10 signs you’re living in an echo chamber
As politics become ever more and more polarizing and divisive amongst individuals, it’s not the politics that are the problem, it’s the echo chambers that feed into misinformation and into false beliefs. Let’s explore.
Background
More and more I find people who profess openness and critical thinking skills, yet I also find it is these very people are actually holed up and living in local echo chambers, chambers that only serve to reinforce their own beliefs; but whose beliefs have no actual basis in reality or what’s actually happening in or to the world around them. It is these echo chambers which are causing the divisive nature of not only politics, but just about any other belief which can be found in the world. It seems that more and more people are choosing their personal beliefs over using their eyes, ears and most importantly, their brains.
With that said, let’s uncover the 10 signs that prove that it is YOU who may be living in an echo chamber. Before we begin, let’s define…
What is an Echo Chamber?
An echo chamber is simply a space where you tend to converse with people who also tend to believe in the same things as you and/or who are feeding you disinformation that seems as though it is genuine and truthful; but that disinformation supports your beliefs, which makes you want to believe in it. An echo chamber is designed to 1) never contest your current belief system and 2) reinforce your beliefs, supporting your way of thinking… even when your way of thinking is completely based on fantasy, not reality. Echo chambers can be filled with friends and family who converse by using a gossip-like information transmission methodology (word of mouth, texting, etc), but may extend onto social media sites like Facebook.
Basically, instead of watching news programs directly and forming your own objective opinions yourself, you, instead, rely on receiving your news mostly by using a gossip grapevine of friends and family. When you do watch the news, you turn it off as soon as anything contests your beliefs. In your mind, you believe that news channel is then biased.
An echo chamber thrives because everyone in it essentially agrees on a very specific skewed view of the world… viewing the world not actually how it is, but how everyone in the echo chamber believes that it is.
In other words, an echo chamber is, yes, a form of brainwashing.
Without further adieu, here are the 10 signs you’re living in an echo chamber…
10. You firmly believe to the point of anger that the world is one way when actual news events prove your beliefs are invalid.
This sign shows us that you have subscribed to a belief system so strongly that you simply cannot allow anyone to disrupt that belief system at all, not under any circumstances. In other words, you are fully unwilling to even entertain the possibility that your belief can be in any way proven false.
You remain so firmly entrenched in that belief, even if it can be proven to be a false belief, shows that you are not only stubborn, but also exceedingly closed-minded. You are absolutely not interested in truth. You’re interested only in others who are willing to coddle and support your beliefs. Being unwilling to entertain any outside information that disagrees with your belief system is a hallmark sign that you have succumbed to the power of an echo chamber.
9. You say that you’re open to all ideas, but you instantly shut down anyone who puts forth an idea that doesn’t support your beliefs.
Here’s a situation where when you have a discussion with someone who doesn’t believe what you believe, you then feel the need to counter their arguments with such phrases as, “Well, I’ve always seen the exact opposite.” However, instead of actually providing concrete examples to support your “exact opposite” belief statement, you delay, avoid and ignore requests to provide any details on how those “exact opposite” beliefs actually became real in your mind. In other words, your beliefs are crafted entirely on faith, not on facts.
What this typically means is that you’re listening to the (false) beliefs of others in your gossip group, instead of forming your own opinions based on witnessing world events yourself and digesting and forming your own opinions from actual world events. Listening to other’s words and trusting that those words are valid reinforces your belief system under an echo chamber.
8. You instantly counter any argument to which you disagree, then attempt to insult the person by claiming you’ve been offended by the other person’s argument.
This is both bad debate form and it also proves you’re living in an echo chamber. This situation manifests when another person (party 2) counters one of your beliefs with actual real world facts showing exactly how your belief is invalid and untrue. Instead of rationalizing and realizing the possibility that that belief is wrong, you instantly take offense to the statement and then claim that party 2 is in the wrong for insinuating that you’ve been brainwashed.
