Workplace Confidential: Workers Gone Wild

The presidential election this week was all about jobs and the economy. How hard it is to find a job and how hard it is to keep one. So with workplace insecurity at such a high, is it any wonder that... See More

The presidential election this week was all about jobs and the economy. How hard it is to find a job and how hard it is to keep one. So with workplace insecurity at such a high, is it any wonder that workers of the world are melting down acting up and freaking out? What's new in the world of 9:00 to 5:00 will make you want to call 911. Youtube makes it look like the american workforce is on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Workers of the world rising up against infuriating workplace oppression. The tyranny of balky computers. Paperless printers and annoying co-workers. I think there's a lot of rage. Now, many of these videoare fake. Somere clever viral marketing campaigns. This is really an ad for office chairs. But all of these online videos tap into something real, something buried deep in the psyche of the modern worker, let's call it cubicle rage. Organizational psychologist, ben dattner, says white collar, blue collar, everyone's hot under the collar. What is it all about? The rewards of economic gains have gone to fewer rather than more people, and when people perceive inequity, they're likely to feel angry, and they're likely to want to take retributive steps. He means revenge. And you've been on the receiving end of that if you've ever walked into the middle of an office worker's bad day. And it can be even worse for those who have to deal with the public, especially in the pressure cooker of fast food. . This fried fried chicken restaurant worker is a hit online. But the most appalling example comes from iowa. A pizza delivery turns ugly when the customer fails to tip the driver. He comes back and turns her front door into a urinal. These are people who have to say, "have a nice day" every single time they deal with one of us. I mean, a lot of people in those customer-facing roles have to be actors and actresses, and that can be very onerous, burdensome, and problematic for certain people who, when pushed to a certain point, can really break. How was your day? Dave hiner worked in a well know video game chain store in new york. A co-worker captured his state of mind the day after christmas 2009. My anger, frustration was building through the day. I was trying to be polite to the people as they came and went. And pretty much as soon as we locked the door, the switch went off, and I just lost it. Reporter: Hiner says he was joking, sort of, but he says he truly had had it with the customers and his manager. Mommy, can I have this? Can I have this? No. No. I bottled it up, bottled it up all day and finally my glass jar just shattered, and out it came. You know, and I don't regret it for a second. Reporter: Hiner says that on-camera meltdown was nothing compared to what came soon after when the boss wanted to write him up for slow sales. I said, I'm not signing this, and I've had enough of your company, and if you, at the end of the day are going to fire me, I'm just going to quit and save myself the trole, and I just built up with anger, and I was just ripped straight open. I pretty much just ripped my shirt in half, I was like I'm done with the company. I ripped it, ripped it straight down the middle. This is what I think of you guys. Took it off, said you can take your job, shove it, threw it in his face, walked right out the door. Reporter: And when it comes to some deliverymen who are supposed to bring things to your door, everything is airmail. A delivery worker venting on youtube that stress can lead to this kind of destruction. Eventually I had to become that person. I had to become the person to just completely destroy stuff. Reporter: Destruction and drama. It happens as easily in the boardroom as it does in the break room. Take it from one of the stars of the business reality show, "shark tank," billionaire mark cuban. I had a partner who was the exact opposite of me, which worked well 99% of the time, but there were times when we'd close the door behind us sometimes and just have knock-down, drag-out, screaming matches because we disagreed about how to do business. But why is it that grown adults can act like children in social situation, so we come to react to each other as if we were pseudo-siblings, as if our boss was a pseudo-parent. The workplace can be a big, happy family, or the workplace can be a big dysfunctional family. When your office is a m,oo it's inevitable that your colleagues are going to act like children. But sometimes is the grown-up in the room with issues. Modesto high, california. The class, algebra 2. The problem, anger management. I saw you sitting there pulling -- what's wrong with you? Reporter: And the bad behavior isn limited to all these videos on youtube. According tone survey 42% of people are exposed to yelling and verbal abuse on the job. 29% admit abusing co-workers. And 10% say they've been exposed to physical violence. Anger on the job can sneak up on you. One day -- whammo. You're going to jail. Oh! Reporter: Like getting hit by a bus, or in this case getting hit on the bus. This video cost a cleveland bus driver his job. You'll see why. You want to be a man. I'm going to treat you like a man. Reporter: The woman is okay but that driver, he is so fired. But what will go down in history as the classic "i quit" goes to stevenlater. So last time we spoke, you had just pulled the emergency chute, grabbed a few beers, and dropped the "f" bomb on the intercom. Fed up after 20 years as a flight attendant, he parachuted into instant fame when he basically said take this job and shove it. Who hasn't been overworked and underpaid, who hasn't been outsourced, who isn't stressed? It was very resonant of where we are as a culture and a country in that moment and still are. Reporter: If you want to keep an eye on whether things are likely to imove, all you have to do is watch the unemployment rate. With the economy in the state that it's in and jobs as scarce as they are, that's got to increase stress. Absolutely. As well as bad behavior. People feel trapped when they feel back against the wall, when they feel economically dependent on their job. They're likely to be more rigid, more political, more regressed more emotional. If you had more people saying, hey, I think you're doing a swell job, I think you're doing a great job, you wouldn't have these people freaking out like me. Reporter: The former game store clerk, d hiner, says those workplace tantrums are nothing less than a desperate cry for dignity. An angry anthem for the underpaid, underappreciated worker. And he says more people should try it. Oh, man. I say just let it out. Tell them how you truly feel.