This blog is a copy of a press release that came out from this office recently............

Anger Management expert Julian Hall is calling for employers to realise the true profit potential of dealing with conflict in the workplace.

Statistics taken from a survey of attendees of courses with the British Association of Anger Management (BAAM) hammer the message home. 66% said that their anger affected them in the work place. 81% said employers did nothing to help them with their anger. 69% said that the course they attended had a noticeable impact on their anger at work.

“These are behaviours that have an impact on the bottom line.” Says Julian “unresolved conflict can lead to stress, depression and ultimately employees leaving, not to mention lost productivity.” The survey did not just ask for yes/no responses it also asked for additional information. “With this we pieced together the story of The Boss.” One respondent said “I have lost my temper a lot with staff and some have left because they can’t work with me.” Another said “I used to be very short tempered, would get easily wound up by the smallest things. I shouted a lot at my co-workers, did not cooperate. I was a very bad boss to have.” But, it’s not just the bosses that cause conflict at work. Co-workers who are unable to express their needs and resort to aggressive behaviour leave a trail of destroyed relationships behind them.

“Because there are certain expectations of how you behave at work, and angry is not one of them, this leads to passive-aggressive workplaces “says Julian.” This is where everyone pretends to get along but behind the scenes there is back stabbing, undermining behaviours and lost productivity.” So why is it profitable to deal with conflict? Because the lost productivity caused by stress and depression and losing quality staff is huge. A company that gets to grip with this increases its profitability immediately. “This is not touchy-feely tree hugging attitudes towards work. This is hard economics. Treat your teams with respect and they pay you back many times over.”

Recent figures released by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) revealed that out of 33 million days lost to illness, 13.4 million were attributable to stress, anxiety or depression. The number suffering work related stress has doubled in the last 10 years. “It’s clearly an employee wellbeing and bottom line profit issue. But it won’t be long before it becomes a health and safety issue” warned Julian “I recently attended the Health and Wellbeing at Work Exhibition and the response we got to our unique conflict management courses was fantastic.”