Digital advancements in call centre contexts that are already characterised by the use of highly technological applications, have fuelled the emotionality and experience of negative affect in call centres. Middle managers in call centres have an additional role of management that increases the emotional load that needs to be regulated. They are under pressure from their teams and their superiors in that they need to manage the team in order to perform, while reporting on targets and performance metrics to their superiors. Affective events theory provides a framework for the investigation of negative affect and the resultant toxic emotion experiences by investigating the different components of AET theory. A case study was presented as a result of a single case study design where a theoretical investigation of negative affect in call centres and qualitative interviews based on the different elements of the AET were integrated. The case study revealed and confirmed the call centre environment as a hazard where emotion events lead to negative affect and the maladaptive emotion regulation strategies resulted in the experience of toxic emotions.