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Desk rage spoils workplace for many Americans
Reuters ^ | Jul 10, 2008 | Ellen Wulfhorst

Posted on 07/10/2008 11:18:45 AM PDT by decimon

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Get out of the way, road rage. Here comes desk rage. ADVERTISEMENT

Anger in the workplace -- employees and employers who are grumpy, insulting, short-tempered or worse -- is shockingly common and likely growing as Americans cope with woes of rising costs, job uncertainty or overwhelming debt, experts say.

"It runs gamut from just rudeness up to pretty extreme abusive behaviors," said Paul Spector, professor of industrial and organizational psychology at the University of South Florida. "The severe cases of fatal violence get a lot of press but in some ways this is more insidious because it affects millions of people."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: goingpostal; workplace
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To: decimon

After spending years in cubicle farms, with various and sundry annoyances from bosses, supervisors and fellow employees, I don’t know how I managed to keep my sweet disposition. /sarcasm.

I could share my horror stories of my last supervisor, but nobody would believe me if I did! She was a raving nutjob.

I have been working at home since May, and I wish I had done so years ago. It’s definitely the way to go.


81 posted on 07/10/2008 8:23:46 PM PDT by Theresawithanh (I've got the fevah!)
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To: The Ghost of Rudy McRomney

Yes, I am sure.


82 posted on 07/10/2008 8:24:40 PM PDT by Gabz (Don't tell my dad I'm a lobbyist, he thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse)
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To: garandgal
Well, if your first name begins with H and you worked in the Chicago area, let me say I'm sorry. But I did get a real kick out of telling my clients that I won't take them to strip clubs because that was "your job as my competitor." I would take them to sporting events instead--they didn't seem to mind the arrangement.

We would laugh about it all the time. I always wondered how much you hated me. But I was top dog, and if people wanted to steal my business I sure as heck was going to make them work for it.

83 posted on 07/10/2008 9:22:22 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
Well, if your first name begins with H and you worked in the Chicago area

Not me...LOL! My customers didn't get to go to the strip clubs either; my male competitors took them there...it must have infuriated them that I still ended up getting most of the business.

I had a really fun bunch of customers, they definitely were the best part of that business.

BTW, did you ever quote Gov't contracts? That was always just a trip; it was my first exposure to massive Government waste.

In addition to selling large structural components, we also had slitting and other fabricating capabilities. So, we'd get these ridiculous bid requests...hundreds of pages of this or something similar:

1,000 pcs. of 2" square tube, cut into 5-9/16" lengths; packaged into boxes of 20, with all certifications attached in triplicate to each box....etc., etc., etc...

We often did not WANT to do these; so would bid some absolutely asinine amount to "make sure we didn't get the job." Sometimes, we didn't bid high enough...LOL. Some of these orders were going to Gov't machinists; it seemed they didn't want to do the simplest things.

84 posted on 07/10/2008 10:02:14 PM PDT by garandgal
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To: Gabz; The Ghost of Rudy McRomney; swarthyguy

Yes, it’s sarcasm.


85 posted on 07/11/2008 3:24:14 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: SF Republican
Desk Rage, they should get a job roofing in Texas in July and Aug. They will be much happier back at their desk in Sept.

In my younger days, I was a roofer in Louisiana. After a few years of that I decided to go to college.

Now that I am cubicle bound, I have days when the stress, etc starts to get to me. Then, I look out the window at the 95 degree, 80% humidity summer day and think, "Well, I could be toting shingles right now."

That always makes the stress go away.

86 posted on 07/11/2008 3:41:27 AM PDT by Skooz (Any nation that would elect Hillary Clinton as its president has forfeited its right to exist.)
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To: decimon
There's a reason it's called "work" and not "fun." There was probably Cave Rage too.

Throw a bunch of people together every day and there's bound to be some conflict.

The difference seems to be that people used to be able to compartmentalize their work life and their personal life to provide a mental escape from one or the other when necessary.

Now everything seems to have collapsed into a mish mash of psychobabble and child-like expectations that bliss is an entitlement.

87 posted on 07/11/2008 3:42:32 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: ryan71
THIS
88 posted on 07/11/2008 3:46:33 AM PDT by Kozak (Anti Shahada: There is no god named Allah, and Muhammed is a false prophet)
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To: swarthyguy
You're a wicked, wicked man...

I like that.

89 posted on 07/11/2008 4:06:44 AM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: Madame Dufarge

OK, if you vouch for him, I believe he’s ok. :) I’m paranoid these days.


90 posted on 07/11/2008 4:07:18 AM PDT by The Ghost of Rudy McRomney (Using Hillary to nip Obama's heels was like beating a dead horse with an armed nuclear bomb.)
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To: Gabz

OK. My apologies then.


