‘Tech rage’ affects 1 in 4 workers
Filed under: Employee computer use, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
So called “tech rage” is a problem many people deal with at work, and a group of researchers is looking for the best way to fix it. Their answer:
It depends on whether you’re a man or a woman.
When researchers at Texas A&M found that one out of every four American workers admitted to being chronically angry in the workplace, they began a simulated office experiment to see what would help reduce anger and stress levels.
The 210 participants were told they were being tested on a variety of computer-based tasks.
These “tasks” were impossible to complete and designed simply to make the participants angry. The researchers were looking to see how anger levels changed when different abstract and nature paintings were hung in the simulated office environment. They hypothesized that the more decorations a cubicle had, the lower stress and anger levels an individual would have.
But the findings didn’t work exactly as planned. Abstract and nature paintings resulted in lower anger levels for men — but they had little to no impact on the levels for the female group.
Comments
2 Comments on ‘Tech rage’ affects 1 in 4 workers
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R. B. on
Wed, 12th Nov 2008 10:07 am
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N.M. on
Wed, 12th Nov 2008 4:14 pm
Did anybody ever figure out that the main thing that effects the frustration level at work doesn’t have anything to do with the pictures on the wall, but rather on the efficiency of processes?
When people are working at a mad pace to do more than is humanly possible in the course of a day and do it well, they usually are not stopping to look at their surroundings. When you walk in first thing in the morning pleasant surroundings can start the day off well, but it is the interactions with others and the tasks and the challenges they present that bring anxiety into the work day. Even the most positive person will become overwhelmed at some point of saturation.
