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Containment in the Toxic Workplace


If you were ever targeted within a toxic workplace, you may have had the experience of being in a sort of "limbo"- people continue their abuse cycles, you continue to stand up for yourself and stand firm, but- they don't rush to let you go. There may even be a lull in the abusive behaviors since people have isolated you, and now most people avoid interacting with you as much as possible. Anyone know that feeling?


We know organizations are designed to avoid or minimize risk, so the first thought that comes to me when thinking about my own experiences in this space of limbo is that while they may absolutely want you gone, their attempts at forcing you to quit have failed, and it is too risky to actually fire you- since you haven't actually done anything wrong.


So, they work to contain you.


Containment in the toxic workplace involves diminishing and minimizing you as a result of you not playing the game. Often, it will be your direct manager or supervisor assigned to contain you, so when you notice your leader isn't focused on developing, guiding and leading you, and instead works to control and/or minimize your connections and impact within the workplace, then you are likely being contained. This behavior is their last resort usually, since they failed at controlling you directly.


The idea of containment itself isn't inherently wrong or bad. As with most things I share in this newsletter, toxic containment is a distortion of normal organizational functioning common in dysfunctional workplaces.


For example, healthy containment can come from setting and maintaining healthy boundaries (for yourself and/or for your teams if you are a leader), preventing panic and chaos in times of uncertainty, de-escalating conflict, etc. It's protective in nature and doesn't disconnect people from the realities of organizational life.


Toxic containment is about protecting the system and the power and/or the image of those in power, even at the expense of distorting reality and altering perceptions to make people believe whatever truth those in power want others to believe. And anyone who threatens any of these (power, image, system) is targeted to minimize their influence on others in the organization.


What Toxic Containment Can Look Like

Think of containment as a regulation attempt (see my last article) that is about suppressing dissenting ideas and controlling narratives versus controlling an individual's behavior (although they are connected).


Containment can look like:

  • Controlling/influencing your relationships with others

  • Heavy use of perception control to make you look like someone you're not

  • Being silenced in meetings when you speak up (being interrupted, talked over, changing the subject, etc.)

  • Minimizing tension (explaining it away, etc.)

  • Reframing the abuse or negative behaviors of others

  • Negative narratives circulating about those who counter the system (to get people to distance themselves from not only the person, but their ideologies as well)

  • Using ambiguity intentionally to control (moving the goal posts, no feedback, unclear standards, little communication or lots of passive-aggression)

  • Use of the idea of "professionalism" to suppress emotions and ideas that make the system uncomfortable


If you're being contained, it's likely hard for you to collaborate and engage with others, not because of anything you're doing, but because others likely have a narrative about you that isn't true, which causes them to give you misinformation and/or be hesitant in communication with you, or send messages to you through others around you.


You may feel like there's something everyone else around you knows that you don't, like your concerns are being ignored (they are), or like you essentially manage yourself (have no support).


It's More Common Than You Think

Many leaders fall in the middle, sometimes engaging in toxic containment under the guise of professionalism or best practice, which is the case for many of the toxic workplace phenomena I discuss in this newsletter.


Aside from managing risk, many organizations are designed to preserve the status quo- which means many of the practices that have been normalized and taught as best practice are not designed in the best interest of the people. Instead of alignment with reality and what we inherently know is right, we're asked to alter our perceptions to fit the narrative of the organization- for better or for worse. Aside from intentionally toxic leadership, this can also trap many well-meaning leaders and employees into toxic cycles of abuse, thinking they are "doing the right thing or simply "doing what they're told". As leaders, it may be time for us to consider what we've been taught- and its impact on the state of our workplaces today. I'll talk more about this in the next article.


Help The Workplace Unfiltered reach more people! If you found this article useful, please comment, like and share/repost. If you are interested in workplace wellness coaching and would like to learn more, you can:



 
 
 

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