I’ve noticed a disturbing trend lately in which companies don’t seem interested in solving customer complaints until the customer gets angry.

It’s not a new problem, but it certainly seems to be increasing.

Can you relate to this experience? You have a problem with a product or service you received. There isn’t an easy way to get it addressed, so, perhaps you visit the company website.

The website funnels you to a page of frequently asked questions page. When that doesn’t work, you try live chat.

You quickly learn the live chat person on the other side isn’t a person at all. It’s an automated bot. So, you begin to ask for a real person.

When you finally get a real person, they often don’t have the power to truly help you. They likely haven’t been trained to have all the answers, either.

If you get very angry, someone knowledgeable will eventually be assigned to help you. Companies often have a special team to handle angry customers. Then, suddenly, your issue will be resolved.

In the meantime, you’ve been left with a headache and some level of exhaustion from all the work it took to get there.

Depending on the company, this process could take minutes, hours or even days.

I’ve observed a similar phenomenon in today’s workplace. Often, it’s the loudest, most aggressive people who are able to push their agendas through.

You might have even found yourself escalating issues at times when you would prefer not to, in order to get things done. And, you’ve probably had that headache and exhaustion.

It’s quite an unfortunate state of affairs when our currency is our anger. Whether you’re a customer or you’re at work, it should not be necessary to escalate to such a level to get resolution.

People should be willing to follow through on their commitments. And, they should be honest and straightforward when they cannot.

As you go through your day, I hope you might take this idea into consideration. It might not help as much when you’re working to push an agenda through.

And if you’re a gatekeeper, I hope you won’t require the other person to use anger as currency. Try to be more flexible. Do what’s right, and what you would want if you were on the other side of the conversation.

Don’t require everyone to be a squeaky wheel. Help out when you know it’s the right thing to do. We should not be required to spend our days generating anger and frustration simply to achieve simple tasks.

Life is too short to spend so much time in these negative emotions.

Let’s find our way to another currency. I would suggest honesty, commitment and respect. Treat others with these things and reward those who do likewise.

Angela Copeland, a career expert and founder of Copeland Coaching, can be reached at copelandcoaching.com.