It's been hard to get away from yesterday's revelations in the Observer that Gordon Brown was warned for being too angry and threatened violence towards certain members of his Government team.Â
The news has come from Andrew Rawnsley's new book in which he claims, among other things, that Gordon Brown swore at staff and also grabbed a senior adviser by the lapels, after hearing that a disk with thousands of NHS patient details had gone missing.Â
This morning has brought a whole new set of problems for the Prime Minister, with a story that Downing Street staff contacted an anti-bullying helpline about Gordon Brown.Â
Quite aside from the publicity-grabbing nature of the release (hand-in-hand with the Observer relaunch) and getting away from the legitimacy of the claims – it seems that staff were worried about the atmosphere in Downing Street, rather than Gordon Brown himself – why is it such a big deal that Gordon Brown got angry?Â
Clearly, there's no excuse for actual bullying or physical abuse, but showing your emotions shouldn't be a treated as a cardinal sin, should it?
Somewhere along the line, we've been brainwashed into thinking that people in power should be automatons who express no emotion and have a calculating, cold demeanour that can never be ruffled no matter what the circumstances.Â
I've worked with countless bosses and the ones who were human were always the best. The ones who understood that pressure and stress can get to their own staff and, occasionally, showed that pressure can get to them.Â
I know that the counter-claimants will say that the man right at the top should always be in control, but let's face it, being in charge of a country can't exactly be easy. There are always going to be things that go wrong and there will always be good days and bad days.Â
After all, if you ran a company and someone came in one morning with the news that your entire order book and contacts list had been stolen, you wouldn't exactly be happy, would you?Â
I, for one, really don't have a problem if the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, gets angry and makes it known. Better that, than someone who never lets you know what they're thinking and goes behind your back.Â
