“Stoicism is powerfully placed to assist targes of workplace bullying.”

International statistics attest that workplace bullying or “mobbing” (when more than one person is involved, and a compliant manager) is epidemic. It is also immensely damaging for many targets, who typically report a gamut of psychological and physiological symptoms, “a Molotov cocktail of bad feelings”, as one target interviewed by bullying-researcher Evelyn Field called it.

Workplace bullying and Stoicism

Stoicism is powerfully placed to assist targets of workplace bullying. Bullying behaviour aims to elicit emotional responses in targets: the insults, social and professional exclusion, backstabbing and false allegations also function as bait. Emotive responses by targets are then cruelly pointed to by bullies as “evidence” that targets “deserve” their mistreatment.

Workplace bullying targets need to attend to their own responses, and their psychophysiological health, in conjunction with planning ways to respond which don’t backfire against them. In this difficult test of character, the Stoic discipline of judgment (monitoring what we take to be true), is one powerful resource targets can draw upon.

Stoic strategies

For the Stoics believe that even what we fear, and how we respond to others’ bad actions, are shaped by the judgments we form about the world. Moreover, one of the most traumatizing dimensions of workplace bullying – and PTSD is a sadly frequent result – is the way that the nefarious actions of bullies, like backstabbing, rumour-mongering, and false accusations, introduce deep uncertainty into targets’ minds. Uncertainty about what is going on, about what has been said about them, by whom and why, and about whether they are imagining it all, as well as where it will all end.

At the same time, if a target reacts angrily, giving vent to their growing suspicions and anxiety in a claim of being targeted which they cannot certify, this can be disastrous. They can then be accused by their bullies of being “unstable”, “difficult”, “crazy”, etc., and their situation will become a lot worse.

Applying the discipline of judgment

Workplace bullying targets therefore need something like the Stoic discipline of judgment, never assenting to anything unconditionally which they do not know certainly to be true. For most of us most of the time, this is a desirable and admirable discipline. For targets, it becomes a vocational and reputational necessity.

Firstly, as soon as they become concerned that a pattern of mistreatment is emerging, targets should note down every incident with names, places, dates, even times. Also, they should record and store any documents involved, like emails or websites. (Later, this can be used if they decide to seek legal redress.)

Secondly, however – and this is where the Stoic discipline of judgment is directly applied – they need to be completely honest about all cases wherein they cannot be 100% sure about what has happened, or whether it was an act of their bullies. Say, for instance, if they receive an offensive email from a name they don’t recognize, or a colleague ignores them who just days before was friendly, or their work is not recognized, or when their workspace (or PC) is seemingly tampered with, etc.

Using Seneca’s recommendation

Echoing a Senecan recommendation in On Anger, one Stoic strategy targets should use is to put themselves into the shoes of their bullies. Then, they should ask of each incident: how would the bullies present this incident, if it came to a hearing? Could they plausibly deny it, and blame the target, suggesting they are “over-reacting”? Are there witnesses whom the target can call upon for corroboration? Are there documents of any kind?

Another Stoic strategy here is to withhold unconditional assent to anything the target cannot know right now for sure, about the facts or their significance. Targets should be clear, even assigning a percentage score as to how certain you are about this incident: say, “75% certain act of intimidation by X … 30% sure that Y did this …”

One such incident, by itself, won’t convince independent arbiters. But if a pattern of much more than three or four such incidents emerges, then the onus of proving this was all “in the target’s mind” shifts – especially if such cases are conjoined with many other, more certain incidents of bullying behaviours. By exercising the Stoic discipline of judgment, targets are also strengthening their case, should they seek out independent arbitration, or their bullies haul them up before a disciplinary committee.

Stoicism reminds us all that we cannot control what others decide to do, only how we respond. Uncertainty about others’ words and acts in workplace bullying cases can engender damaging anxiety, and what psychologists call “hypervigilance”. The Stoic discipline of judgment is one invaluable shield in targets’ defenses, to control anxiety, by closely monitoring what targets assent to, and preventing them from asserting anything which cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

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Matt Sharpe teaches philosophy at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. He is coauthor of Philosophy as a Way of Life: History, Dimensions, Directions (Bloomsbury, 2021), a father and a husband, and is presently working on a book on the ways Stoicism can assist targets of workplace and school bullying.

 

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