and unloaded his shotgun into it. He was subsequently hauled away by police. Reporting on the incident the following day, a reporter described the man's action as "appliance rage." Excuse me? Appliance rage?

Appliance rage, road rage, air rage ... yes, "rage" is all the rage. Now add this new workplace buzzword to your vernacular: "desk rage." Far from funny, desk rage is a real issue with serious implications for today's managers. Stressed-out employees are losing their cool, displaying anger and having temper tantrums at work. Desk rage often takes the form of rudeness, yelling, verbal abuse, attacks on office equipment and even fistfights with co-workers.

Most Popular Articles in Business: Research and Markets : Tesco Plc - SWOT Framework Analysis; Do Us a Flavor - Ben & Jerry's Issues a Call for Euphoric New Flavors; eBay made easy: ready to start an eBay business? These 5 simple steps will ...; Katrina's lawsuit surge: a legal battle to force insurers to pay for flood ...; Wal-Mart's newest distribution center opened last month near the southwest ...; More »

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

What Is Desk Rage?

Workplace violence that culminates in bloodshed garners a lot of publicity. Far more common, however, are the shouting matches and fistfights that don't make the evening news.

Examples abound. One corporation invited me to teach a stress and anger management seminar. Fifteen minutes before the start, I was warned that a certain employee who "throws things and put holes in the walls" would be in attendance.

An information technology department I worked with reported a record number of broken keyboards in a single month from employees banging on them in frustration.

While teaching at an aerospace company, I personally witnessed two managers almost come to blows over the procedure for filing paperwork on a faulty part.

Swearing, crying, sarcastic comments, "evil eye" and attendance problems-the signs are all there.

"So desk rage is really workplace violence," a manager once observed. Actually, that's where a distinction is drawn. Certainly, extreme desk rage can be a precursor to violence. Managers must enforce a zero-tolerance policy, which prohibits threats of violence or acts of bodily harm. Realize, however, not everyone who gets angry at work is a raging psychopath who intends to blow up the company.

Desk rage is seen as resulting from "normal" stress. Some people are just pushed too far or haven't been taught productive outlets for stress. Think of desk rage as "stress on steroids."

Causes and Effects

Employees always have encountered workplace stress, but several economic and social trends have either intensified or heightened worker sensitivity to it-war, a bad economy, layoffs, greater workloads, increased productivity demands and longer hours. Mix that with smaller, cramped workspaces that make employees feel restless and disorganized. Add office clutter, shorter response time requirements and a dash of technology to increase customer expectations. Beat out interpersonal communication. Blend with shifting responsibilities and work that is never complete, reducing time spent off work. Add a fluid, diverse, multi-generational workforce with different work process methods, and you've got a recipe for extreme stress.

According to a new workplace survey by CIGNA behavioral Health titled "Worried at Work: Mood and Mindset in the American Workplace," workers are stressed to epidemic proportions. Forty-four percent of employees surveyed said their job was more stressful than it was a year earlier. As a result, 45 percent said they've either considered leaving their job in the last year, left a job or plan to do so soon.

Extremely stressful conditions can cause employees to have short tempers and poor working relationships. In its 2000 "Assessing and Attacking Work-place Incivility" survey of 775 workers, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School showed that 12 percent of workers had quit their jobs to avoid nasty people at work, and 45 percent were thinking about doing so. In addition, more than half of workers lost time worrying about irate or rude people in the office.

As a manager, you should be very concerned with the stress levels of your employees, because stress has a big impact on worker productivity. To try to prevent desk rage, you must identify employee stress and catch it before it blows up.

Recognizing Extreme Stress

Usually, people don't suddenly flip out; they give off early warning signals. Luckily, managers can observe signs of stress in employee behavior, beginning with milder signs and culminating in desk rage. Be observant for the following stress stages:

1. Physical stage: headaches, illness, fatigue.

2. Social stage: negativity, blaming things on others, missed deadlines, working through lunch.

3. Cerebral stage: clock-watching, errors in assignments, minor accidents, absentmindedness, indecisiveness.

4. Emotional stage: anger, sadness, crying, yelling, feelings of being over-whelmed, depression.

5. Spiritual stage: brooding, crying, wanting to make drastic changes in life, not relating well with people, distancing themselves from personal relationships.

Desk rage is usually a stage 4 stress reaction when an employee "just can't take it anymore." The manager's role is to catch people in the earlier stress stages and circumvent more serious issues.

Business Services Industry

Employees behaving badly: how managers can recognize and combat employee 'desk rage.' - Management Tools

HR Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Laura Stack

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Technology

Most Popular Articles in Business

Most Popular Publications in Business