Interesting piece in Edie the other day about employees suffering “green rage” when their colleagues aren’t behaving in a green way. Apparently the rise of environmentalism means the workplace is “brimful of emotion.” Phew.

In my experience this kind of anger often occurs with ‘green champions’ and other volunteers frustrated that their colleagues ‘just don’t get it’. “I think we need to shock them into listening!” said one very passionate young lady to me during a workshop. She was quite surprised when I said “Really?”

The problem is that such self-righteous anger rarely if ever makes a difference, saps your energy and can drive a wedge between the ‘greenies’ and other employees. I deliberately parodied the ineffectiveness of anger in The Art of Green Jujitsu  (below) – trying to get a Basil-Fawlty-beating-up-his-car vibe going with the protagonist Barry Greene, while his colleagues get on with their jobs around him. It’s only when Barry calms down and starts thinking that he starts bringing them on board.

I’ll leave the last words to Mark Twain:

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”