# Anger and the workplace in a huge election year

- **Episode:** [235](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/235.md) (2025-09-25)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** anger, workplace, election
- **Time:** 44:45–46:33 (start 2685s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/235?t=2685](https://truthliesandwork.com/235?t=2685)

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[44:45] Al Elliott: Do you still think that anger's gonna be a big problem in the workplace?
[44:48] Isabel Berwick: Yes, huge. And I think half the world's democracies are going to the polls this year. This is a huge year in terms of political polarization, polarization in society, a lot of economic pressures globally. People are not happy in the wider world. And in fact, I've just interviewed the author of a book called Languishing, which is a wonderful phrase. You know, a lot of people are languishing. They're not depressed, but they are not happy. They are not thriving or flourishing. Now, don't tell me that you're— those people are not going in, you know, they're going into workplaces and bringing all of that. And so when you're already in a bad place, The crappy stuff that happens in workplaces is going to set you off because the workplace is quite a boundaried place and it's sometimes okay to say, to be angry at a colleague. You know, you might not go too far, but you know, you can really lose your rag in a workplace. And I think the figures are just going up and up. And I don't really know what to say to managers apart from be aware of it in yourself and in others because I don't know where this is going to end. I think the external pressures on us, when we, when we walk through those revolving doors into our workplaces, we're bringing them with us. And that's going to have a massive knock-on effect. And the news cycle, the news is so depressing, the overwhelm that people feel from watching the news, they're bringing that to work and they may be directly affected by Ukraine, what's happening in Ukraine, what's happening in the Middle East. All of these things are just bubbling under, and sometimes they bubble over