by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: August 04, 2010

Anger, properly channeled, can be an excellent attribute in an employee. It suggests passion, engagement, a desire for higher standards. Unchecked, however, anger can wreck your career, and below are a few ways how not controlling your temper can affect or damage your career prospects.

When you lose control of your temper, whether that takes the form of a shouting match or a display of physical aggression, you are allowing your sober professional judgement to be clouded by an emotional reaction. You are allowing your personal feelings and frustrations to get in the way of business decisions. You might yell at an unpaid intern for making some sort of administrative error, running the risk of losing a valuable staffing resource, or you might cancel a lucrative contract because of a personal disagreement with your contact at the other company.

Not controlling your temper in this way affects your career because however righteous you feel in your anger at the time of a temper tantrum, the chances are you will have lost that angry bravado when it comes to rationalising your actions to your boss - justifying the loss of revenue, or explaining where you can find another person willing and able to handle the admin with no staffing budget available to pay them.

Not controlling your temper affects your career because people who are prone to temper tantrums can not be relied upon under pressure. You will not get a promotion to a role of great responsibility if the boss thinks there's a good chance you will go beserk the first time something goes wrong and blow a crucial contract. You will not get given the delicate high-level negotiation tasks through which you can make your reputation because you will just not be trusted enough.

Assuming you have already made it to a position of some responsibility, not controlling your temper will also preclude your future career progression because no one can respect a boss who loses their temper easily. A person red-faced with anger, shouting their heads off with veins standing out on their forehead is quite simply HILARIOUS. Any teacher will tell you that losing your temper is the last thing you should do when faced with a classroom full of disobedient students, and just because most office workers will not actually draw a cock on the whiteboard, it does not mean that they are not laughing and sneering at your apoplectic frenzy.

In summary, not controlling your temper at work will mean that your bosses will not trust you, and your subordinates will not respect you. Everyone knows the workplace brings pressure, but you are paid to accept and deal with those pressures, and losing your temper is a clear sign that you can not cope with the basic demands of your job. You will be overlooked for promotion, your competence will be questioned, and sooner or later you will undergo disciplinary procedures, possibly resulting in your dismissal, for upsetting or offending someone with your displays of bad temper.

So, next time you're angry at work, take a deep breath and count to ten before saying anything.

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