This is a circular argument that only intends to insult the second party solely to reaffirm that your own personal (false) belief is true and valid. This is strictly a manipulation tactic to get the other party to back down. Using any form of manipulation in an attempt to win your argument is not only bad debate form, it is illogical, it shows that you’re closed minded, it shows that you’re unwilling to entertain any outside ideas and it also proves that you’re living in an echo chamber.
7. You only visit social media sites that support your belief systems. More than this, you only friend accounts who also believe like you do.
This one should go without saying. However, many people may not realize that this is exactly what they are doing. When you sign up at or into Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter) or similar, you find yourself gravitating towards those who believe like you do. This does two things at once: 1) Like minded “friends” make you feel instantly comfortable and 2) by doing this, nothing will ever challenge your beliefs (see point 1).
By not exposing yourself to counter arguments from others, you limit your view of the world to only those people who profess to believe just like you. This is the very definition of an echo chamber.
6. You state that you’re critically open minded and claim to watch all types of news programs, but you prove that you don’t do this when you’re presented with reports that invalidate your beliefs… and then you claim news media bias.
It’s easy to profess equality and critical thinking skills, but it proves more challenging for some people to actually do this. Typically, even if a person does watch many news programs, it’s very easy to discount and invalidate what any news reporter is showing you by simply claiming that news channel is biased. This rationale instantly allows you to shut off that real news spigot claiming it as “fake news” or disinformation, thus keeping your false beliefs fully intact.
Here you’ve just watched a news program that has shown you the reality of the world, yet you’ve instantly decided to completely discredit the news report, and by extension the entire news channel, simply because that news report invalidates your own personal beliefs.
Discounting ALL news reports that are fully documented with videos, clips and interviews using people who are first-hand involved, yet you STILL choose to discredit all of that simply to hold onto a (false) belief indicates you’re living in an echo chamber.
5. Using year’s past examples or potentially old and misleading information to support your beliefs. (Cherry Picking)
It’s easy to call on examples from the past, using potentially misleading or cherry picked quotes that support your beliefs. Instead of researching the full information and context surrounding any given quote or news snippet, you choose to take a quote or snippet entirely out of context or, worse, choose to cite sources of misinformation or disinformation solely to support your beliefs.
Cherry picking tiny bits of (mis or dis)information that supports your beliefs, but where the very real and full context of information doesn’t hold up your beliefs under contextual scrutiny is a sign you’re living in an echo chamber.
4. Your actions prove you’re unwilling to entertain any other points of view.
This one is pretty simple. It’s not what you say. It’s how you respond and act as actions always speak louder than words. Sincerity is easily determined not by your words, but by how you respond to argumentation. A listening party can easily determine you’re not being sincere when you make claims of being fair and open-minded, but prove that you are not by devolving arguments into nonsensical debate tactics solely in an attempt to win your arguments.
Not only does this prove you’re not sincere, it proves you’re only in it solely for the argumentation and most likely only to support your current beliefs. This is entirely a defense mechanism against outside beliefs, but it also proves that you’re living in an echo chamber.
3. Instantly discrediting legitimate news sources and news articles because “they’re biased.”
While definitely linked to number 6, this one is wholly separate. When you cannot win your belief argument because of counter facts brought up using a news article example of how the beliefs are false, you insist on attacking the news source as highly biased, non-credible, illegitimate and “fake news” strictly because they have written an article that runs counter to your beliefs.
I won’t state which person now does this frequently, but suffice it to say that he has taught others to do exactly this and that this behavior is acceptable. It isn’t. Not only does this tactic look insanely stupid, it shows us that you’re close-minded and unwilling to entertain alternative beliefs AND that you must instantly attack anyone or anything that doesn’t fit within your belief system. This one shows us you’re living in an echo chamber.
2. You find news articles on extremist and tiny “news” sites that almost no one has heard of solely to support your beliefs.
