A study into the working conditions of legal advisers at major companies has revealed a worrying increase in bullying, comparable to domestic violence.
A new study by The Eagle Club, a network of senior female lawyers and executives, and the law firm Mishcon de Reya, reveals a pattern of bullying among legal staff at leading companies, leading to high levels of bullying. anxiety and depression.
Some employees identified overt hostility from their bosses in the form of shouting, throwing objects or sending aggressive emails and WhatsApp messages.
However, the most common was the use of ‘subtle sabotage’, essentially microaggressions that made employees feel undermined and created an environment similar to domestic violence.
“The slipperiest form of bullying is the subtlest and most diverse,” the authors wrote.
Subtle sabotage can take many forms and manifest itself in different ways among the employees who shaped the Eagle Club’s investigation.
Micromanagement is a key pillar of this form of coercion, with bosses irregularly calling on their employees to report and ensuring they always feel they are being watched.
Isolation was another key feature of subtle sabotage, with employees citing how they had been locked out of ‘boys club’ WhatsApp groups or kept out of specific email chains.
A common aspect of this pattern of behavior was gaslighting, where employers downplayed their actions to their employees to convince them it was not a problem.
“This slippery behavior that leads targets to feel confused overlaps with behavior now found in domestic relationships and defined as coercive control,” the authors wrote.
“Whether domestic or professional, this destabilizes the target and may deter them from seeking help,” the authors wrote. “In many of our interviews, where people were still unsure whether to call behavior bullying or not, these are the pervasive effects of gaslighting that continue to affect them.”
A boss who holds the threat of dismissal over an employee unless they follow their orders, engages in lying and deceit against other coworkers, and entraps an employee by inviting him into meetings are other forms of “subtle sabotage ‘ that are identified. experienced by researchers as harmful experiences by internal legal advisors.
The research, which focuses on legal workers, found that workers in the profession were more likely to suffer this type of harassment, as they often provided advice that conflicted with the company’s objectives.
“In a high-profile case, the GC made it clear that her obligations as an ‘officer of the court’ took precedence over her duty to the company, leading to significant personal consequences,” said Lesley Wan, a veteran GC, CEO and founder. of the Eagle Club.
Employees also reported a trend of being given ‘office housework’, such as taking notes during meetings, making tea and coffee, unpacking sandwiches and buying gifts or cards for colleagues’ birthdays or retirement parties.
“Research has shown that women and people from Global Majority backgrounds are more likely than white men to be employed in ‘office housework,’” the authors wrote.
There are defined consequences for workplace bullying. Symptoms of poor mental health, such as anxiety and depression, have been found to have a serious impact on employee productivity. It also increases costs for an employer as they face the price of higher turnover.
Even those who are not direct recipients of bullying, but do witness it, experience negative effects on their mental health and therefore their performance.
A former general counsel at a law firm told investigators, “I didn’t fully realize the impact until I left, and I had to spend an entire month rebuilding myself. I was so exhausted. I didn’t realize how much my self-confidence had really taken a hit.’
The reasons why workplace bullying persists despite its clear effects on employees’ mental health and productivity are manifold, according to researchers. Results-oriented companies tend to ignore inappropriate behavior because the fear of an overhaul could impact their bottom line. The power of the ‘bully’, who is often in a position of power, also makes it difficult to achieve change.
“A common theme when reflecting on their experiences with those targeted by bullying was that they wished they had spoken out at an earlier stage. Bullies seem to feed off their success,” the authors wrote.
“But the difficulty is how to say something sooner, while for many targets it can take a while to figure out or admit what’s going on. This becomes even more complicated when they become gas lit.”
The researchers advise employees to keep a paper trail of inappropriate behavior they observe in their managers and to record incidents to identify patterns of behavior.
“Save all emails, screenshot all messages and, if possible, create an electronic or paper trail. This ensures that you have an overview of all cases in which this happens, so that it can escalate.”
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com
