I started as an early-career post-doc in a new research project. I was an experienced researcher and felt that I had a lot to give to the team. It seemed to me [at the time] that the rest of the team did not see it exactly the same way and I felt I really had to make an effort to become a member of the team. At first, it seemed that our supervisor wanted us to work together, but in hindsight, I realized that he fed into the animosity and hostility between me and the rest of the team. For example, he would come to me and warn me that the others were talking negatively about me behind my back and he warned me not to befriend any of the team members. (ā¦)Then the behaviour of the supervisor changed considerably. He became controlling, all of us had to report our hours more carefully, we had to ask for permission for the smallest things we were about to do. He also started using finances to control us and created an atmosphere of uncertainty in terms of whether someoneās work contract could be extended, or whether someone could go to a conference or not. At that time, it also became clear that one of the team members was having an affair with him. He would openly woo some of the team members and then act unpleasantly towards some of the others. The whole situation was weird and it affected the entire working atmosphere.Most of us became physically and emotionally unwell. More information about sexual harassment, extortion with money, reputation and other forms of emotional abuse started to appear. I and a couple of the team members took this to the occupational safety and the upper management.It was at that point that the supervisor started blaming me for everything that was going wrong. He rallied a few of the team members, who still believed in him, to attack me at a workplace meeting and to continue to do all kinds of hostile things towards me. I was losing my strength. I could not sleep anymore. I felt ill all the time and could barely eat anything, I would cry easily, I became depressed and I was constantly afraid.After one of these weird workplace meetings, I had a breakdown. I just cried and cried and I decided I could not help anyone else there anymore. I had to leave this workplace and I had to take care of myself first. I went to an occupational psychologist and with their advice and support, I was able to recover and break free from the manipulative game.But what did the upper management do? Nothing! All they did was to organize a workplace survey in which there were a couple of questions concerning working environment and safety. We responded truthfully and I knew that there were some very serious allegations towards the supervisor in the survey results. The upper management decided to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Moreover, some of the replies were read out loud at a public meeting for the whole organization, even though they had ensured that the individual replies would not be made public. Moreover, there was no analysis of the survey data and no further action was taken. Since I left, what I have heard is that the same project continues only with a smaller research team and less funding. The manipulation also continues. It is only covered up much better than before. After this experience, I have decided I will never submit to such behaviour at any workplace and will not be afraid to speak up when I see and hear wrongdoings. (Jenny)
What is at stake when workplaces become abusive and harmful to employees? Why is it that emotionally destructive patterns and behaviours are allowed to continue and escalate in an organization, even though these are harmful for the targets and the organizations? The opening narrative of this chapter represents this problematic very well. The story shows how the abusive cycle begins and how it develops over time. Moreover, it shows the inability of upper management to hold the abuser accountable for his behaviours even though these were harmful for the target and the organization. Jenny noticed already in the beginning that something was wrong as the supervisor had asked Jenny not to associate with her team members. However, she could not foresee that the behaviours would develop into serious forms of emotional abuse such as controlling behaviours and later sexual harassment. The situation escalated when Jenny confronted her abuser. However, what was significant in this case was that confronting her abuser escalated the situation further. Her supervisor manipulated the team members to join and continuously attack her and this had enduring effects on her physical and mental health. Jenny lost her ability to sleep, to eat and to enjoy life due to this abusive working environment.
In this book, we focus on emotional workplace abuse (EWA) and discuss why naming and identifying workplace abuse is difficult, how targets of abuse make sense of their experiences and try to cope with abuse, and how to build sustainable organizations. We build on feminist research on violence with research findings on workplace bullying in order to gain new insight on the processes and cycles of violence and understanding of the targetās experience. We address how emotional abuse breaks professional and personal boundaries, and how these processes place the target in an impossible situation in which the only option is to leave the organization to end the abuse.
We use the term EWA to refer to abusive practices and behaviours which are enabled and fostered in toxic working environments. EWA refers to patterned maltreatment of the target, which can be work-task related (withholding information, ostracism, exclusion, belittlement of achievements) or personal (gossiping, violent outbursts, ridiculing the target in front of others), and which affects personal integrity and the sense of self as being a competent worker (Lutgen-Sandvik 2008; Keashley and Jagatic 2011). Emotional abuse can be direct psychological aggression towards the target in the form of incivility and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, or it can be indirect and subtle forms of exclusion of one person, or derogatory facial expressions and body language, or abuse can be carried out by proxy. Two integral elements of emotional abuse at work are that it is repeated and that the abuser deflects the responsibility for their be...