“People are getting those dopamine boosts by saying negative things,” said Tessa West, a psychologist at New York University and the author of “Jerks at Work.” “The reward is stronger and more immediate than the cost.” ‘I’m on My Laptop, That’s the Place I Go to Fight With People’ Workers receive irate messages, and instead of talking it over they respond with a half-baked retort. Whole battles can be waged between Catwoman and squirrel avatars. People blow up at colleagues they’ve never met in person, and find it’s easier to demonize a disembodied Slack account than it may be to lose it at someone in person. At the same time, they’re reading headlines about constant crises - layoffs, inflation, company collapses. Their working relationships have frayed, but the slog of tasks continues. Many teammates haven’t seen each other in person much since 2020. She accidentally sent it right back to her boss.Ĭonditions have been ripe for workplace disaster this year.

Her boss had sent her a message asking why a task hadn’t been taken care of, an oversight Ms. At her previous company she had a reflexive response to professional slights: She took a screenshot of the offending message and sent it to her work friend with commentary like “OMG” or “WTF.”Įarlier this year, Ms. Take Ani Rodriguez, 24, who works in public relations. Now workplace anger is quieter, often contained to the clack-clacking of a hastily typed note on Slack, the messaging software used by many companies. If there were such a thing as rage nostalgia, it would be the longing for a time when people fought out loud - even in a setting as formal as the office.

Slack emoji packs