A large brown stain dried on the plaster and remained there for months, a testament to her rage, like a Rorschach blot with only one meaning. The office is an ideal petri dish for cultivating anger, and not just because it is stressful. Indeed, specialists say it is the more ''meaningful'' work that often provokes the most anger. The longer the hours we spend on the job, the more tied up with our personal expression and self-worth it becomes, and the more personally we take the everyday slights of the hierarchy or the burned coffee in the cafeteria. Modern technology in the office also creates new opportunities for anger.
Technology provides the illusion of a protective bubble, and certain boundaries fall away.
It's not unlike the agression we feel free to express behind the wheel. An office full of gadgets also affords more opportunity for mechanical breakdowns, and few things are as angry-making as a recalcitrant fax or copy machine over which we have no control. We'll get back to that in a minute. I think we all secretly thrill when one of our colleagues blows a gasket. People talk for weeks about these meltdowns, embellishing the facts and enshrining the event into company legend.