Yelling, swearing of no use in solving office problems
26 Jun 2008, 1249 Hrs

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Melbourne, June 26 (ANI): You might justify your yelling and swearing in the office to get work out of lazy co-workers, but according to a leading workplace psychologist, using anger to get across the message won't help anyone's performance, even if the colleague is doing a half-baked job.

A research, conducted by Macquarie University psychologist Dr Julie Fitness, showed that the causes of workplace anger varied depending on whether someone was a boss or a subordinate.

"Employers reported they most often got angry at what they perceived to be incompetence, or the stupidity, or the laziness of people beneath them," News.com.au quoted Dr Fitness, as saying.

But she said employees often have a very different view of the situation.

"What people reported made them feel really angry was when they believed they were being unfairly attacked and humiliated and treated really badly by their employers," she said.

"They often felt very aggrieved and felt like they weren't listened to - and that the employer often didn't really care about their point of view," she added.

Fitness said that the key to dealing with workplace anger was taking a step back and exercising some empathy, rather than flying off the handle.

"If you're angry, or you perceive that somebody's incompetent or stupid, it's quick and easy to yell at somebody and swear at them or give them a piece of your mind, but that's not how you resolve situations or help people improve their performance," she said.

"You actually need to be a little bit more patient than that and you need to listen to their side of the story," she added. (ANI)