from MSNBC: Desk rage isn’t something companies like to publicize, so there are few statistics on it. But a 2001 survey of 1,305 workers, commissioned by Integra Realty Resources in New York City, found that 42 percent of respondents said there was yelling and other verbal abuse in their office, 23 percent said they have been driven to tears because of workplace stress and 10 percent said employees have actually resorted to physical violence. [Link]

This really isn’t that surprising. Corporate culture today has gone downhill, not just recently, but I think it started when the dot com bubbles started to burst in a very messy way, splattering networks and computers all over the place (and possibly some 401k’s got in the way too).

With jobs moving overseas in many markets, layoffs abounding, stock portfolios evaporating, it’s a wonder there aren’t more violence outbreaks at work. Maybe “going postal” should change to “going corporate”.

Back in the day, problems were solved by locking yourselves into a conference room and screaming at each other until the world was right again. But then came along constructive confrontation. You had to solve problems in the politically correct way! And suddenly, problems took weeks to solve. Did we really improve things by preventing people from getting their passion and anger out now and again and splattering it across an infocus machine or a plantronics phone system?

Just be aware that the next time you walk into someone’s office and they are banging their head on the desk in frustration…it might be best to tell them about the server being down, another time.

This sarcastic entry was posted on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Life, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.