Local author and national speaker Timothy A. Dimoff’s sixth tome, “Life Rage,” delves into the prevalence of anger in today’s world. Each chapter examines a facet of society affected by life rage, including shootings in our schools, aggressive driving on the roadways, belligerent behavior on our airlines, terrorist threats against the government, growing dissatisfaction with customer service and — perhaps the most disturbing trend experienced by Smart Business readers — violence in the workplace.
Dimoff offers readers a frightening glimpse into this reality by pulling examples from media headlines and telling true-life stories he has encountered as a former Akron law enforcement detective and president and founder of SACS Consulting and Investigative Services Inc. Though readers can relate to each chapter, the fifth, “Work Rage: When Co-Workers ‘Go Postal,'” should be of particular interest to CEOs and human resource executives.
In exploring the phenomenon of rage in the workplace, Dimoff says he sees aggressive trends appearing as steadily as the random acts of violence we hear about all too often. A grown-up’s version of playground intimidation, Dimoff calls bullying “a ‘silent epidemic’ affecting our offices and factories,” which tends to be ignored by employers. Often expressed through vandalism, gestures and withholding of important work-related information, bullying takes harassment to a troubling new level.
As an expert in high-risk and security issues, Dimoff says employee sabotage and computer-related crime are happening more often. A disgruntled employee’s drive for revenge can be debilitating to a company’s employees, its economic well-being and its corporate image.
After scaring the reader silly with statistics, Dimoff offers his views on the reasons workplace violence occurs. He suggests we are living in a clock-watching culture and are suffering from depression, desensitivity to aggression and a lack of privacy. This is not Dad’s business world.
In the final chapter of “Life Rage,” Dimoff offers tips that readers can follow to avoid these anger-drenched scenarios. Although his faith-based solutions seem like a Band-Aid attempting to cover a much deeper wound, they provide a basic approach to dealing with rage in the workplace and beyond. For more information on “Life Rage,” visit www.liferage.com.