When a counter argument to your (false) belief system is given to you by the likes of The New York Times, The New York Post, USA Today or even featured on CNN, MSNBC or Fox News, you counter those articles by claiming “biased reporting”, choosing instead to locate an article on a super tiny “news” site that few have ever heard of and which receives maybe 50 views per day solely to show that your belief is valid and true.
Having to dig down into the bowels of the internet to a teeny-tiny “news” site solely to refute articles published by large news organizations, like those listed above, your actions say you’re not interested in being open minded or fair. Forget that these tiny news sites are likely mini echo chambers themselves by echoing extremist disinformation view points, many of their “news” articles are not even professionally written nor do the “reporters” even have journalism credentials. If they did, they’d be working for CNN or The New York Post.
It also says you’re willing to put your faith into a super tiny “news” site with no notable credentials over actual professional journalistic organizations whose sole goal is to produce professional news segments 24 hours and 7 days a week, employing hundreds if not thousands of degree holding journalism majors. What credentials does your tiny news site offer? Not much. What proves your cited article is even valid? Nothing.
Relying on extremely tiny, boutique news sites that few use or have heard of proves you’re trying way too hard to support your belief system and that you’re living in an echo chamber.
1. You resort to insults and name calling to support your beliefs.
Insulting someone by name calling is not only extremely bad debate form, it’s stupid, inane, insipid and sophomoric. It tells the other party that not only is your point entirely invalid, it shows us that you have no solid way to debate your beliefs using actual real facts. Further, your name calling not only tells other parties that you are NOT open-minded nor do you possess any critical thinking skills, you also don’t even know how to properly argue your stance in any legitimate way.
Because you are unable to win on actual facts, articles and information that support your beliefs, you must resort to name calling and by insulting the other party; which seems to be the modus operondi for such sophomoric behaviors when all else fails. This action is considered such a bad sporting tactic that, if you were playing in an actual professional sporting event, you’d have been suspended and required to leave the field.
By resorting to this kind of amateur action, you have proven that you have no interest in hearing any other points of view or in listening to other belief systems other than your own. Doing this one proves you are 100%, most definitely living in an echo chamber.
Conclusion
While these 10 signs are the most critical, these are not the only signs that indicate you’re living in an echo chamber. Any way that sees you to rationalize and maintain your belief system by potentially hurting others indicates you are living in an echo chamber. If you are doing any of the above, you may not personally want to believe that you’re living in an echo chamber, but you are. You can choose to continue to pull the blinders over your eyes, or you can firmly open them to the world around you.
It’s far easier to live in a world of fantasy than it is to live in a world of reality. Unfortunately, living in that fantasy world does you no favors. For example, if you vote a candidate in based solely on your false beliefs, you may be dooming yourself and, more importantly, your children and grandchildren to something they may not comprehend until years later when it’s way too late. It is on you to choose to wise up and become a responsible adult. Living in an echo chamber may feel nice right now, but it won’t prevent the chaos and decay that will born and consume us from such destructive echo chambers.
If you wish to break free from an echo chamber, it may not be easy and it definitely won’t feel comfortable. You will need to stop the arguments designed to support your beliefs. Instead, you will need to ask questions and find out why the “other side” believes the way that it does, read articles that support other beliefs and understand why those beliefs make sense. Additionally, you will need to use your eyes, ears and brain to comprehend it all. Stop the arguing and begin questioning.
As long as you’re arguing for your stance only, then you’re not open to all information out there. You must be willing to open your eyes, ears and mind to ideas and beliefs beyond your own world view. Until you are willing to do this, you will remain stuck in your comfortable, but destructive echo chamber.
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Gaslighting in the Workplace
Gaslighting is nothing new, but is a term that may be new to some. However, when it appears in the workplace, particularly from a boss, it can lead to exceedingly difficult workplace situations. Let’s explore.
Gaslighting and How To Recognize It!
