Feel like tearing your boss a new one or wrapping a monitor round a colleague’s head. You probably need to step out and chill for a bit. But if you just want to have a strongly worded discussion about strategy or a robust exchange of ideas, then it might be ok to go right ahead; from the BBC:

New research suggests that companies would prosper by encouraging a robust exchange of ideas, even if this descends into a heated argument, because in this way policy and vision are constantly innovated and improved.

So while a row should never be personal, having the odd shout at a colleague about work could be advantageous.

"Great strategy emerges when people are encouraged to challenge the status quo, ask awkward questions and examine ’sacred cows’," says a report by strategy consultants Cognosis, based on a survey of more than 1,000 executives from across the business world.

If conflict is well managed then it can nurture creativity because a "Darwinian struggle of ideas" means the best win out, says Cognosis managing director Richard Brown.

That’s not a call to challenge your supervising partner’s every instruction as soon as you qualify or an excuse to start brow beating irritating colleagues. But having a forthright (and controlled) discussion where you think you have something genuinely constructive to contribute could be the making of you.

Or it might get you sacked.

Advisory: use with caution.