Managing Your Workplace Anger and Conflict
Since you’re reading this, you have probably identified that you have trouble managing your anger in some work situations. Maybe you are:
- finding it difficult to handle your stress and frustration at work
- worried about the consequences of the things you say or the emails you send in your job when you’re stressed and angry
- struggling to manage conflict in the workplace
- worried about the impact on your health of bottling up the anger and frustration you feel at work, or the fact you’re taking it home with you
- regretting things you’ve said in temper to a valued client or employee.
Managing your anger at work
You don’t need me to tell you that we spend so much of our life at work that it’s important to be happy there – not to be worried about the atmosphere being strained as a result of our behaviour, about a complaint being made, or about missing out on a promotion.
This powerful and practical anger management course can help you with your workplace anger. And, in my experience, when clients invest in anger management for one area of their life, they reap benefits elsewhere as well due to their improved ability to control emotions and be assertive.
Dealing with your anger & aggression at work
If you live in the UK, you can take the anger management programme via one to one classes or in an anger management group.
Why is anger in the office an issue?
Whether we’re the business owner or a member of staff, indeed even if we’re self-employed, work generally requires us to interact with colleagues and clients. We can’t always choose who we need to have dealings with, and we often have less control than we would like over what they do, what they say and how they work. Whilst the workplace can offer an experience of enjoyable teamwork, it can therefore also be a source of frustration and conflict. And the customer isn’t always right.
Workplaces are often busy, time sensitive and goal-oriented places, where the pressure is always on to make a deadline, achieve an outcome and meet our targets. When we know the task is achievable, such stress can be positive. However, when a required outcome is outside our control, or we know we don’t have enough time, or we’re anxious about whether we can achieve what is expected of us, we’re likely to feel stressed. Stress of this type shortens our fuse.
At work, there are procedures to be followed and regulations to be adhered to. Even if we’re the boss, we can lack autonomy, as there is much that is required by law and so outside our control. It can be very frustrating to have to do things which we see as bureaucratic and a waste of our time; to be constrained by policies that are costly without obvious benefit, especially when resources are tight; to have to adopt set procedures when we think we can see a better way of doing things.
No wonder tempers can become short in the workplace and anger sometimes spill over. But, to quote Jack Nicholson in the film “Anger Management”, temper is the one thing you can’t get rid of by losing it.
Keeping your cool in the office
I know from personal experience about workplace stress, frustration and conflict. I had a first career as a solicitor, including as a partner in a Central London law firm. My decision to train as an anger management facilitator came after I needed anger management, and found how effective it was. It was my aggression to my husband that led me to sign up for the programme, but I came to realise that, though I thought I was dealing with the many things about my job that I was furious about, my anger at work was at times coming out in the office, just in a more subtle way – through being passive aggressive. And I was often taking the anger I was holding in at work, and my work stress, out on my partner.
Through completing anger management, I discovered how much of my stress was self-inflicted – the impossibly high expectations I had of myself; taking things personally; finding it difficult to say “no”; poor choices; and being my harshest critic. I learned to make changes to my thinking which reduced the stress factors which were under my control. I understood what it looked like to be assertive, rather than passive or aggressive, in addressing aspects of my work which were fuelling my anger and frustration. In the years since, I have valued and enjoyed both work and workplaces I have been in.
I now support others to change their lives for the better through specialist psychotherapy and anger management classes. Whether you’re a boss worried about the impact of your temper on your business, or an employee worried about your behaviour costing you career advancement, the respect of your colleagues, or even your job, I’ll be happy to work with you to help you to find ways to calm down, to be assertive and set boundaries and to achieve a more positive working life.
During the anger management at work programme you will:
- Learn how to manage stress in your job, including recognising and reducing self-inflicted stress.
- Learn when and how to be assertive and set your boundaries.
- Understand when you’re being passive-aggressive, and how that can be counter-productive.
- Learn how to walk away from situations and/or change the course of a conversation, allowing you to calm down when angry.
- Identify the dynamics in professional or work relationships that trigger your anger.
- Discover how to channel energy from your anger, through exercise and emotional release techniques, whilst not brushing the issues under the carpet.
- Learn relaxation techniques, to reduce stress and anxiety and give you access to a calmer way of thinking.
Take the first step towards managing your anger and aggression in work:
If you live in the UK you can have sessions with me to deal with your anger at work through private classes, or by signing up for one of my online anger management groups.
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