Gaslighting is when a co-worker or boss says something on Monday and then says, “I never said that” on Tuesday. Effectively, it’s lying. Its saying one thing (or even making a promise), then claiming that thing was never said.
What’s the purpose of this behavior? To attempt to make you, the receiver, believe what they want you to believe and to avoid the ramifications of whatever it is they said earlier. Some claim it’s a form of manipulation or that it is used as control tactic to confuse. I personally believe it’s a way for that person to get out of trouble or avoid being held to a promise. It’s a self-centered way of thinking. While it might be used for manipulation purposes, I believe it’s more self-serving than it is to control another person. However, this behavior can be either intentional or inadvertent due to a medical condition. Either way, it’s a problem for you, the receiver.
Co-workers and Gaslighting
If you’re working with a gaslighting co-worker (non-management peer), the situation can be a bit more simple to handle. Simply request that you don’t work with that person. Most companies are willing to separate folks with personality conflicts to avoid HR issues, so request it. However, be sure to explain to your Human Resources team member that the person is gaslighting you regularly. Make sure they understand the severity of gaslighting (a form of lying) in the workplace and that it has no business in a professional working relationship. Lying in any form is an unacceptable practice, particularly when it comes from folks in positions of trust. It also brings in the issues of business ethics against this person.
Lying and trust are exact opposites. If the person is willing to lie to colleagues, what are they willing to do with clients? Point this out. However, if you do point this out to HR, be aware that they can confront that person about this behavior which might lead them back to you. This person, if charming and charismatic enough, may be able to lie their way out of it. So, you should be cautious and exercise your best judgement when considering reporting a person, particularly if the person is pathological.
Bosses and Gaslighting
Unfortunately, if the gaslighting is coming from your boss or your boss’s boss, it’s a whole lot more difficult to manage. You can’t exactly ask to be moved away from your boss without a whole lot of other difficulties. In fact, many times, there is only one boss who handles your type of position within the company. If you find it is your boss who pathologically gaslights you, you may need to consider moving on from that company as there may be no other choice if you wish to continue working in your chosen career.
Gaslighting and Toxicity
Any form of unethical behavior against another employee should immediately be a huge red flag for you. If you can spot this early, you can make your employment decision quickly. If, for example, you can spot a toxic situation within the first 1-3 months, you can justify to a new prospective employer that the job role wasn’t what was promised and you left of your own accord during the probation period. That’s true. Toxicity in the workplace never makes for a positive working environment. Part of the job is not only what you do for the company, but how others interact with you within that environment. If one doesn’t meet the other and it’s found to be a toxic workplace, then the job role did not meet an acceptable criteria for employment. This means that the job role wasn’t what was promised. It’s not just about what you do, it’s about the interactions with others within the environment.
Any workplace with toxic co-workers is never a positive place of employment and, thus, not what was promised in the interview and on the job description. The problem with toxicity in the workplace is that it’s not easy to spot quickly. It can take several months for it to manifest. Sometimes, it will only manifest after staff change roles. If you walk into a company with high turnover, you might find the first couple of months to be perfectly fine until a new manager is hired.
Interview Flags
You should also take cues from your on-site interview. Many interviews offer telltale signs of toxicity. It may not even be from the people in the room. It may be from the receptionist that you meet when you arrive. Listen carefully to conversations when you’re sitting in a lobby or interview room waiting for the next interviewer. If the environment is chaotic or the interviewers are disenchanted with their job role, walk away. You can even ask pointed, but subtle questions in the interview to the interviewer. For example:
- “How long have you been with the company?” — Short stint? They can’t tell you enough about the company.
- “Do you like your job?” — This should open the door for venting.
- “Is there anything you might change about what you are doing?” — This will further open the door for venting.
- “How long has this position been open?” — Jobs that have been open a long time may signal problems.
