Stress, depression, high staff turnover and lost productivity are all potential consequences of employers failing to tackle conflict at work, according to an expert in anger management.
In a survey of individuals who attended courses with the British Association of Anger Management (BAAM), 81 per cent said their employer did nothing to help them with their anger.
Julian Hall, clinic director at Beating Anger Derby, warns that anger in the workplace is already hurting businesses’ bottom line, but believes it will also soon become a health and safety issue.
Figures released by the HSE reveal that, out of 33 million days lost to illness, 13.4 million were attributable to stress, anxiety or depression. The number of people suffering work-related stress has also doubled in the last 10 years.
Said Hall: “Because there are certain expectations of how you behave at work, and angry is not one of them, this leads to passive-aggressive workplaces. This is where everyone pretends to get along but, behind the scenes, there is back-stabbing, undermining behaviours, and lost productivity.”
Hall believes companies that get to grips with workplace conflict will see an immediate rise in profits. He said: “This is not touchy-feely, tree-hugging attitudes towards work; this is hard economics. Treat your teams with respect and they pay you back many times over.”
I am seeking some advice relating to stress associated incident.
i am presently employed to undertake H&S duties for a well known civils company. Recently, i had a confrontation with the site project manager who verbally assulted me & began to threaten violence.
It seems he took offence at my site inspection findings.
Unfortunatly, the project manager in question is highly regarded with Management which places me in a position of uncertanty and confidence on how to deal with the situation.
Anthony. Firstly, don’t feel that you’re on your own as at one point or another most of us will have had a similar experience and have come out the other side (take heart!).
In any circumstance like this the key is to ensure that this is reported/recorded using the company’s reporting procedure. When reporting it use non-confrontational language and only state the facts of the incident (can be difficult, especially as you have an emotional involvement in what happened but do your best)…
…The next thing to do is review a copy of your company’s harassment/bullying policy and understand who you can turn to in the event that you don’t get the level of support you’d expect. The site ‘manager’ may appear to be popular with upper management but chances are this isn’t the first time this has happened and as such by reporting the incident you are also protecting yourself both profesionally and personally. …
Lastly, if you are a member of a union or profesional body (e.g. IOSH) they’ll have help lines to assist you should you need further guidance.
Bullying like this does happen in many workplaces, but generally it only continues because people don’t want to rock the boat and report/record it. That’s not to say you’ll be popular with all parties in the company but if you seek to resolve the issue in a profesional and reasoned manner you will find people (senior managers incl) will respect you. GL
I have a lot of stress at work, which was not supposed to be stressful as we earn only minimal wage and management doesn’t care at all. They just pushing us into more stress again and again. This is done only to the agency workers in DHL.