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Colleagues - Chief Cause for UK Managers to Lose their Rag!

11th January 2008

A new survey into what makes UK managers see red has revealed that it is people, ahead of bureaucracy and technology that turns us from peace loving content workers into seething individuals.

Three hundred managers from across the country were asked what makes them mad in the office and what they do about it in a survey commissioned by top UK training company PTP Training & Marketing Ltd.

When asked who is the cause of such annoyance, ‘colleagues’ in general came out top followed by ‘the boss’ and ‘the admin team’. Suppliers came in in fourth place. At the bottom of the pile representing the least annoying person in the office is the manager’s own secretary. And rather surprisingly ‘clients’ and ‘members of the public’ were also well down the list of people who have the power to irritate us!

It appears that ‘unhelpful or uncooperative behaviour’ is the main reason for our tetchy behaviour – mentioned by just under 40% of the sample. This was followed by ‘incompetence in others’, ‘unrealistic demands’ and ‘time wasting’. Other issues include ‘not enough support’ and ‘feeling of not being appreciated’.

The question of how often people become angry in the office threw up some interesting results. A third of participants say they get angry weekly or a few times every week while just under a third say they rarely get angry. However only 3% admit to never being angry in the office. Rather worryingly 14% claim to feel annoyed on either an hourly or daily basis!

With true British conservativeness, 43% say that they show no outward traits of being angry. Even when they do assert their annoyance, over a quarter limit it to muttering and tutting under their breath with only 19% prepared to make a fuss and confront the person who is the cause of the problem. Under one in ten say they resort to swearing, throwing things around the office or threatening to resign.

And despite the fact that the average UK manager does feel angry on a regular basis in the office only 8% feel they would benefit from an anger management course! An overriding 78% said they didn’t need one and 14% were unsure whether they would benefit from attending such a course.

The UK managers taking part in the survey were also asked who in the public eye did they think would be the most annoying person to work with. Politicians came out particularly badly with Gordon Brown taking poll position well ahead of the rest. Tony Blair came third, David Cameron, in joint fifth place and George W Bush was in tenth place. Sandwiched between Gordon and Tony is Jade Goody in second place with Gordon Ramsay in fourth place. Victoria Beckham comes in in joint fifth place, David Brent in seventh with Alan Sugar and Jeremy Clarkson taking up eight and ninth positions.

Marc Holland, managing director of PTP Training & Marketing who commissioned the survey says he thinks people should communicate their anger in a more positive way and comments:

“If managers were more inclined to directly express their anger and frustration in a controlled way rather than bottling it up this would lead to less stress and anxiety for today’s managers and less general bad feeling in the office. Clearing the air is a better strategy than muttering under your breath although it needs to be done in a constructive way. You need to communicate exactly why something is annoying you and work towards resolving it. It’s good to see that there is little place for shouting, swearing and throwing things which while might make the person suffering feel better in the short term does little for good will in the office in the long term. ”

Top Ten of Most Annoying People in the Public Eye judged the worst to work with by UK managers:

1. Gordon Brown
2. Jade Goody
3. Tony Blair
4. Gordon Ramsay
5. Victoria Beckham
5. David Cameron
7. David Brent
8. Alan Sugar
9. Jeremy Clarkson
10. George W Bush