Headline Dec.21/ 'RAGE? -VENT!- !PAY!'

'RAGE? -VENT!- !PAY!'

OVER ALL THESE MANY YEARS  -on the World Students Society, I and We, simply learnt and practiced not to allow any rage get the better of us.

There are -and always have been,  and probably always will be-  criminals, trolls, scoundrels and reprobates on the Internet. Just no two ways on that.

It is a problem that has vexed multi-billion-dollar corporations and the smartest computer programmers in the world.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have all declared war on abuse and harassment, spent years raining sophisticated algorithms and hired vast armies of moderators to root out hateful content.

But here is somewhat of the latest technology and a new way of handling pure and raw rage. So, read on...........

AT THE ANGER ROOM in Dallas, the likeness of US President Donald Trump and his 2016  presidential race challenger-

Hillary Clinton are taking all the punishment.

TWO OF THE MANNEQUINS of Clinton and three of Trump have already been destroyed and it looks like Donald is more detestable than Hillary. And yet he got elected.

But let me begin at the very beginning......

IT'S only late morning and you've already at the end of your tether. You're having trouble getting the data that you need and your boss [you have names for him that would not appropriate to utter in public company] is already breathing down your neck.

YOU want to lash out. You want to wring him by the neck or hurl the laptop against  the wall while yelling expletives. You need to give vent to that anger building up inside you.

Of course you can only fantasise about smashing the keyboard or giving your boss a black eye. You are more likely to just hunker down and continue working on that report that he claims was already due yesterday.

Anger and the frustration at the workplace is commonplace, particularly in today's dead-line-driven, results oriented high-pressure conditions.

It foments the urge to lash out physically. But all are constrained by the law against physical abuse, threat of disciplinary action including the sack, or-

Just our good sense of ethical behaviour. We end up forcing it down and locking it up in a secret place where it continues to simmer.

But now there is a way to vent to this pent-up frustration. Enterprising individuals are giving angry office workers a chance to let their tempers flare colourfully. 

AN Outlet in Singapore : * Welcome to the Rage Room*.

In cities from Ottawa to Singapore, otherwise respectful, calm and even-tempered office workers are making a beeline for these establishments.

The rage room is where one is given a baseball bat that he can use to smash up items within its confines. These vary from bottles and glasses to TV sets and printers.

The first rage room in Singapore opened recently and, according to a report, on straits-times.com, tense office workers are already making their way to the 951 sq ft establishment on Balestier to ''let off steam''.

To prevent self-injury, customers are required to don overalls and a helmet with a visor.

Singaporeans are not the only people who get to smash things up for a fee.

IN OTTAWA, highly agitated members of the Canadian parliament can smash their way to a calmer demeanour after a bad day in the august House.

Word of the rage room leaked out last month, according to a report on ebc.ca, the website of the  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and now the government of Canada has to justify spending C$2.4 million of taxpayers' money to give MPs a way to vent their anger.

While the Canadians get to do it for free, rage rooms in other cities around the world charge a fee.

In Los Angeles, it's called an ''anger room'' and users have a choice of three options.

For a five-minute session inside the room -it's dubbed ''I Need A Break'' it costs US$25. For someone who has more pent-up anger inside him, he can opt for the ''Lash Out'' session. It lasts 15 minutes and costs US$ 45.

The real banger is the ''Demolition'' -a 25 minute rampage that will set you back US$75.

Given the amount of pressure we are subjected to today, it is no surprise that the  rage room business is thriving. The original Anger Room is a case in point.

Before it went to Los Angeles, the Anger Room had its first outlet in the South side of Chicago.

Donna Alexander started the business in 2008 by inviting her co-workers to her garage to ''pulverise items'' she had collected from around her neighbourhood;

''I would play music on my laptop and just let them have { a go } at it,'' she says. She charged US$5  for a session, according to a report on nytimes.com.

Soon, strangers began to turn up at her door and she eventually quit her full time job as a marketing manager for a steakhouse to focus on giving people a chance to run riot around computers, printers and TV sets.

Her first Anger Room was a 1,000 sq.ft space in downtown Dallas where, for a US$25 fee, customers get five minutes to smash up alarm clocks printers and glass cups.

Others followed in Houston, Toronto, Niagara Falls and and in parts of Australia.

And for Alexander, it looks like everything is a fair game. At the Anger Room in Dallas, the likeness of US President Donald Trump and his 2016 presidential race challenger Hillary Clinton are taking all the punishment.

Two of the mannequins of Clinton and three of Trump have already been destroyed. [Looks like  Donald is more detestable than Hillary. Yet he got elected.]

The office can be a pressure cooker. As business owners push their employees to improve performance for higher profits, stress builds up and that, in turn, affects the worker's performance.

The negative effects of such stress are well-documented.

According to the World Health Organization [WHO], there are several causes of work-related stress. They include expecting a worker to take on tasks that are beyond his capabilities, or-

When the worker gets little or no support from his colleagues or superiors.

Unfortunately, pressure at work is usually unavoidable. But the resulting stress can be costly -not just on worker's health but on the company's bottom line as well.

According to research by the European Agency  for Safety and Health at Work, a worker who is under stress costs the company an average of of US$ 2,770 a year.

And this is not even a accounting for the cost of medical treatment for ailments caused by stress.

Perhaps, arming the sales manager or marketing executive with a baseball bat and sending him into the rage room is not such a bad idea.

With respectful dedication to the Grandparents, Parents,  Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. And with great appreciation from the World Students Society for author Yeah Guan Jin.

See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society for every conceivable discipline in the world, and Twitter-!E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

'''Challenges & Honors''' 

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless