New made up phenomenon: desk rage

In the made up fear mongering crisis department, 2008, we have the following tabloid crap journalism about how we’re on the cusp of impending world disaster due to “desk rage.”

Other research showed one-sixth of workers reported anger at work has led to property damage, while a tenth reported physical violence and fear their workplace might not be safe.

“It’s a total disaster,” said Anna Maravelas, author of “How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress.” “Rudeness, impatience, people being angry — we used to do that kind of stuff at home but at work, we were professional. Now it’s almost becoming trendy to do it at work.

“It was something we did behind closed doors,” she said. “Now people are losing their sense of embarrassment over it.”

I really think these behaviorists are making up crap to sell books. Has our culture changed in the last few decades. Hell yes. Are we more violent? Not in my experience. “It’s almost become trendy” to be violent at work? Bullshit. That’s a pretty broad and useless statement.

I think if we really examined workplace violence we’d find that when incidents do occur that they are often the product of untreated mental illness. I would also speculate that much of the mental illness can be directly correlated with the way society treated the individual who finally snapped. Treating adults like children over a few decades can have long-term undesirable consequences.

I’m sure people become enraged at their desks. Writing an article that describes this problem as some sort of uncontrollable phenomenon is alarmist and unhelpful. Let’s expect desk jockeys to act civil and find constructive outlets for their feelings. Let’s demand that we all treat one another civilly at all times. Let’s not pretend that we’re all a bunch of lemmings cowering in the corner hoping someone doesn’t “spoil the workplace” for them. Folks, if you have a crappy workplace you have two choices: 1) improve it or 2) find a new workplace. Personally, if someone around me was have an episode of uncontrollable desk rage I would help them calm down, one way or another. Frankly, I doubt many of us are suffering from the effects of “desk rage.” Bad things can happen anywhere, including the workplace. It’s up to you as an individual to control your own temper. If you can’t someone else will help you out.