Val Lask winces when she recalls a
former boss who she said used to
make her cry.
At times the boss would be funny and good-natured, Lask said. But then he would get frustrated and take it out on his employees.
"He would just erupt. ... You just never knew if he was going to be in a good mood or a bad mood," said Lask, 33, of the Ukranian Village, who currently works in advertising.
Nicole Mrzena of McKinley Park faced a similar situation at one of her former jobs. The 18-year-old said a manager would throw temper tantrums and turn "fire red." Once, she said, the manager threw a box at the wall, causing decorations to fall.
From malicious insults to cubicle destruction, aggression can rear its ugly head in the workplace. Nearly half of American workers have witnessed verbal and physical abuse in the office, according to a recent survey by the Employment Law Alliance.
And the worst part? CEOs may partly be to blame. "Employers love desk rage," said Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute in Washington. "Most of these bullies have cultivated an executive sponsor ... they get to do this with impunity.
"The message is, 'Be aggressive. It will get you ahead.' "
Namie claims top leaders allow managers to use anger as a tool to scare employees into increasing their productivity.
But in reality, he said, hostile work environments lead to turnover, absenteeism and, in extreme cases, lawsuits.
Tales like those from Lask and Mrzena show that desk rage can be a hot-under-the-collar issue.
When approached by RedEye, a number of Chicago-area workers declined to share their experiences for fear of employer retaliation.
One worker said his former boss would throw misdirected mail. Another said yelling was the norm.
Aaron Supita, a banker who lives in Wicker Park, said he would quit a job where the hostility got too uncomfortable.
Otherwise, he would go through the chain-of-command to get the issue resolved.
"I would talk to the boss, see if something could be done about it," said Supita, 28. He gave no indication rage is a problem in his workplace.
Victims of workplace jerks should speak up against the yeller so they are not perceived as weak, Namie said, adding that they should tread cautiously if confronting the aggressor.
"In the workplace, if the [bullier] is a high-enough-ranking person and the executive likes them, [employees] are told to tolerate it," Namie said. "We are a bullying nation. We not only tolerate that kind of aggression, we reward it with promotion and protection."
But Leonard Ingram, a Chicago anger management therapist, said he doubts CEOs would promote anger in the workplace because of the potential for litigation. Ingram said anger is becoming increasingly common in the workplace, but if it's managed well, rage can serve useful functions, such as allowing employees to realize their limits—how far they can push, and how far they can be pushed.
"Anger is nature's way of empowering us to ward off our perception of some kind of threat to our fundamental sense of well-being and happiness," Ingram said. "The problem is not anger; the problem is the mismanagement of anger."
Mismanaged workplace anger can lead to verbal abuse and even violence. Forty-five percent of American workers say they have experienced workplace abuse, according to the March poll by the Employment Law Alliance.
In the survey, forms of abuse ranged from making a sarcastic joke or a teasing remark about a co-worker to a boss physically threatening an employee.
Fifty-five percent of the 534 workers surveyed said they have witnessed a cross boss raise his or her voice to an employee, while 17 percent said they saw an employer make inappropriate physical contact with a subordinate.
Illinois does not have a law that specifically deals with office intimidation, Namie said. Other state legislatures have attempted to pass such bills to no avail.
In Chicago, employees accused of rage issues are routinely referred by human resource managers to The Anger Clinic, which runs an eight-week anger-management program.
Clinical Director Geraldine Katovich said the clinic has treated cases that range from a person who broke a window to workers casually mentioning they want to kill their bosses. Katovich noted that several of these cases were blown out of proportion.
But Ann-Marie Saputo of River North said employees who make even lighthearted threatening statements should be referred for help.
"I think it's unprofessional to say something like that in the workplace," Saputo, 29, a technology project manager said. Stress and the pressure to succeed are common triggers for many outbursts, Katovich said.
Katovich advises employees feeling their anger rise separate themselves from the situation, plan a time to work out the issue in private and turn the anger into something positive.