These are examples of pointed questions trying to draw out disenchantment from the employee. Employees who always remain positive about their work conditions and the workplace likely means the company is worth considering. Employees who vent and turn negative quickly likely indicates disenchantment with their position. You might want to reconsider. However, even questions like this aren’t definitive. If the employer directs their interviewers to remain positive no matter what, you won’t know about this policy until much later. Always be cautious in the interview room… but definitely use your question time to draw out possible disenchantment as discretely as possible. If an employee wants to vent about the conditions, let them. It’s a sure fire sign you probably don’t want to work there.
Once employed, your next stop might be…
HR Complaints
You may think that taking your complaint to the HR team is the best idea, particularly if it’s your boss who is gaslighting you. Unfortunately, you’d be wrong. The HR team works for the management team and this includes working for your boss. This means that your boss actually has more power with the HR team than you do as a non-management employee. Complaining to the HR team could also bring your boss’s wrath down upon you. In fact, the HR team may become complicit in your boss’s gaslighting (and unsavory) tactics, which may seem like both your boss and the HR team are ganging up against you. That view wouldn’t exactly be wrong.
If your boss is willing to lie to you, he or she is willing to lie to others, including the HR team. There’s ultimately no end to this person’s deceptive ways. This means that reporting your boss to HR could actually backfire on you. It could get you written up, placed on probation, have disciplinary action levied against you up to and including termination. There’s no end to what your boss could do to you if you report their behavior to HR. The HR team will backup your boss, not you.
If your boss or any management team member is gaslighting you, you should avoid complaining to HR. The only time you should make your way to HR is if it’s coming from a co-worker peer who is not in management. Non-management coworkers are the only people where HR doesn’t have a conflict of interest. For these folks, report away.
For management gaslighters, you’ll need to consider other options… such as employment elsewhere or a change in position (move to a different boss, preferably not under the same chain of command) or possibly legal action if the behavior is illegal.
Evaluating Management Power
If you do decide to complain to HR over a management team member, you need to consider that person’s power and support within the organization. Many of these gaslighters are not only gaslighting their own staff, they’re two-faced with their bosses. The problem is getting these people caught in their own web of lies and deceit. That can be a tall order as two-faced individuals attempt to establish strong trust with their bosses. Many times they succeed which can make it extremely difficult to break down that trust.
Unfortunately, many managers who are willing to gaslight you are also willing to do whatever it takes to point the blame elsewhere, perhaps even towards you. For example, I’ve had bosses who made dire mistakes and cost the company downtime and money regularly (at least once a week). Yet, when they end up in their weekly management meetings, the blame runs downhill. Their trust runs deep, so their bosses continue to believe their lies. Meaning, lies and deception keeps this manager employed with his underlings getting the blame (getting a few of them fired). That, or he lied and claimed it was a system error or blamed the crash on the developers or software.
This manager should have been fired at least 6-8 times over, yet each time he managed to worm his way out of the situation by either pointing blame at others or claiming system problems. I know full well it was his fat fingers that pulled the trigger and caused the outage (I saw the logs), yet this information never got to his manager in a way that required him to terminate this employee. He was considered “too valuable”. In fact, he wasn’t valuable at all. He was a severe liability to the company. Not only did he cause regular system outages, he was an HR nightmare making not only inappropriate comments in the workplace, he was completely tactless and had no people skills at all. He was definitely one of those folks who should have been considered dangerous, yet he was in a management position. He was even promoted several times!
What can you do about gaslighting?
This is a difficult question to answer. Depending on the situation, you have several options:
- If it’s coming from a non-management co-worker, report them to HR and your manager and ask to avoid contact with this person.
- If it’s coming from a management team member to whom you report, you have few options other than to quit and move on.
- If it’s coming from a lower management team member to whom you DO NOT report, report them to your immediate manager. Depending on your manager, this may go nowhere. Management typically supports other management regardless of how egregious another management member’s behavior.
