The Costs of Anger in the Workplace

The Costs of Anger in the workplace can be devastating. Indeed, for many people the subject immediately evokes headlines of workplace shootings with terrible casualties. Such tragedies bear the highest price, from loss of life, serious injury, and psychological trauma to loss of productivity, property damage, and lingering confusion. They exemplify the most extreme, the most costly, and the most attention-getting manifestation of anger: actual violence. Fortunately, this is also the least common of anger's many forms. Most angry feelings never result in violence. However, they can still be very costly if poorly managed.

The costs of nonviolent anger in the workplace stem from cold, festering anger as well as angry outbursts; from anger that is expressed indirectly as well as directly; and even from anger that is never expressed at all. The harm caused by disruptive interactions, hurt feelings, and mental preoccupation with conflict and revenge may be obvious. But not so the more subtle costs of anger: personal damage ranging from diminished career prospects to diminished health; workgroup damage ranging from lost work time to lost innovation; and organizational damage ranging from increased absenteeism to increased turnover. While it is difficult to calculate the monetary value of direct and indirect costs to individuals and organizations, we can enumerate some of the leading costly impacts of poorly managed anger.

Impact on the Angry Person
It was once thought that venting anger was healthier than holding it in. Today most findings indicate that angry people suffer negative effects whether they vent their feelings or not. Anger in the individual causes strong emotional and physical responses resulting in impaired cognitive and physical functioning. Poorly managed anger, then, can damage your career, and if the anger is chronic, it can result in long-term health problems.

Here are the specifics:

Immediate Emotional Components of Anger

Increased impulsiveness

Increased feeling of dominance

Increased animation

Diminished caution

Diminished ability to reason

Immediate Physical Components of Anger

Adrenal glands release.

Epinephrine surges.

Heart beats faster.

Blood pressure rises.

Muscles in chest, back, and arms may tense up.

Body may sweat; flush or pale; feel clammy.

The Results of Anger: Potential Career Problems

Individuals carry secret or open grudges against you.

You get a reputation for losing your temper.

You get a reputation for abusing others.

You become a target of lawsuits and non-juridical hearings.

You become the target of illegal forms of revenge.

You get a reputation for making judgment errors in the heat of the moment.

Those with grudges against you try to thwart your explicit goals.

People are less likely to want to work with you or for you.

Risk-averse senior management tries to avoid having you on their projects.

Clients, customers, and vendors try to avoid contact with you.

The Results of Anger: Long-Term Health Problems

• Weakened immune system
  
  
• Gastritis and other gastrointestinal tract illnesses
  
  
• Strokes
  
  
• Heart attacks
  
  
• Kidney disease
  
  
• Elevated blood pressure
  
  
• Headaches
  
  
• Respiratory disorders
  
  
• Skin disorders
  
  
• Arthritis
  
  
• Disabilities of the nervous system
  
  
• Circulatory disorders

In addition, anger can cause severe emotional problems and even result in suicide.