This really hits the mark on something most workplaces sidestep: abuse at work is often a maladaptive survival strategy that gets rewarded when people gain power, but that context never turns harm into a misunderstanding.
The way you hold both truths at once - that many abusers carry unresolved trauma and that targets deserve safety, boundaries and real consequences - is exactly what’s missing from most “leadership” and HR narratives.
Framing this as a systems responsibility, not a forgiveness test for targets, is spot on and incredibly useful for those of us working in compliance, investigations and culture; it shifts the focus from redemption arcs to predictable consequences, clear behavioural standards and psychological safety as a non‑negotiable design choice, not a nice‑to‑have.
Authoritarianism, domestic violence, and workplace bullying are distinct but overlapping phenomena united by power and control: authoritarianism describes a political system or personality style (malignant narcissists) that demands strict obedience, limits freedoms, and enforces rules top‑down; domestic violence is a pattern of physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological abuse within intimate or family relationships that uses coercion, isolation, and cycles of escalation to dominate a partner which is basically caused by a malignant narcissist; workplace bullying consists of repeated mistreatment at work—verbal abuse, humiliation, exclusion, sabotage, or unreasonable demands—that harms a person’s dignity, health, or career and may be enabled by organizational culture. While their scopes and remedies differ (political or institutional reform for authoritarianism, legal/criminal action and safety planning for domestic violence, and HR procedures or employment remedies for workplace bullying), all three share core elements of power imbalance, coercion, control tactics, and the potential for normalization within enabling environments. Does all this leave ill health for an individual, poverty and mental illness. Yes.
💯🏆✅ fantastic summation of the qualities that *possess" or are possessed by the humans repeating the cliche patterns which are literally defined in various psychological manuals as malicious disorders which differentiate healthy (Empathic) contradistinguished with unhealthy (Sadistic) personality morphologys 🔬🧠🫀📻🕵️♂️📡
This really hits the mark on something most workplaces sidestep: abuse at work is often a maladaptive survival strategy that gets rewarded when people gain power, but that context never turns harm into a misunderstanding.
The way you hold both truths at once - that many abusers carry unresolved trauma and that targets deserve safety, boundaries and real consequences - is exactly what’s missing from most “leadership” and HR narratives.
Framing this as a systems responsibility, not a forgiveness test for targets, is spot on and incredibly useful for those of us working in compliance, investigations and culture; it shifts the focus from redemption arcs to predictable consequences, clear behavioural standards and psychological safety as a non‑negotiable design choice, not a nice‑to‑have.
Authoritarianism, domestic violence, and workplace bullying are distinct but overlapping phenomena united by power and control: authoritarianism describes a political system or personality style (malignant narcissists) that demands strict obedience, limits freedoms, and enforces rules top‑down; domestic violence is a pattern of physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological abuse within intimate or family relationships that uses coercion, isolation, and cycles of escalation to dominate a partner which is basically caused by a malignant narcissist; workplace bullying consists of repeated mistreatment at work—verbal abuse, humiliation, exclusion, sabotage, or unreasonable demands—that harms a person’s dignity, health, or career and may be enabled by organizational culture. While their scopes and remedies differ (political or institutional reform for authoritarianism, legal/criminal action and safety planning for domestic violence, and HR procedures or employment remedies for workplace bullying), all three share core elements of power imbalance, coercion, control tactics, and the potential for normalization within enabling environments. Does all this leave ill health for an individual, poverty and mental illness. Yes.
💯🏆✅ fantastic summation of the qualities that *possess" or are possessed by the humans repeating the cliche patterns which are literally defined in various psychological manuals as malicious disorders which differentiate healthy (Empathic) contradistinguished with unhealthy (Sadistic) personality morphologys 🔬🧠🫀📻🕵️♂️📡
I had a boss like this. And
🙏✌️