Passive Aggressive Behavior in the Workplace

(blog 2)

We all know what aggression is. But what is passive aggression? According to Signe Whitson, it is "a deliberate and masked way of expressing hidden anger." Whitson wrote an article for Psychology Today called "Passive Aggressive Behavior in the Workplace: Exposing Office Crime"

According to the article, an employee may use passive aggressive actions in order to voice his opinions, sabotage group projects or other employees, or to get revenge. Some examples of passive aggressive behaviors in the workplace include:
- Writing aggressive notes or emails rather than confronting someone personally or trying to solve the problem.
-Failing to complete an assignment properly or performing low-quality or incomplete work and then blaming others. One might say that he wasn't given proper instructions or tools.
-Calling in sick when he is part of an important group project, therefore sabotaging the other members of the group and the entire project.
-Getting back at someone that he has a grudge against by going behind their back. Rather than confronting the person who he's mad at, one might spread false rumors to try to get the other fired.

Just as we have defined aggression in class, passive aggressiveness is always deliberate. Passive aggressiveness is different in that the person is more discreet about his actions. He might try to be anonymous (write an anonymous note) or pretend that he didn't know any better or did something on accident. People often use passive aggressiveness more in the workplace because they think that they won't get in as much trouble as they would if they used traditional aggression.

Here is a YouTube video about passive aggressive emailing in the workplace.


Passive aggression seems to be quite common in the workplace. It is a way that people "deal" with problems without actually solving the problem or confronting someone that they are angry with. I have seen it in a lot of my own jobs, especially with the notes and emails. Another example that I have seen is a manager who, rather than telling an employee that he has been doing poorly at their job, will just cut their hours without notice.

Here is a website that I thought of while researching this topic. It's a blog that shows real passive aggressive notes that people have written. Other people take pictures of them and send them to the website. It sometimes has offensive language, so read at your discretion: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

What types of passive aggression behaviors have you noticed at your own jobs?