It wasn’t until recently that I started to notice how some managers tend to belittle their employees. I used to think that it was just a dysfunctional thing that might have come from their family. I thought about it a little more and most people’s’ families have served in the military and that’s really where this behavior might have come from. The churches and the military have always been pretty tight. All those religious wars.
How else will you get the masses to comply without beating them down mentally. This technique is used in the military and most churches. The guilt and shame method for the church. If you attend their private schools, they use belittling tactics to destroy your self-worth. Is it any wonder that our society as a whole is pretty messed up.
Take this one step further, the mental abuse is also found in domestic violence. Mental abuse is also part of the PTSD so is it any wonder that veterans and victims of domestic violence have so much in common.
This tactic that I see in Corporations is used to keep employees from leaving. The strong ones will just up and leave or be on the look out for better opportunities. The weaker personalities will just sit and take it, believing that they have nothing to offer another company. The thing is that the person whose targeted by this form of abuse is not usually a weak person. It’s like some sick and twisted game for the bully to defeat such a person and break them. Some of these managers are narcists. Some are just control freaks with low self esteem and threatened by another’s self-confidence.
If left unchecked this behavior can destroy a company and rob its employees of their health. It creates undo stress and causes more friction between employees. If your sensitive to energy, you can literally feel the toxicness of the environment. I once worked for a company and the vendors thought it would be fun to bring in mood dots. They would place them on each employee. Everyone of them turned black. The vendors had never seen such a thing. They were pretty shocked!
Some companies are trying hard to change the tide of this behavior that has been viewed as acceptable for hundreds of years. Sometimes the bully is not the manager but a co-worker. Which can be even more intolerable. Agencies such as temporary or contract companies can be a blessing to escape such environments especially if the HR is not on the employees side. A word of advise if your company has a 1-800 number to report such things, use it. There is a very good reason for that number. The company knows theres a problem and the other person will retaliate and get you fired.
Penny J. (MN, USA)
Raven Hawke, Llc
Raven Hawke 