assault
Workplace Fail: People Are Ticked Off
We’re now going to tackle the topic of people being Ticked Off. Employee anger, as well as other personality and mental disorders, are a major reason why people don’t do their jobs.
Ticked off, as the Urban Dictionary hilariously tells us, is an intermediate stage of anger midway between “miffed” and “pissed off.”
The effects of people being ticked off, or having other personality disorders, vary a lot depending on where in the organization they are, and whether their performance is helped or hurt by being angry.
How Widespread is this Problem?
According to “Mind your anger dot com,” from the British Association of Anger Management, ⅓ of the people polled have a friend or family member that has a problem controlling anger. 12% of the population at a given time admit to having an anger problem themselves, and they strongly recommend taking an “anger retreat” to some lovely, sunny spot like Malaga.
According to Forbes, which quotes the Gallup organization, 81% of the workforce is “burned out” and 44% of global employees experienced anger or anxiety “a lot” the previous day.
The problem is severe enough that Starbucks is citing this as a reason for closing stores, in that both employees and customers are experiencing “incidents.” Caffeine may be a gateway drug.
The original report from the Gallup organization, who has put out their annual “State of the Global Workplace” is linked in the links and references. That thing says that at the present time, the “daily anger” rate in North America is 18%. Which means that of the five people you see sitting around a table in the cafeteria, one of them is “angry.” Whether or not that rises to the point of being “ticked off” is an open question, but it is not an especially good sign.
Negative Effects of Anger
Most sources cite effects such as anxiety, decreased productivity, and potentially sabotage. An article from the Wharton School suggests that being angry clouds your judgment, which makes for potential bad decision making.
Going Postal
According to the NIMH, 10% of the “angry population” also has firearms in their homes, and 1.6% of the anger trait people carry firearms outside the home. All I can say to that is, that I hope it’s that low.
Statista provides a list of 53 “incidents” that are workplace-related over the last few years. The phrase “going postal” has entered the language to describe workplace firearm incidents, especially in a repetitive job. Enterprise Apps states that there were 400,000 aggravated assaults in the workplace. 68% of employees do not feel safe in their workplace.
Dealing with an Angry Boss
This is a particularly sticky issue and there is a lot in the literature about it. As an employee, you’d love to be treated with respect, consideration, support, and a positive work environment.
But 52% of workers are currently ready to change jobs because of the boss. I have linked to a forum that describes some of these experiences.
Particularly annoying is the type of boss who kisses up to the higher levels of the organization but treats his or her employees like garbage.
For one thing, keep in mind that a boss is a person too, and is equally likely, and in fact maybe more likely, to have anger issues or other personal issues that he or she takes out on the employees.
This, unfortunately, is not going away.
There is an article linked from Business Insider which describes 26 characteristics of a “bad boss.” These include lying, cheating, withholding information and a lot of other activities which destroy employee morale, and other behavior which contribute to a screwed-up work environment, and also threaten your home environment.
Here’s a book reference. I can’t be more authoritative on how to deal with this topic than this.
Bad Bosses, Crazy Co Workers and Other Office Idiots
How does this affect People Doing Their Jobs?
It would be another good topic for a PhD dissertation if someone would tackle the project of putting a dollar amount on this. For one thing, it’s a workplace distraction, and we all know distractions are bad. We know it’s widespread enough to cause laws to be passed, and we, as a society, are limited as to how to deal with it.
Yet another PhD dissertation would be to come up with a dollar amount of improved quality and improved productivity because of a happy workforce. There is for sure some numbers around to capture the cost of re-hiring a worker that was ticked off and quit, and it can be up to 33% of a worker’s salary. We’ll have a little more to say about this later.
Turnover and unmotivated employees are expensive.
My favorite “Angry Boss” story.
I worked in a place in Texas, with a fellow who was “Texas Angry.”
Texas, probably like New Jersey, is a place where a lot of people walk around and as part of their persona, act angry. It’s sort of aggressive, in a Texas sort of way. You have to have been there to experience it.
The “Rich Texan” character in The Simpsons is sort of like that. This is angry in the same way a football coach, or a drill sergeant would be “angry” at you. They behave that way for effect.
This fellow was a production supervisor and would blow up several times a day just to communicate to the people around him, who were 90% immigrants that didn’t understand English.
This fellow was so angry one time that he threw his hat in the middle of the floor, and for three days, the employees drove the sweeper around that hat because everyone was afraid to touch it.
We never knew whether he was pretending to be angry or he was angry. After working there for a few years, he gradually started to reveal that he had a personality. He was almost friendly, and eventually he was declared “disabled” because of chronic dust overexposure, which we all had. He had also been in Korea in 1951. Maybe he was “giving up.”