"You can't make a good decision when you're in the heat of anger," she said.
At times the boss would be funny and good-natured, Lask said. But then he would get frustrated and take it out on his employees.
"He would just erupt. ... You just never knew if he was going to be in a good mood or a bad mood," said Lask, 33, of the Ukranian Village, who currently works in advertising.
Nicole Mrzena of McKinley Park faced a similar situation at one of her former jobs. The 18-year-old said a manager would throw temper tantrums and turn "fire red." Once, she said, the manager threw a box at the wall, causing decorations to fall.
From malicious insults to cubicle destruction, aggression can rear its ugly head in the workplace. Nearly half of American workers have witnessed verbal and physical abuse in the office, according to a recent survey by the Employment Law Alliance.
And the worst part? CEOs may partly be to blame. "Employers love desk rage," said Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute in Washington. "Most of these bullies have cultivated an executive sponsor ... they get to do this with impunity.
"The message is, 'Be aggressive. It will get you ahead.' "
Namie claims top leaders allow managers to use anger as a tool to scare employees into increasing their productivity.
But in reality, he said, hostile work environments lead to turnover, absenteeism and, in extreme cases, lawsuits.
Tales like those from Lask and Mrzena show that desk rage can be a hot-under-the-collar issue.
When approached by RedEye, a number of Chicago-area workers declined to share their experiences for fear of employer retaliation.
One worker said his former boss would throw misdirected mail. Another said yelling was the norm.
Aaron Supita, a banker who lives in Wicker Park, said he would quit a job where the hostility got too uncomfortable.
Otherwise, he would go through the chain-of-command to get the issue resolved.
"I would talk to the boss, see if something could be done about it," said Supita, 28. He gave no indication rage is a problem in his workplace.
Victims of workplace jerks should speak up against the yeller so they are not perceived as weak, Namie said, adding that they should tread cautiously if confronting the aggressor.
"In the workplace, if the [bullier] is a high-enough-ranking person and the executive likes them, [employees] are told to tolerate it," Namie said. "We are a bullying nation. We not only tolerate that kind of aggression, we reward it with promotion and protection."
But Leonard Ingram, a Chicago anger management therapist, said he doubts CEOs would promote anger in the workplace because of the potential for litigation. Ingram said anger is becoming increasingly common in the workplace, but if it's managed well, rage can serve useful functions, such as allowing employees to realize their limits—how far they can push, and how far they can be pushed.
"Anger is nature's way of empowering us to ward off our perception of some kind of threat to our fundamental sense of well-being and happiness," Ingram said. "The problem is not anger; the problem is the mismanagement of anger."
Mismanaged workplace anger can lead to verbal abuse and even violence. Forty-five percent of American workers say they have experienced workplace abuse, according to the March poll by the Employment Law Alliance.
In the survey, forms of abuse ranged from making a sarcastic joke or a teasing remark about a co-worker to a boss physically threatening an employee.
Fifty-five percent of the 534 workers surveyed said they have witnessed a cross boss raise his or her voice to an employee, while 17 percent said they saw an employer make inappropriate physical contact with a subordinate.
Illinois does not have a law that specifically deals with office intimidation, Namie said. Other state legislatures have attempted to pass such bills to no avail.
In Chicago, employees accused of rage issues are routinely referred by human resource managers to The Anger Clinic, which runs an eight-week anger-management program.
Clinical Director Geraldine Katovich said the clinic has treated cases that range from a person who broke a window to workers casually mentioning they want to kill their bosses. Katovich noted that several of these cases were blown out of proportion.
But Ann-Marie Saputo of River North said employees who make even lighthearted threatening statements should be referred for help.
"I think it's unprofessional to say something like that in the workplace," Saputo, 29, a technology project manager said. Stress and the pressure to succeed are common triggers for many outbursts, Katovich said.
Katovich advises employees feeling their anger rise separate themselves from the situation, plan a time to work out the issue in private and turn the anger into something positive.
"You can't make a good decision when you're in the heat of anger," she said.
