Work is occasionally fun; sometimes it's even downright enjoyable, but you have to admit that there are days when you just want to smash people in the face with your keyboard. Okay, violent tendencies aside, there are other less lawsuit-in-the-making ways of managing your emotions. Check out these five office anger management tips for when you really, really want to hurt someone at work.
1. Count one to 10.
Keep yourself calm by reciting your digits. It helps you focus on something else besides the object of your ire, and according to Dan Johnston, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioural science at Mercer University School of Medicine, and as reported on WebMD, prevents you from “adding fuel to the fire of anger by mulling over whatever happened."
2. Let it all go.
Is your work giving you high blood tension? Relax by channeling all of your negative energy into a glass of water. Visualize all your anger, frustration, and disappointment transferring from your body to the clear fluid. Afterward, drain the glass and watch all your negative emotions go away.
3. Start tearing strips of paper.
Think of yourself as an office paper shredder. Never mind that you'd have to clean up after yourself when you're done--it's still strangely yet effectively therapeutic. If that doesn't get rid of your bad vibes, then this video of a baby laughing at ripping paper will. Again, there is no explanation for this phenomenon.
4. Buy a new stress ball.
Hands off that expensive computer monitor! While thrashing your cubicle sounds like a great idea now, you’ll only regret it later on, especially when you figure out that you’ll have to pay for certain damages. Instead, why not vent out your anger on a relatively harmless stress ball?
5. Step out for some fresh air.
When all else fails, do a disappearing act. Leave your desk for a couple of minutes just so you can remove yourself from the hostile environment immediately. You don’t need to go very far. The ladies’ room, another department, or the coffee shop with the cute barista downstairs can serve as your temporary base of operations.
(Screencap from The Good Wife courtesy of CBS)
