Anger Increases With Alcohol Abuse

by Tanya
(New York USA)

I worked for many years at a large American city’s public transportation garage. At the garage, many of the workers had alcohol problems which seems to have contributed to their angry and sometimes violent behavior.

Once I made an error on a man’s paycheck and he came into the office while I was working overtime. No one else was around. He was furious and I could see he had been drinking but he never raised his voice. However, he did tell me, “I should kill you.”

I reported it to my supervisor and all he told me was, “Be careful. He’s crazy.”

Every time I saw him for months after that he glared at me and balled his hands into fists. I assumed it was to intimidate me but I just ignored him and never spoke. After several months, he stopped doing this and began acting relatively normally.

One of my supervisors was a madman once he began drinking which he did regularly. He became angry at me once because he did not like what I had said about him to another supervisor. My comment was merely that he yelled a lot which was true.
I was pregnant at the time and he decided to retaliate. He removed my office chair and replaced it with a chair which was broken but I had no way of knowing that when I sat down in it. I promptly crashed to the floor landing on my spine. I was startled and upset but not injured.

He laughed when he found out that I had fallen. When he came into my office, he told me that I could never have my chair back and I could stand up forever or sit in that damaged chair.

I had someone else weld the leg back on the chair but it was shaky. It took me a couple of weeks to get a chair that was not damaged. I could not believe how he had such anger and it never abated. I worked there for several years after that and he was totally hostile to me all the time and never had any remorse for what he had done.

Alcohol abuse contributes to angry and violent behavior in the workplace in my opinion. People who can’t control their drinking should get counseling or be suspended from their positions until they have the problem under control.




Response from Dr. DeFoore

I couldn't agree more, Tanya. In my 35 years of counseling I have seen many cases where alcohol added to the anger problems. Removing the alcohol doesn't solve the problem entirely, but it certainly helps, and it is often the first step that needs to be taken. Thanks for your contribution!