"Who Let the Dogs Out?"

                                                 I was recently enquiring one of my friends about his dog and he shared with me an interesting attitude of the dog - it always barked louder than usual whenever it wanted to get my friend’s attention. Even though it was genuine in its anger but sometimes, it would fake it to get what it wanted. Initially, even though he knew that the dog was faking it, he gave what it wanted to stop the barking. But at one point of time, he got really fed up with the dog’s attitude that he started ignoring it’s barking even when it was genuine. We witness this doggy attitude quite frequently within us and people around us, be it in office, family, friends and even on television shows.

A year back, a voluntary organization put stalls in our office premises to enroll volunteers for their organization. But when they failed to get enough volunteers, contrary to their objective, they started getting aggressive and forced employees into joining the organization. My relative had a similar experience when a sales guy came to their house for selling a water purifier and when she said “No” after listening to the guy’s lengthy presentation, he started threatening her and forced her into buying the product. I have seen from my own professional experience where employees use aggressive tactics in the workplace to get a promotion, hikes or better opportunities. So does anger and aggression really work in the workplace??? If you ask me, I would say the answer is “Yes” and partially “No”.

In the real world, people would generally use the quote - “Barking dogs seldom bite” to support the ineffectiveness of anger. This is not completely true because if it doesn't work, people would not have cared to use it for so long. Sometimes anger is required to get people’s attention and to achieve short term goals. The anger’s effectiveness is mainly reduced when people use it frequently and for a longer period of time. OK, so if aggression doesn't work, does it mean that not being aggressive at all would work? The answer is, unfortunately, a big “No”. Just like the continued aggressive behavior, this ever happy attitude is also a warning sign that the employee is either happy doing jobs which fall in his/ her comfort zone or merely faking his/ her happiness to hide the inner discomfort. So one shouldn't worry about the doggy attitude being out in the open but should concentrate on how to channelize this aggression or use it intelligently to get their needs fulfilled so that it doesn't show its ugly face to the outside world quite often.
There is one technique which I regularly use to manage my anger whenever I encounter bad managers/ colleagues. The best way to vent your anger when you have to work with such bad influences is to close your eyes and imagine them as clowns - dressed in joker’s clothes with the ugliest possible makeup (be as creative as possible) and try showering their faces with foam (the trick is to get yourself completely involved and wholly enjoy the process). There are plenty of resources on the internet on Anger Management @ work place which is absolutely free and easily available for everyone to check it out. As like individuals, the organizations also have a greater responsibility in managing the aggression in the workplace, i.e., right from establishing systems to identify aggressive behavior, finding the root causes & solutions to pacify the aggression and having programs to educate managers & employees on anger management. The movie – “Rush” which released a couple of years ago, exactly reiterates the importance of controlling one’s anger and the consequences of not doing so.

To put it in a nutshell, anger could be a powerful weapon when used wisely, otherwise, could destroy one’s career and popularity.