Have you displaced anything?

When we are angry, we should react in an acceptable manner. What is all the more important is we should react to the person concerned, not to someone else? Does it not sound very easy?

Let us check this out…one of my experiences in the manufacturing industry.

It was almost fag end of the day and I was walking into my IR (Industrial Relations) Manager’s cabin.  There were Trade Union leaders having a heated argument with the IR Manager and production Manager. It was a chaos and fully charged.  The issue was something related to suspension of a workman and the trade union was trying its best, may be threatening, to get the workman reinstated.  I was a silent spectator. The union tried its best but the IR manager was not ready to budge.  They left the cabin telling that “you will face the consequences” for this.  It did sound like a real threatening.

I happened to see both the IR Manager and the production Manager in the company’s executive recreation club the same day evening.  Can you guess how they could have been and what they could have been doing?

Very Moody and irritated?

Yes and No.

The IR Manager was reading a book. He was calm and poised. It was as if he was on his vacation and nothing has happened before.  It was very unusual.

The production Manager was not in his usual mood. It was quite visible on his face.  When the coffee that he asked for arrived late, he reacted badly to the office assistant. It confirmed what was visible on his face ie., he was still disturbed and angry about what happened in the office.  He displaced his anger to the office assistant, the weakest target.

BTW, this example does not imply that IR managers are balanced and others are not. It’s just an example.

Points to ponder

# We often displace our anger and react to someone else, most often someone who is below our level in the hierarchy, vent out our anger and displeasure.  That’s is called as anger displacement.  It’s the easiest thing that we could do and it’s not healthy.

# Anger displacement can be contagious too. When the sr. Boss reacts to the Jr. Boss, the Jr. boss reacts to his supervisors and his supervisors will react to the team members and they will probably react to the someone else at the bottom of the hierarchy.

# A leader has to have emotional maturity and act as an absorber and absorb the workplace issues instead of displacing. If you don’t act as an absorber, you allow it to become contagious as given above.

# Sometimes, we displace our anger (due to what happened in office) to someone at home and do the same thing in office, ie., displace our anger (due to what happened at home) to our team members or someone in office.  Both are not good.

# If you are disturbed and you don’t want to displace your anger, you should consider this.. Stop doing anything that you are doing and give it a long pause till you regain your posture and self-control.

So when was the last time you’ve displaced your anger? Do share your experience. 

diD yOU enJOY ReADinG ThIS ArTIcLE? 

                                  If yES, 

yOU maY sHAre it wiTH Your FriENds tOO