Throughout our history workers have vocalized or otherwise expressed their anger at being stuck in boring, unchallenging, or underpaid jobs. Now these stressed workers have a larger problem: keeping any job. As women began to gain ground in society and in the workplace, more men attacked women because that secondary anchor for women was a challenge to male authority and potency.
Diversification and stratification of the workforce are two environmental changes that affect employee relationships both inside and outside the organization. Some males simply are not accustomed to relating to women as coworkers, supervisors, or subordinates in the workplace. Some are quick to resent women who show great confidence and don’t appear as submissive as the male prefers.
Some workers are emotionally affected when they find themselves working in close proximity to any workers from other cultures, races, sex, sexual preference, or age. They may be uncomfortable with their relationship with coworkers, their coworkers’ personalities, work patterns, communication styles, etc. In such cases the worker may elect to act out his displeasure either by attacking the employee directly or indirectly. Such workers are more likely to feel threatened when they already harbor negative attitudes toward coworkers who differ from them.
In addition, employees who are “stuck” in low-level jobs may resent workers whom they see as moving up in the company or moving on to better jobs. Le seemed to be a young woman on her way up; Clark seemed to be in what appears to be a dead-end job with no status. Many of us have difficulty believing that we could be the cause of jealousy, especially to such a degree that the jealous person would harm us.
People experience stress when they face anxiety or frustration from aspects of their work that they cannot control. They may not be able to fully utilize their skills and knowledge or receive the respect or recognition they expect for their accomplishments. Employees may become frustrated from overly repetitive work or from unclear or conflicting job responsibilities that lead to confusion and frustration. Some work processes separate people and create feelings of isolation, which may in turn cause stress for some workers.
The point of all of this information is to help us identify coworkers whose stress and anger are building toward a violent eruption, like a volcano.