91 posted on 07/11/2008 4:08:56 AM PDT by The Ghost of Rudy McRomney (Using Hillary to nip Obama's heels was like beating a dead horse with an armed nuclear bomb.)
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To: Madame Dufarge; metesky; The Ghost of Rudy McRomney

>>compartmentalize their work life and their personal life

Increasingly, social life has become an adjunct of the worklife. I found this particularly so in the hitech dotcom companies. The wall seperating the two wasn’t.

Also, people used to have tolerance for each other; paradoxically, in the age of coerced tolerance( yes, Herbert Marcuse!), some long established norms have been deepsixed with no one seeming to acknowledge the old norms worked very well, and somehow we all survived our neuroses and hangups gracefully without exhibiting the modern Taliban behavior so widespread today.

I simply cannot imagine that today our boss taking our whole crew out for burgers and pitchers every second Friday at a local dive would be kosher.

Anyone remember Mama Newman’s(IIRC) in Billerica? And there was another great joint by the river near ConcordRd and Rt3.

It was fun when the boss got a bigger buzz than us!

Isn’t the state of modern conservatism somewhat messed up, Ghost, when you need a program to figure out who’s who, LOL!


92 posted on 07/11/2008 10:39:49 AM PDT by swarthyguy (Osama Freedom Day: 2500 or so since September 11 2001! That's SIX +years, Dubya.)
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To: Gabz

Pingeroo! to above


93 posted on 07/11/2008 10:47:23 AM PDT by swarthyguy (Osama Freedom Day: 2500 or so since September 11 2001! That's SIX +years, Dubya.)
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To: swarthyguy
Anyone remember Mama Newman’s(IIRC) in Billerica? And there was another great joint by the river near ConcordRd and Rt3.

Not familiar with Mama Newman's, but Lawrence (back in the day) was dotted with great little gin mill/restaurants, probably similar.

Also, people used to have tolerance for each other

Years ago my mother worked in the plant at Western Electric in North Andover. She had a co-worker with a hooked hand who would run from Haverhill to work every day (before jogging became a sacrament). He was fixated on punching in every day at exactly the same time, so he'd hit the door running and charge for the time clock, hook extended, forcing everyone in line to jump aside. On payday, he'd attach his paycheck to his carrier pigeon to deliver to his house.

My point being that no one complained and his eccentric behavior was just accepted. Imagine that happening today without cadres of counselors descending on him and his "victims?"

94 posted on 07/11/2008 11:21:40 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: swarthyguy
Back around 1964 I worked for an outfit out of Lowell called Corey Construction whose real business was destruction.

Noontimes on Wednesdays and Fridays old man Cory bought lunch and drinks at the local lunch shack.

People today would need to change their underwear just watching us come down 8 flights on the wrecking ball, can you imagine watching us going back up with a couple of barkers and three boilermakers under our belts.

16 oz. Nasty Narry and a shot of bar whiskey = $.45.

95 posted on 07/11/2008 11:27:43 AM PDT by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: Madame Dufarge; metesky

I still remember when our wonderful putz of a governor Dukakis decided to ban 2for1 Happy Hours and Ladies Night in MA!


96 posted on 07/11/2008 12:26:43 PM PDT by swarthyguy (Osama Freedom Day: 2500 or so since September 11 2001! That's SIX +years, Dubya.)
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To: Gabz; swarthyguy

I guarantee it was pure unadulterated sarcasm.


97 posted on 07/11/2008 3:44:39 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: swarthyguy
What a supreme example of the liberal mindset, huh?

"Hey, I'm a narcissist! Because my wife's an alcoholic, the rest of you have to be on double-secret probation. It was those damnable 2 for 1 Happy Hours and Ladies Nights that caused it! I swear, it had nothing to do with her being dysfunctional enough to marry me and the nightmare snowballing!"

98 posted on 07/11/2008 4:06:28 PM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: Madame Dufarge

LOL!

As we used to joke, Dukie comes home and asks his wife why she’s cleaning the kitchen floor with a toothbrush.

But you have hit one something that I felt way back then, then Dukakis’ jihad against any enjoyment and Quality of life issues was a very personal one.

Who would’ve guessed that he was a harbinger of the future.


99 posted on 07/14/2008 11:06:12 AM PDT by swarthyguy (Osama Freedom Day: 2500 or so since September 11 2001! That's SIX +years, Dubya.)
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To: decimon

When my husband has had a particularly odious day at work, he likes to repeat this quote from Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) in “The Bridge on the River Kwai”:

“Be happy in your work.”


100 posted on 07/14/2008 11:26:38 AM PDT by Polyxene (For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel - Martin Luther)
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