Understanding how we process anger – our own and others’ – is helpful in learning how to deal with it on the job. If women understand that men are wired by nature to be more aggressive – with more of their behavior driven by the more primitive part of their brains, the amygdala, and the secretion of epinephrine and cortisol – then male anger should become less disturbing for them. We would know not to take it so personally. If women more clearly understand why they experience a double-whammy speedball when they get angry – that the oxytocin in their bodies is in conflict with the norepinephrine that they also produce when under attack – then they might be less negatively judgmental about their own and other women’s anger. If both genders realize that, as Browde says, “the suppression of an emotional response to being demeaned and belittled in the workplace has physiologic effects and can result in symptoms such as insomnia, irritability, anxiety, panic, and even depression,” then all of us might try harder not to upset each other.
It’s Always Personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace. 2011. Random House.
No comments:
Post a Comment