I’ve seen it done in movies and my beloved sitcoms, but I’d never used the method myself before today. After a particularly frustrating phone call, after a series of frustrating encounters, I walked out to my car, sat down, closed the door, and screamed at the top of my lungs. 

I’m not sure if it made me feel better. Mostly, I think it startled me. My heart still seems to be beating faster. My hands have a slight shake to them. I strained my voice to the point where my throat actually hurt a little at the end. It wasn’t a long scream. It was, however, the highest I’ve heard myself go.

I think I have a headache.

I’m not sure what I expected but obviously I didn’t see any alternate ways of releasing all that sits quietly behind the ever more eroding mask of compliant civility.

At work, at an office, what can you do? Cry? Scream? Throw things off your desk in a manner that again references sitcoms, or even dramas, and solidify a reputation for being at the friendliest end of the spectrum someone to feel sorry for and talk in a soft voice to, and at the other end, someone to fear as unstable?