I felt angry, and I started to provoke him. And I ended up getting fired. Like Birkel, millions of workers are mad as fire but don't know what to do about it. Without realizing it, I started pounding my fist into the wall. Such displays of job rage are becoming more frequent.
Annoyance is most likely to turn destructive when workers feel overwhelmed and powerless.
Today, a beleaguered staff of 4600 is struggling to keep up the same productivity. That's no longer the case. But workers don't speak up, because they're afraid they'll lose their jobs. Over time, silent resentments tend to simmer until they boil over. An office assistant at a construction firm in the Northwest shredded the phone messages of another assistant who had been singled out for praise.