Temper Outburst At Work

Have you ever witnessed an adult temper tantrum? It can be an embarrassing experience. Even so, it is becoming an ever more frequent occurrence, and for good (bad?) reason.

Reason One: The age of automation has removed from us the necessity of the more mundane tasks. We don't go to the mail room for our messages, they arrive via email on our computer screens; We don't get together to discus calendars, we share our Outlook files. The point being, with the extra time we are harvesting, we place ever greater demands on ourselves to be even more productive. The pressure for ever greater productivity will eventually create an overwhelm which may trigger an out burst of temper.

Reason Two: Psychological Neoteny (Peter Pan Syndrome) as we continue on with an ever greater need for education we assume the characteristics of one who is being educated, namely a child. Since children have little or no control or input into the daily operations of their lives they occasionally have out bursts of temper. Adults, under the same circumstances demonstrate similar behaviors.

Reason Three: Not every bully stayed on the school yard. You may think that bullying is something that ended with 3rd grade or at the latest in high-school or maybe even with college hazing. But, it hasn't. Bullying, as demonstrated by angry people (covertly or overtly) is an ongoing phenomenon.

So, how do you deal with it? First and foremost, if you are the supervisor you must take steps to insure the individuals receiving the brunt of the temper outbursts are having their rights and safety protected.

Key elements to remember:

Individuals equipped with the tools to handle anger and frustration are less disruptive and hostile.

Individuals who are permitted to express displeasure and disagreement in an appropriate manner are less likely to be disruptively hostile and angry.

What preventative steps can you take with an individual who may have difficulty with anger?

1. Segment their work load. Shifting focus regularly from one task to another is a good tool to alleviating frustration.


2. Coach them in positive ways of expressing their disagreement. "I understand what you are saying, I don't happen to agree..."


3. Take steps to maintain a friendly work environment. Create opportunities for group work on some projects. Encourage moderate personalization of work areas. Provide a clear and easy to use employee handbook.

What proactive response steps can you take when difficulty arises?

1. Isolate and Elaborate. When you have observed a temper outburst, take the person aside and draw them out. Likely the incident that ignited the outburst had very little to do with the underlying cause of the outburst. Don't be afraid of silence. Once you ask for an elaboration be prepared to be quiet and wait. It often takes time for a person to work through emotion to the cause of disturbance.


2. Distraction. The human brain can only hold on to so many concepts at the same time. Adults will often respond to something like, "I see this has very really worked up right now. Instead of beating our heads against this wall, let's change focus and work on..."


3. Remote Outpost. Sometimes it is simpler to just temporarily assign the angry person a task at a different location. Often removal from the stimulation for the anger will allow the anger time to dissipate.


4. Humor. If we work in an environment where humor is part of our daily norm, anger has difficulty maintaining a foothold. One sign of a healthy productive work environment is the encouragement of the "we don't take ourselves too seriously" attitude. If we have the ability to laugh at ourselves and our situation we have an excellent tool to deal with anger.

Our responses to disruption will be haphazard if we don't have a plan in place. This plan is severely limited if it does not take into account the perspective of the individual creating the disruption. This article should help you develop consistent and practical solutions.