What is Workplace Abuse?

Workplace abuse (aka workplace bullying) encompasses both intentional and unwitting behaviors (words, gestures, images, actions, and failure to act) which, over time, humiliate, demoralize, or terrorize an employee or group of employees, undermine their targets’ credibility and effectiveness, and contribute to a disrespectful or hostile work environment. (Source)

Prevalence

According to recent studies, nearly 14% of American employees are targeted for emotional and psychological abuse in the workplace every year. Over 60% of them either quit, get fired, transfer, or quit after things go from bad to worse for them. (Source) Contrary to popular opinion, targets of workplace abuse are typically your moral, hard-working employees who plays well with others, in other words, your ideal employees.

Presentation

Workplace abuse presents as isolation and deliberate exclusion, false accusations, sabotage, intimidation and aggressive behavior, verbal abuse and belittling comments, blocking advancement opportunities, unfair evaluation, undermining work, spreading gossip / rumors, withholding information, overly critical feedback, micromanaging, overloading with work, and / or removal of responsibilities.

Secondary Workplace Abuse

Policy directs employees to bring unresolved interpersonal problems to their supervisor or Human Resources. Sadly, in 95% of workplace abuse cases, targets are gaslighted and scapegoated by HR and/or their supervisor, causing them far greater trauma than the primary abuse itself. (Source) This fully explains why most employers continue to lose their best employees.

Human Cost

Workplace abuse is known to cause depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, inability to work or concentrate, trouble making decisions, lower productivity, anger, emotional disconnect, C-PTSD, trust issues, self-doubt, shame, chronic pain, fatigue, unemployment, and myriad adverse physical, financial, relational, and spiritual effects for its victims, and has resulted in suicide for some. The human cost is incalculable.

Perspective

By all estimates, worldwide workplace abuse is a multi-trillion-dollar problem.

Far more importantly, when systemic workplace abuse is finally neutralized, the overall relief to human suffering will be equivalent to that experienced by the global population after the development and widespread release of penicillin.

According to ChatGPT, If successfully implemented, (a solution) could be transformative, reducing the incidence of mental health disorders by as much as 10-20% among working populations. (Source)

Calculate the annual cost of systemic workplace abuse. (You’ll want to sit down for this.)

Factors include:

  • A: Total number of employees in your organization (Source)
  • B: Average salary of employees (Source)
  • 13.78% – the prevalence of workplace abuse here in the U.S. (Source)
  • 61.67% of targeted employees, as a result of workplace abuse, either quit, was fired, transferred, or quit when things went from bad to worse (Source)
  • 100% – estimated cost of rehiring employee (Source)
  • $23,000 – estimated cost per case due to lost productivity, absenteeism, healthcare costs, and legal costs (Source)

    (A x B x .1378 x .6167) + (A x .1378 x 23,000)

Reject the ideologically driven, majority position that insists workplace abuse is caused primarily by work environment

Consider employer liability and the Scapegoat Mechanism to be foundational to understanding workplace abuse

Develop cost-saving, ethical, practical solutions for all organizations, large or small, private or public

Who am I?

I’m Chris Edward Jensen, former high school English teacher of twenty years turned clinical trials coordinator turned workplace abuse advocate-developer. The workplace abuse I experienced in 2019 was catastrophic. Today, I’m committed to slaying the dragon that nearly destroyed me.

What sets me apart?

By placing politics aside and looking at workplace abuse empirically, I’m free to focus on developing win-wins for employees and employers alike, rather than absurdly shaming employers – our fellow stakeholders – as most of my counterparts do.

You can read more about my approach to workplace abuse here:

To Potential Collaborators

I am currently reaching out to key stakeholders with the reach, the resources, and the fire-in-the-belly to work together to confront workplace abuse once-and-for-all. If those criteria match you and your organization, please reach out.