Quake Breaks to Tame Office Rage

Companies concerned by rising levels of office rage should introduce “Quake Breaks” so that angry employees can vent their fury in cyberspace by playing an action-packed computer game.

That’s the advice of researchers who have been studying the effectiveness of various ways of reducing workplace anger among young male employees.

“We selected this group as being statistically the most likely to suffer from and exhibit rage,” says Dr David Lewis who supervised the research.

In a pilot study, twelve frequently angry young men were taught to lose their cool by a professional actor before being let loose on a variety of supposedly “rage reducing” activities.

These included thrashing a dummy dressed like a boss; going five rounds with an electronic punch bag; breaking special stunt bottles John Wayne style over one another’s heads and playing the latest blood and guts action game Quake III Arena on computer terminals.

“Some Japanese companies have effigies of the boss suspended in a cellar which frustrated workers can beat with bamboo poles, so we provided our volunteers with one of those,” explains Dr Lewis. “Advocates of boxing claim it is a great way for young males to work aggression out of their systems, so we gave them a high-tech opponent to spar with.”

Stunt-man style bottle fights were chosen because many argue watching violent movies is a good way of getting rid of rage.
As for the computer game: “We chose Quake III Arena because it can be played on both the internet and intranets. Which offers angry employees the chance to take on their boss in cyberspace without putting their jobs on the line.”

During the experiments the volunteers, average age twenty-four, who were selected for displaying moderate levels of workplace anger were coached in ways of expressing their anger on cue by television actor Paul Gregory:
“They proved adept pupils, “ says Paul, “and managed to work themselves into a right old rage.”

As the results show, playing Quake III Arena proved the most effective way of getting office rage under control, with the other methods actually increasing the volunteers’ fury.

“We first ensured each volunteer had reached the same rage rating of four on our self-assessment scale,” says David Lewis.
“This ranged from zero, showing a perfectly calm and relaxed state of mind, to seven indicting red hot rage. After breaking bottles over one another’s heads, anger soared to maximum. It was like pouring petrol onto flames. While thrashing the dummy resulted in the lowest increases in rage it still made our volunteers more, rather than less angry. Playing the computer game proved the only method that actually made our volunteers calmer, reducing their rage rating down to two, which reflects a pretty relaxed state of mind.”

Dr Lewis believe there are a number of reasons by getting rid of your rage in cyberspace proves so effective. “First it is cathartic, allowing young males to vent their frustrations by blowing away the on-screen baddies. Second it changes their ideas about the physical responses associated with anger. Instead of interpreting anger related changes such as a rapidly beating heart and increased muscle tension as anger they are able to see them as adrenalin pumping reactions to excitement. Finally, you need quick wits and nimble fingers to play the game, which offers a distraction from the original reasons for their rage. “

So the next time an employee looks set to climb up the wall in fury, a wise boss will suggest a trip to the terminal instead.