Full-time workers warned about three red flag signs they're being gaslit at work
Although we've all got hefty workloads to be worried about, you can't help but get sucked into office politics.
Sadly, a lot of people have got colleagues and superiors who prioritise playing mind games over getting the job done, which often makes the prospect of snoozing your alarm and bunking off for the day a lot more attractive.
But obviously, we can't let these kind of people win by pushing you out of your workplace, so you might want to familiarise yourself with the ins and outs of 'career gaslighting' instead so you can compile a complaint for HR.
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Although you might be brushing it off as a classic case of imposter syndrome, there's a clear difference between the two.
According to 'corporate change-maker' Mita Mallick, career gaslighting is a form of 'psychological abuse where an individual tries to gain power and control over you in the workplace'.
She told Harvard Business Review's IdeaCast: "It's similar to personal relationships, where the term gaslighting has historically been used.
"It is this idea of lying to you to intentionally set you up to fail, the undermining manipulation and convincing you that you are the problem."
The diversity champion and head of inclusion, equity, and impact at Carta, warned full-time workers that the self-doubt they might feel isn't a result of their poor work, but rather the constant verbal attacks and passive aggressiveness in the office.
If someone is forcing you to routinely question your judgement, it's a them problem, according to Mallick - who has experienced the wrath of a manipulative manager firsthand.
In a piece for the American business magazine Fast Company, she explained that the penny only dropped after she was met with a 'mix of shock, sarcasm and manipulation' rather than 'praise, accolades, or acknowledgement' from her boss.
But how can you tell if you're a victim of 'career gaslighting' without making a kerfuffle in front of your colleagues?
Well, Mallick reckons there are three huge red flags that you should watch out for.
Making you doubt your capabilities
According to the author, if someone is constantly doubting your capabilities, it might mean that they are trying to gaslight you into believing you're not fit for the job.
Even if you're smashing your targets and getting compliments from the team on your work, there's still always one Negative Nancy who rains on your parade - and it's probably intentional.
If there's a lack of healthy feedback but an abundance of abrasive comments from the gaffer, it sounds like you've got a workplace gaslighter on your hands.
Drawing on her own experience, Mallick explained that she had headed into a performance review with her manager confident that she had made a great impression since starting her new gig.
"When he asked how I thought I had performed, I said I gave myself the 'exceeding expectations' rating," she explained.
"His immediate feedback to me was, 'Really? I think you need to watch how overconfident you have become. You honestly have little to no experience in what you are doing. And I am not the only one who thinks that'.
"I was floored by his response. I didn’t understand where it was coming from." "Even after that review, his attempts to chip away at my confidence continued.
"In this case, I didn’t have any self doubt in my own capabilities. I wasn’t suffering from impostor syndrome.
"But time and time again, this former manager tried hard to instil doubt in my performance and my abilities. He made me start to question if I was in fact good enough for the role."
If you want to confirm you're not blowing it out of proportion before lodging a complaint, why not check-in with a fellow colleague and see what they think about the situation?
Undermining your credibility
Maybe it's a joke that's a little too personal, interrupting your monologue during a meeting, or shooting down your new ideas in front of your co-workers, but having your credibility undermined in front of your co-workers is not a nice feeling.
This kind of career gaslighting may affect your mental health and make you question your confidence, but rest assured that the perpetrator is just trying to make themselves feel better.
Mallick knows this all too well - as she claims her former manager scoffed and told her she 'wasn't a real human resources professional after all' when she asked about the firm's annual planning process in a busy team meeting.
"He ridiculed me for asking the question, and tried to embarrass me in front of my peers," she said. "His attempts to undermine my credibility publicly in front of others continued on."
Between diminishing her time at the company to clients and pointing out the flaws in her work to employees at a team lunch, Mallick said he tried to make her believe that other senior members of staff 'didn’t trust me to deliver'.
She added: "This former manager’s attempts to undermine my credibility publicly became part of the pattern of consistently career gaslighting me.
"He wanted to get others to also doubt my capabilities and my ability to lead."
If you're working under a tyrannical and toxic boss, you could start taking record of all of these incidents which crop up as evidence that you are being gaslit.
Also lean on trusted members of your team and keep any unnecessary interactions to a minimum, so you can smugly miss them off the invite list when you're organising your next outing with your colleagues.
Blocking your progress
Missing out on promotions, being left out of big decisions and remaining stagnant in your role might be a sign that your horrible boss is purposely playing with your mind.
If you keep getting passed over for new gigs in favour of less experienced colleagues, it suggests that you might be the victim of workplace bias, like Mallick was.
She explained that after working under the bloke for a 'long period of time', she knew she needed to move on as nothing she could do would ever please him.
The equality campaigner said: "I had thought if I accomplished more in the role, he would change his mind about me, see the value I added, and be somewhat supportive.
"But the more I achieved for the company, the career gaslighting targeted toward me only intensified. I knew I needed an exit plan, and I thought moving internally would be easier than finding a role externally."
However, she soon found out that her boss was blocking her from moving onto another team, despite other managers being 'very enthusiastic' about her joining them.
"Once he knew I wanted to move on, he consistently blocked me from other roles internally," she recalled.
"He let others know that I wasn’t competent, capable, or ready to take on a new assignment in the company.
"And in a large company like this one, you couldn’t move on without your current manager’s permission. So the only exit plan remaining was to exit the company. "Which is what I did."
Mallick says she is 'embarrassed to admit that I stayed and reported to this individual for far too long', as he 'incessantly chipped away' at her self confidence and convinced her that she was not competent.
So don't stay where you're not appreciated - and report them to HR.
Topics: Jobs, News, Mental Health, Health
Olivia Burke