Moods and emotions at work
You know it too well; feelings, emotions, moods and mood swings; anger, desk rage and road rage. If you have never experienced such boisterous responses to stress, you may at least know someone who has, and you know that it is not funny when it occurs. I once had the privilege of working for a very dynamic team in an organisation where we were always on the top of our targets, always ticking the boxes and objectives we have set and always having a good time working.
Enjoyable breakfast/lunch breaks, occasional trips, great friendships, jokes, laughter; what more can you ask from work when you are young. But this was only before someone replaced our boss who migrated to a foreign land. The problem was not in our now new boss being a task master, driven and output focused, it was his inconsistency of mood. We simply did not know what to expect when we came to work in the morning. He had designated targets and a few nick names that were innocuous at the beginning, but somehow the names lost their innocence when used way too frequently. Favouritism was at its best and the team which was ‘one’ before, lost its stability and voice, as one by one, people struggled to survive. Members were corrected and reprimanded out in the open and with bouts of angry outbursts. Often these individuals would keep their mouth shut and come back to their desks with eyes full of tears.Being too young, these individuals were victimised and tormented and this was due to issues that had no serious basis. A boss, one day happy, the next day moody, and then to a ‘drama queen’ and then to a normal human being with a desire to serve the company fully and back to some unexpected role playing; one by one, we requested for transfers and some of us left the company.
We communicate through different ways and means. One that is often ignored because of its pervasiveness is our constant use of moods and emotions to ‘talk about’ something much deeper about ourselves. Unfortunately, for most of us, this happens more unconsciously than knowingly. Moods serve a communicative purpose and sets the tone for the others around to understand ‘when, where and how’ to intervene/talk. The danger is in the lack of awareness of the transient nature of our moods and emotions that drive us to act as slaves to our own emotions. However, one simple recipe is to identify a corresponding pessimistic thought we had just prior to that ‘mood-changing’ moment. Since these thoughts have actually produced our bad mood, by learning to restructure them, we can change our mood.
Recently, at one of the focus group discussions on goal setting for a client, one of the managers asked whether happier people are more successful in life. But what is happiness? Given that it is very subjective can it be a predictor of future success in life? The group was further directed to dig deeper into what happiness was, what success was and whether they were dependent or mutually exclusive.
How is it, that happiness, satisfaction and positive outlook in life are related to success at work? As research verifies repeatedly, positive workers are more successful due to their capacity in quality decision making, evaluation, openness to change and innovation, cooperation and healthy relationships with others. Rather than saying ‘No, it can’t be done’ they say ‘let’s try and see’.
Apart from the model of emotional intelligence proposed by many theorists and practitioners alike, it is important to understand our susceptibility to ‘catch’ many emotions. This is called ‘emotional contagion’ where the emotions we display tend to be picked up by others and this occurs regularly in the workplace where emotions are easily spread from person to person.
A useful way of differentiating between emotions is by comparing those that come from internal sources, such as self-conscious emotions like shame, guilt, embarrassment or pride, with those that come from external sources, such as social emotions like pity, envy or scorn. In the above example, most of us were made to feel the former hence making us feel bad about ourselves.
One’s awareness can further be improved by being conscious to emotional dissonance that occurs when there are inconsistencies between the emotions we feel and emotions we express. If you are unsure about this, talk to a flight attendant who has to politely and cheerfully say ‘thank you and see you again’ after a long haul flight. This emotional labour, that’s the effort that one has to make in holding one’s true emotions, can be demanding in the face of daily hassles like having a rude boss or an angry partner around. Hopefully for these individuals, there are enough daily uplifts, pleasant or desirable events that put them in good moods to counteract the effects of events that induce bad moods.
If a positive emotional orientation predicts success and performance, how do we manage emotions in the organisations? The organisations can introduce many activities that can help people become more aware of themselves, encourage an open culture where people can talk about how they feel, give constructive feedback and support one another in issues of emotional challenges, stress, work/life demands or anger. Management can reward champions who head such initiatives and provide services in counselling, relaxation methods, healthy competitions in sports and cultural activities, fellowship evenings, knowledge sharing forums, gym memberships or dance classes. The management can also help individuals reframe their thinking through one-on-one coaching, thereby addressing irrational thoughts that can be debilitating to some individuals. Constant use of humour and laughter can also create positive work environments. At the outset, recruitment can screen for people with emotional difficulties, via valid methods of testing personality, emotional intelligence testing and structured behavioural interviews.
If there ever was something that must be done, this is it. Transformations the companies yearn for, are not dependent on quick fixes but on systematic and strategic initiatives to create a positive and open culture where people can ‘catch’ the vibe of a conducive and supportive work environment.
On a personal note for individuals with mood swings, even though, due to our disposition, prior experience and current circumstances, it is a challenge for some of us more than for others, ‘travelling light’ makes no better sense than leaving the dark clouds of heavy moods behind. Drive through the storm with a focus on the journey. The storms will cease not because we waited for the weather to change but because we travelled amidst the storm towards the sunny banks.
(Rozaine is a Business Psychologist, consultant, author and a university lecturer based in Colombo. She can be contacted via email on rozaine@forte.lk)