- If it’s coming from an upper management or a company executive to whom you DO NOT report, again, you have few options. Reporting upper management or executive behavior is almost impossible to see action done. Though, you might be able to report the behavior to the Board of Directors if it’s egregious enough. Like the HR team, the Board of Directors is there to support the management team.. no matter their behaviors. If you choose to report, you’re likely to get no response from the Board of Directors as they’re likely not willing to confront that executive.
There may be other scenarios not listed here, so you’ll need to use your own best judgement whether or not to report the situation.
Company Therapists
You might be thinking you should use one of the company counselors to vent your frustrations. The trouble is, it’s possible that the counselor is obligated to report all findings to the HR team. If you wish to vent to a licensed therapist or psychiatric professional, do so you on your own dime. Choose your own therapist. Don’t use the company’s counselor hotline that’s part of the company perk system. You might find that your conversations have ended up in your personnel file.
Toxic / Hostile Workplace
If the corporate culture is such that it endorses gaslighting (and other inappropriate behaviors) and the company chooses to do nothing about it, then this is probably an ingrained corporate culture. You should consider this a severely toxic and unhealthy workplace. Depending on how you’re treated, it might even be considered hostile. The only choice you have is to exit this job and find another. Toxic corporate culture is becoming more and more common. Unfortunately, there is no one you can turn to in an organization when the corporate culture is this level of toxic, particularly at the upper management level. When the CEO, CFO, CTO and such executives know, don’t care and do nothing to rectify a toxic workplace, this is definitely the signal that you need to move on. You can’t change a toxic corporate culture, you can only get away from it.
Toxic workplaces may be difficult to recognize until you’ve been in the position for at least six months. This is one of those situations where you don’t want to leave the position at the 5 month mark because it will hurt your resume. It also means you’ll need to stick with your employment at this toxic company for at least 7 more months to reach the 1 year mark. Hopping to a new job at the 1 year mark is at least better (and more explainable) on a resume than hopping at 5 months.
This situation can be difficult, particularly if the job environment is highly toxic. Just try to make the best of the situation until you can reach your 1 year anniversary. If the situation is far too problematic to bare and the behavior is not only egregious, but illegal, you should contact a lawyer and consider…
Legal Action
The HR team’s number 1 job is to avoid employment related legal actions at all costs. This means that should you file a lawsuit against your company as a hostile workplace, you’ll be up against your HR team, the company’s legal team and the company’s executives. If you’re still employed when you file such an action, you might want to consider moving on quickly. The HR team (and your boss) will make your life a living hell during and after a lawsuit.
In other words, you shouldn’t consider legal action against a current employer for employment violations. Instead, you should plan to leave the company immediately before you file your lawsuit.
Filing a lawsuit against a former employer will counter HR issues you might encounter while still employed, but be very careful here as well. Any lawsuits against employers can become known by your current employer and mark you as a legal risk. If you’re willing to file a lawsuit against one employer, your current employer’s HR team could then see you as a lawsuit risk. Make sure you fully understand these risks before going up against a former employer for employment violations.
Gaslighting itself isn’t necessarily something that can justify a lawsuit on its own. If it’s part of a pervasive corporate culture endorsed at all levels of management, it could be considered a hostile workplace. In this case, you may have legal recourse against your employer, depending on what they may have done and how pervasive the behavior while employed. You’ll want to educate yourself regarding what is and isn’t a hostile workplace before considering such a lawsuit against an employer. You should also consult with a lawyer for your specific situation. Even then, if you do find that it is considered hostile, you’ll still want to consider such a lawsuit carefully. If your litigation finds its way back to your current employer, you may find yourself in an untenable situation with your current job.
Basically, if you do file a lawsuit against a previous employer, you should keep that information as private as humanly possible. Do not discuss the lawsuit with anyone at your current company no matter how much you may want to. If you have mutual friends between both companies, this may not be possible. Consider this situation carefully before filing such a lawsuit. Note that you may not even know that mutual friends exist until your litigation information is disclosed to your current employer’s HR team.
