Why Ireland’s Workplace Is Running Hot This Summer

As temperatures continue to climb across Europe, many employees are finding that the most difficult thing to manage isn’t the weather – it’s the people. From hot-headed managers and short-tempered colleagues to teams operating with little patience and even less energy, workplace tensions appear to be rising alongside the mercury. Experts at Hogan Assessments, the global leader in workplace personality assessment and leadership development, analysing how one of Europe’s hottest summer may be exposing a growing workplace temperature problem.

Ireland Is Running Hot This Summer

Feeling the Burn

The timing is hardly surprising. Organisations are navigating a perfect storm of AI-driven uncertainty, ongoing change fatigue, leaner team structures, and the lingering effects of burnout that accelerated during and after the pandemic. At the same time, employee engagement continues to decline globally. According to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, global engagement fell for a second consecutive year, while manager engagement dropped sharply from 27% to 22% – its lowest level in years.

And then there’s the actual heat. Research from the World Health Organization warns that excessive heat can impair concentration, increase fatigue, and reduce productivity, with performance falling by 2-3% for every degree of heat stress increase above key thresholds. Around 30% of workers exposed to frequent heat stress report productivity losses.

Understanding the Personality of the ‘Hot Tempered’ Employee

The result? A workplace environment where frustrations boil over faster, patience evaporates sooner, and small disagreements can quickly become major flashpoints.

This is particularly relevant for temperamental, ‘excitable’ work colleagues. While passion and energy might be a person’s strengths on an everyday basis, the same person might seem easily disappointed, directionless, and emotionally explosive when they stop monitoring their behaviour. An employee who is enthusiastic one day and irritable the next may gain a reputation for inconsistency and unpredictability over time.

“Showing passion keeps a professional from appearing unemotional, indifferent, or uninterested. But a display of emotional ups and downs isn’t always helpful at the workplace. When stress causes emotions to swell, employees must adapt how they communicate negative feelings”, says Jessie McClure, MA, Senior Consultant and Team Lead at Hogan Assessments.

Techniques for Temperamental Personalities

Fortunately, it’s possible for people to learn to moderate their behaviour by managing their emotional expression. First, excitable employees should analyze the situations in which they become frustrated and upset. Learning to recognize the signs or triggers that they are about to lose control can help them pause before they react. This can also help professionals with this personality characteristic create distance from the situation to avoid sending unintended messages that might affect colleagues’ performance. Over time, temperamental professionals can build resilience slowly by learning how much stress is sustainable.

For employers, the challenge may not simply be helping people stay physically cool this summer. It may be recognising that emotional temperature matters too. Because when organisations are already running hot from AI disruption, uncertainty, and employee exhaustion, another heatwave may be the last thing workplace tempers need.

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