Did that guy get people to do their jobs? Well, maybe for that place and time and culture, he did, but paid the price, as did the people around him. It’s hard to live like that.
Other Personality Disorders
According to the NIMH Personality disorders represent “an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture.” And the prevalence of this in the workplace is around 10%.
If you suspect that your workforce has a lot of crazy people in it, you’re right. If you add this to the half of the workforce from the previous chapter who are impaired, it’s no wonder things don’t get done.
According to Champion Health, the prevalence of mood disorders, including depression, anxiety and stress is as high as 60%, and 15% of the workforce rises to the level of needing treatment. They suggest that it’s a good idea to try to spot some of these people, and deal with them constructively.
Symptoms of Psychological Disorders
These symptoms are not always obvious, but there are common signs to look out for. Here are 10 things to look out for when it comes to spotting mental health issues at work:
Uncharacteristic behavior
Low levels of engagement
Decreases in productivity
Changes in sleeping or eating behaviors
Disinterest in work or day-to-day activities
Increased absence
Changes in working patterns
Withdrawal from social situations
Irrational fears, paranoia or anxiety
Substance use/misuse
The “uncharacteristic behavior” is an interesting phrase. What is “uncharacteristic” exactly? Some people are characteristically a little weird.
I also want to know whose job it is to approach someone sitting alone in the corner of the cafeteria, gritting his or her teeth every day at lunchtime, wearing an NRA hat. Are you doing that? Not me.
Mental Health Story
I worked in a place on the evening shift. There was a fellow that worked in the inspection department as a supervisor. I will tell you later what he was inspecting. His name was Jim.
I guess you would have to say that he was chronically angry, but in a comical way, like Granny in the Beverly Hillbillies. We had an evening quality meeting and the Technical Service guy, and I would go down to the meeting room a little early every night to see if we could get him wound up. He was a small guy, maybe 5’ 5” and weighing about 120 pounds.
As I think I said before, most of the “old guys” I used to work for are younger than I am right now. Jim was in that category. He might have been in his late 50’s.
He loved to complain about his sons-in-law, who were apparently giants, and could eat an entire refrigerator full of food in one sitting. He’d hilariously tell the stories and get “agitated.” I think he liked the attention.
Chronic Pain Issues
He also had chronic issues with sore feet. His job was to walk around on concrete all the time. We guessed that he had been in the plant for 20 years, and that was also bothering him. He walked around like someone with sore feet. He also complained about his tyrant boss giving him a hard time. In those days, bosses had to be tyrants.
We also, over a period, found out that he had spent several months on Guadalcanal. If you aren’t aware of the seriousness of this, I have provided a link in the links and references. But to make a long story short, it is very likely he also had the condition that we now call PTSD. He also looked out the corner of his eye and gritted his teeth at the Japanese employee at the next station.
So, from his point of view, chronic physical pain, domestic issues, PTSD, and no one around him giving him any sort of sympathy, life was unbearable. That being the case, he ended it. They had the service at 10 AM so that the second shift employees that worked for him could attend.
In his case, what, if anything, could have or should have been done? Was he functioning properly in his job, as it was? I suppose you would have to say he was, but there was no one in the system that would or could have done something, including me and the tech service guy.
Why aren’t these people fired?
One of the lessons is, a person can go for a long time with one or more of these issues, and still do their jobs. In fact, in the case of OCD it might help you in some positions.
But mostly, firing someone with a mental condition is illegal.
The US Department of Labor states that mental health issues are considered a “disability” and an employer in the US is required to provide “reasonable accommodation” and other rules regarding this as a physical and mental condition.
On the US department of labor website, there’s a video about mental health in the Federal workplace:
Federal Government Mental Health
In fact, these conditions are also covered under the HIPAA rules, which state that you can’t disclose “publicly” the fact that a person has these conditions. So even if you, the HR person or manager, know that someone is a bit off, you’re subject to up to a $100,000 fine and a year in the joint if you don’t protect this information.
Workplace Fail: People are Ticked Off
As part of the human condition, some people are chronically angry. They may have other chronic mental health and emotional issues that keep them from doing their job. The incidence of this is widespread. About 15 to 20% of the population, if the statistics are to be believed.
These people are a drain on productivity, make bad decisions, and often screw up the professional and personal lives of the people around them. Not always though, sometimes you can’t even tell. These are the “silent angry.”
Can you, as a participant in the workplace, learn anything from this? I’d say sure. Be careful. You never know who is packing heat.
PS: You can share some of my accumulated wisdom buy looking at my bookshelf:
Why People Still Don’t Do Their Jobs
Why People Don’t Do Their Jobs
How not to Fail at ISO9001
