Handling anger in the workplace is a difficult business, both subtle and multi-layered, contrary to the rather one-dimensional impression created by Julian Baggini in his feature based on recent research at Harvard medical school (Calm? Why should I be calm?, G2, 3 March).

Baggini argues that if only we could get past "the famous British reserve" and learn to express our anger sooner and more spontaneously, things would get resolved more easily instead of festering away or degenerating into "volcanic" explosions. But experience suggests that life is more complicated than that. There are some people who have no trouble expressing their irritation at work, sometimes in inappropriate and damaging ways, and then it is easy for a climate of anger and retaliation to develop if we don't all exercise some reserve.

Baggini takes some entertaining sideswipes at pop psychology, but then comes up with trite comments such as "When you try to cool down hot emotions, what tends to happen is that you end up either repressing them or losing them altogether." The trouble is that hot emotions are not always quite what they seem. For example, sometimes what gets expressed as anger has its origins more in confusion, hurt or disappointment than in plain annoyance at what Baggini calls "wrongdoing", and often an individual's anger may originate (and belong) elsewhere within or without the organisation. Simply letting this sort of anger out of its box may make matters worse.

It is interesting that the only concrete example Baggini offers of justifiable anger in the workplace is getting "more than a little peeved" when "some people are not pulling their weight". He presumably means it is OK for managers to get angry with their staff - but what if staff feel the manager is out of order? How safe is it for them to express anger? And what about when peers take out their anger or frustration on each other in ways which tend towards bullying?

Other stresses may come into work from clients or customers, especially for example in welfare services, where people may be in distress or confusion and looking for places to express all their frustrations. Staff dealing with these clients can easily end up passing on the feelings they have had to soak up. There are also societal influences at play, since we are all affected by the social climate of our day - for example, there were a lot of angry managers storming around workplaces in the 80s when the country was being led in a spirit of battle and revenge.

This is by no means to argue against the expression of anger, but rather to question the benefit of simply allowing individuals to let rip. What can help is a more open discussion of the range of emotions we all experience at work, including anger, and regular opportunities for teams and groups to explore and make sense of the feelings which can arise from and affect their work. In other words, rather than just encouraging individuals to shout when they feel angry, we might look at promoting open debate and acknowledgment of the feelings - and stress - which may arise at work.

• Adrian Ward is a consultant social worker with the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust AWard@tavi-port.nhs.uk