Anger Management:

Anger is a normal human emotion but sometimes the expression of anger may upset or impact on others around us.

In regards to anger at work please see below for some self-help advice that might help you think about how you may manage and cope with an anger trigger.

At the bottom of the page there are also some useful links to external anger management workshops and helpful websites that you might find helpful.

 

Thinking Points:

Try to identify the cause of your anger and what triggers an angry episode, are there specific trigger points for you?

What negative implications could your anger have if not managed effectively? Are you able to identify and reflect on these implications and can you look for constructive ways in which to manage your anger to help the situation?

Can you put plans or measures in place to stop these triggers from negatively affecting your mood? Do you need to talk/work with your line manager or other colleagues in order to do this?

 

Self-Help:

Once an identifiable (or multitude) of sources have been identified, start to proactively think about what could improve those types of situations for the future; and whether trigger points can be avoided completely by more future proof planning or by measures such as removing yourself away from the situation that is causing you stress, and getting some further perspective or time to calm down.

If you have identified yourself as someone that gets angry easily, can be pushed into angry moods with minimal triggers and especially in work scenarios, then think about speaking to your line manager and colleagues or Occupational Health or the Counselling Service at the University.

They may be able to help design some working solutions for what to do and how to manage work related anger and what can be done to prevent these situations from arising in the first place.

 

Self-help calm down techniques:

• If possible remove yourself from the situation, if this is not possible, take some deep breaths, count to 10 and assess your reaction and try to think clearly and rationally before you respond to the situation, remember getting angry may not be helpful in this scenario and could make the scenario worse than it needs to be, try to speak calmly, carefully and concisely but also listen to what others are saying to you;
• Have a clear rationale in your head before you speak so that your anger does not get the better of you and take over, it is easy to get dragged into the emotional feelings of anger if feeling personally targeted, think about the logical reasons of what you are being told, or of what is being said, then think before responding;
• Talk it out; rather than getting angry and shouting or raising voices, communicate with the peer, explain why you are feeling upset, explain your reasoning, you may have misunderstood the situation;
• If you think you need to compose yourself and come back to the conversation at another time then do so, the other person will appreciate that you might need time to think over, process and reflect on what has been said;
• If you need to get some points across but fear they may trigger your anger, write them down and perhaps ask the peer to review them and come back to you with their thoughts before the meeting so you have time to process and think calmly and rationally about your response.

Workshops:

The local charity CPSL MIND offer a range of six week, skills-based workshops which aim to help people cope with the ups and downs of life. These workshops are all free of charge and take place in our Cambridge and St Neots offices. For further information about the workshops please visit; http://www.cpslmind.org.uk/what-we-do/wellbeing-service/wellbeing-groups-workshops/.