As with most industries, HR staff members comprise a reasonably small circle of individuals even in large metroplexes. There’s a high probability that at least one person knows another person between two large corporations, particularly if they’re in the same line of business. Always be cautious and never discuss any pending litigation except with your lawyer.
Corporate Culture
Unfortunately, corporate cultures are laid in stone by the founders and the current management team. Sometimes corporate cultures, while seeming to be positive and well meaning, can easily turn sour by corporate corruption. Again, you won’t know the exact extent of your company’s corporate culture until you’ve been working at a company for at least 5 months. Sometimes it takes much longer. Sometimes it requires listening carefully to your CEO’s comments at internal company meetings.
Gaslighting is one of those things that shouldn’t ever be endorsed as part of corporate culture, but it is a behavior that can be misconstrued by pathological individuals based on corporate ideals and is also shaped by management team meetings. These are management meetings where the upper management meets with key individuals to evaluate their weekly contributions to and assess performance for the company. Many times, the face the CEO puts on shows a cheery and charismatic attitude when in public. When behind closed doors, this same CEO becomes a vulture, picking and cutting at each manager’s weaknesses systematically and ruthlessly… many times using rude, crude, crass, yet flowery, condescending language. They might make inappropriate sexual comments. They might even gaslight.
As a result, these bosses who are regularly subjected to these kinds of hostile C-Team interactions can learn that this is the way they also should manage their own teams, particularly managers who don’t have good people skills and who must lead by example. Yet, they know that such flowery, condescending language would get them in hot water with HR and employment law, so they adopt other compensating mechanisms such as gaslighting and outright lying… behaviors that aren’t easily caught or reported, behaviors that can be easily dismissed as innocuous.
As a result, rough and rugged CEOs who lead using a whip-and-chain approach teach their underlings the value of whips and chains instead of managing by positive examples. This can lead borderline personalities to interpret this whip-and-chain approach as the corporate culture to adopt when managing their own staff.
While this explains the root cause behind some manager’s reasons to gaslight, it can never excuse this behavior. In fact, nothing excuses unprofessional behavior. Unfortunately, far too many bosses are promoted beyond their capacity to lead. These managers may be knowledgeable in their own job skills, but many managers have no training in management and have no people skills at all. Instead of learning by training (because many companies don’t offer such people training), they must learn by example. They turn to the CEO to show them the “example”, even if that example is entirely misguided.
Unfortunately, far too many companies do not value people skills as part of their management team’s qualifications. Instead, they look for people who can kiss butts appropriately and deliver results, regardless of what that takes. Meaning, if gaslighting is the means by which that manager delivers results, then the upper management is perfectly happy to look the other way using “don’t ask, don’t tell” policies. I agree, it’s a horrible practice… but there it is.
Overall
As a non-management team member, your options are limited if you find your manager is gaslighting you. On other other hand, if you find a peer regularly gaslighting you to get ahead, you should report this pathological behavior to both your manager and your HR team. If you perform peer evaluations of those individuals, then you should report this behavior on those peer evaluations.
If the behavior goes beyond a single person and extends pervasively to the organization as a whole, then this is a corporate culture toxicity. It may also signal a hostile workplace situation. At that point, you may want to consider a new job and, if the behavior is particularly egregious (and illegal) across the company, file a hostile workplace lawsuit against that employer. Personally, if a company is toxic, I leave and let them wallow in their own filth. I then write a scathing review on Glassdoor and leave it at that. Filing lawsuits are costly and even if successful, don’t always fix the root cause of corporate toxicity, let alone gaslighting… which isn’t even considered a problem needing resolution by most companies. Even if you win a lawsuit, you won’t necessarily make that company a better place. Consider lawsuits as a strategy only if you’re trying to get money out of that company you feel has wronged you.
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