Stress leads to office rage

Stress at work is so bad that staff are being driven to violence, a new study showed yesterday.

Cheating, stealing and 'incredibly loud' colleagues are common triggers of the problem, which causes punch-ups and aggressive verbal spats.

Other factors that can make workers feel tempted to strangle a workmate include incompetence, arrogance and rudeness.

Another trigger is bad communications skills, exemplified by office irritant Gareth in hit BBC comedy The Office.

Occupational psychologist Jill Booth, who interviewed workers in the NHS, education and shops, was astonished by the scale of ill temper among staff.

'People told me they were angry morning, noon and night. I was shocked as I did not expect anger of this extent or duration among people,' she said.

Two-thirds of those interviewed said they were 'very angry' with their workplace. Some even broke down in tears as they told her about the problems.

Some complained their blood pressure rocketed because managers exploited their position by not doing their jobs properly and regularly turned up late. For NHS workers, bureaucracy drove staff to boiling point, she found. 'A lot of people felt they could not get on with their own work because of paperwork,' added Mrs Booth. 'They felt they weren't given enough leeway to do their job and could not deal with patients because of admin.'

But it was 'immoral behaviour' - lying, stealing or cheating - that most often led to office rage, said the researcher, from the Central Lancashire University.

Annoyed workers would often 'mete out some form of unofficial punishment' to the culprit, by lying about them or giving them undesirable jobs, she added.

Long-term consequences included people feeling chronically angry, quitting or allowing it to affect their home life.