If someone yells at you in anger, saying they're being unprofessional and you're done with the discussion could very well escalate instead of diffuse the situation. It's probably best to just not say much in the moment, apart from trying to excuse yourself. I agree with the rest of the points though.

I will -1 this because in 25 years IT consulting I have seen situations where screaming was more than justified. From extremely idiotic errors to managers that were so out of touch with reality they actively were killing a project by being idiots. While you can always say it is unprofessional, IT HAPPENS and the OP asks for a solution (which there is not), not some justification.

Hi Tom, why do you think there isn't a solution? I appreciate the other perspective too.

@TomTom you think yelling helps in the case of idiotic errors? Why? About "it happens" - a lot of bad and unjustified things happen in life, but it doesn't mean you have to go along and not fight back.

@TomTom Yelling is never justified. You might as well say punching them in the face is justified. Adults should be able to control themselves.

Never ever say to someone who is your superior that he's being unprofessional.

@PieterB why not? Superiors can be just as unprofessional as subordinates.

@Erik and you have your superiors superiors to tell them that. Questioning someones professionalism can be extremely harmful to your career.

Yelling at anyone is extremely anti-social, IMO. Nevermind professionalism or whether or not the person being yelled at is a colleague or not. The only exception is if you are trying to aurally communicate something of utmost urgency in a noisy environment. "You, in the blue shirt, call 911! You, in the brown shirt, grab some flares, light them, and place them 100m down the road!" That's acceptable to yell. Not much else is.

@Erik you're downplaying it. Questioning someones professionalism is not "a bit of criticism" it's a nuclear option. And a lot of people take that very very badly.

OP's #2, The larger the company, the less likely this is going to be something that happens. That's due to these places more likely to have HR, legal, behavioural training & expectations - Erik's #4. Go for a bank or something over start-up or piecework web shop.

@PieterB at everywhere I've worked, yelling at your coworkers is even more harmful to your career. Its the kind of thing that gets you sent to mandatory-if-you-want-to-keep-a-job anger management counselling.

This is bad advice. Throughout the business world, people will yell and they will lose their temper. Not being able to deal with that is severely career limiting in almost every industry. I would encourage OP to seek theraphy to not be affected as much.

@Magisch I think it's fine if OP wants to be able to deal with this better, but ultimately you should not have to cope with people yelling at you, because people should not be yelling at you. It's like saying people should be able to deal with being harassed because it sometimes happens. It might happen, but it's not okay, and you shouldn't have to deal with it. You should instead make an effort to eliminate the harassment. (Or yelling)

@Erik Should being the keyword here. Of course it's unprofessional to yell at people. It's also widely and wildly common, and finding an employer where nobody does that ever lest it send you into a weeklong dissociative episode is going to be super challenging.

@Magisch I've only ever heard of one situation where someone was yelled at on the job, and he quit shortly after and called it a terrible company. If you find being yelled at common, I'd advise you to find a different place of work. Don't tolerate that bullshit.

Rather than saying that it is being unprofessional, I would say that such behavior is unacceptable.

@JörgWMittag That's the difference between yelling to someone and yelling at someone.

@Magisch this might be a cultural thing, but I've been to 30+ job locations and only twice there has been a yelling person. In both of the cases it was a manager employed by the client. In the first case he was sacked quite quickly, in the second one it was done after some years (when most of the people involved with him had already decided that he was not a person that could be worked with). Yelling wasn't the only problem in either of those cases, but it was part of the problem. I don't see that wildly common (luckily), at least not where I work.

If you yell, you've lost all professional credibility. I agree this should not happen. At the same time, if it happens, what you can do working on your coping skills or find a different employer. Most companies have a few toxic people, you won't be able to change them. You can only change yourself.

@Magisch "It's also widely and wildly common" No. The last time I've been yelled at on the job was 15 years ago. Just because you work in a... let's say "less-than-optimal environment" (judging from the outrageous situations you described in your questions so far) doesn't mean that this is normal.