Anger In The News

Coping with workplace bullying

What is it?  According to one expert: "bullying involves hostile behaviors, including belittling a person or a person’s work, discounting or ignoring the person’s input or viewpoint, overfocusing on negatives, deliberately doing things that annoy the person, making unrealistic work demands, sabotaging the person’s work and blaming the person for someone else’s actions or mistakes. "

What to do about it? "The first thing a bullied person should do is assemble a support system. It can consist not only of family and friends but also professionals such as a pastor, mental health counselor, doctor, lawyer or union representative, if applicable."

Full story with many more suggestions on how to handle workplace bullying in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Learn to assert yourself with anger management classes in Southern California (Orange or Long Beach click here; Laguna Beach click here)

Words words words

"They're only words. Some believe the school-yard taunt: "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me." They're wrong. Words can hurt you in the workplace.

I'm not referring to the caustic ones spoken (or received) tainted with sarcasm, irritation, anger or frustration, carrying an emotional punch. I'm talking about simple, everyday, normal word choices. These words, like black ice, are not an obvious danger at first glance. But, they can impact your results. So, user-beware.

Words create impressions, images and expectations. They build psychological connections. They influence how we think. Since thoughts determine actions, there's a powerful connection between the words we use and the results we get."

Full story in the Augusta Free Press

Angry Flight Attendants Strip

When five United Airlines flight attendants lost their pensions in May, they decided to show their anger—and a bit more—by posing for a 2006 calendar titled “Stewardesses Stripped (Of Their Pension).” The women, ages 55 to 64, appear in far less than their uniforms to get across their message that “no retirement fund is completely secure and there is a definite crisis in the pension guaranty system.”

“People are just so angry,” says Connie Baker (Ms. June and Ms. August), who organized the calendar project. Baker, 59, of Fountain Hills, Ariz., is one of 121,500 United workers and retirees whose pensions were slashed during the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, the biggest pension termination in history.

Full story at the AARP bulletin online

Brits Are Angry

A significant increase in assaults on public service staff indicates that Brits are turning into a more "aggressive" nation, according to a report by City & Guilds.

Complaints of attacks on workers have shown a worrying increase over the past two years, with more than a third of staff falling victim to verbal abuse by the general public.

Nurses, paramedics, security staff and ticket inspectors take the brunt of the verbal and physical abuse by people venting their frustrations, the survey found. Full story in Dehavilland Information Service

Man admits to harassing ex-supervisor with spam

An Essex man was placed on probation this week for harassing his former supervisor by signing her up for e-mail subscriptions, flooding her inbox with unwanted messages from dating services and job lines, the state attorney general's office said yesterday. Full story in BaltimoreSun.com

Talk about a poor way to handle anger! In psychology we call this destructive communciation method "passive-aggression."

How much better his angry feelings could have been communciated. For discussion of better communcaition techniques, click here to be taken to archived section of our newsletter series "Taming The Anger Bee." Once there, click on "Anger Tool 5- Assertive Communcation"

Say No to Anger

"Anger hinders devotion and robs life of tranquility. In other words, it is the road to hell. Bitterness and resentment over a situation or a person primarily triggers anger. It is also the impact of uncontrolled desires, which is a severe blow to the body and mind and that may, at times, become irreversible and incurable."

Full story at the Hindustan Times.

Assertive Communication Related to Job Success

Not dealing appropriately with workplace conflicts and issues can lead to decreased productivity as well as producing an angry and stressful  workplace environment.

In fact, according to author Joseph Grenny who wrote "Crucial Confrontations",  "Organisational problems, political problems, trust problems … at the root of almost all chronic problems are issues people are not confronting or are not confronting well enough.”

Full story from New Zealand

Assertive communication is the key to effective "confrontation" - it is a way to communciate and get your point or your feelings across without offending the other person. Sometimes assertive communication is needed to resolve substantive work issues and other times it is needed to resolve personality conflicts or issues.

In our anger management classes, we teach the difference between assertive and aggressive communcation and how to more effectively communicate with  co-workers, employees or bosses.

Have a Bullying boss?

One study, released by Wayne State University, reveals that one in six workers are bullied by bosses in any given year.

National examples of "bullying" are not hard to find. Subordinates say that Martha Stewart was not easy to work for. And Donald Trump isn't exactly "mister nice guy" in his management style.

Now John R. Bolton's nomination by George Bush as US Ambassador to the United Nations is coming under scrutiny.

Supporters say Bolton, 56, the under secretary of arms control and international security at the State Department, is strong and forceful, the kind of boss who gets things done. Yet questions about his treatment of subordinates caused Congress to temporarily put aside his nomination after allegations surfaced that Bolton was overly aggressive in his dealings with the people he supervised.

Senate Democrats said they wouldn't vote for or against Bolton until they had more details about his management style. They also wanted more time to review reports that Bolton berated intelligence specialists. Republicans, who lacked the votes to push the nomination through, defended Bolton as a solid choice for US ambassador.

Full story online at the Boston Globe

Do you have a bullying boss? How do you cope? Others would appreciate your comments.

The "L" factor in Workplace Success

"The lesson is: like it or not, life is a popularity contest" and what makes people popular is being likeable, says leadership coach Tim Sanders, author of the new book, The Likeability Factor, How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life's Dreams. More at the globe andmail.com

Empathy and social awareness are key tools in developing more workplace "likeability." To learn these skills, download Anger Management In the Twenty-First century Century ebook

Anger Management Training Helps Workplace

Training can help all employees—not just the worksite hothead—deal productively with emotions.

Full article in Hr Magazine online

Click  for Workplace Anger and Stress Management Programs offered in Southern California:

Dr Fiore & Associates
AJNovickgroup