Have you examined your Workplace Psychological Contract ? Your life and Career may depend on it.
Psychological Contract
Do you know one of the most important contracts you will ever enter into is unwritten and based on perceptions, beliefs and unspoken rules. A psychological contract refers to beliefs regarding the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between the employee and the employer (Conway and Briner, 2005). A psychological contract comprises the unwritten, unspoken rules within an employer, employee relationship.
“A psychological contract encompasses the informal beliefs, ambitions, obligations, and expectations the employee and the employer perceives. Essentially, it’s how both parties understand their relationship outside of the written and signed employment contract and what they expect the other party to provide. It’s typically built on the actions of everyone in the organization, and it strongly influences how employees behave, organizations respond, and how we manage the employee experience”.
The Unwritten Entrapment
Workplace psychological abuse causes immense trauma to an employee entrapped in organisational violence. If the organisation permits a perpetrator of psychological abuse to injure and harm other employees while they are contracted employees, then they are complicit to this abuse and negligent in their duty of care.
Workplace safety includes the right to an ethical culture, psychological safety, support, resources needed to complete job role, job safety/security and personal development opportunities. It also refers to dignity in the workplace, this suggests the workplace is safe from psychologically harmful people. It is the employers duty to ensure that all their employees are psychologically vetted and safe and do not harm other employees in the workplace.
What is emotional and psychological trauma?
Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people.
Understanding Workplace Trauma
A target of psychological abuse in the workplace experiences a threat to their safety and lack of support overwhelms their coping ability.
Emotional and psychological trauma can be caused by:
One-time events: One incident of workplace bullying, experienced as a personal attack on safety in the workplace.
Ongoing events: Relentless stress, such as working in a psychological unsafe workplace where an employee experiences and is exposed to intentional, cumulative, repeated and strategic abuse by a bully or group mobbing. While at the same time the organisation is a bystander and complicit to abuse. A target is battling daily attacks and life threatening trauma.
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©No part of this article may be reproduced without prior permission of the author Judith Carmody. The post can be reposted in full giving credit to the author's work.
This survey is part of a research dissertation for a Master of Arts in Leadership in Workplace Health and Wellbeing, Technical University of the Shannon, Ireland.
Content Warning: Please be advised, this article might mention trauma-related topics that include abuse, which could be triggering to the reader. The content provided and in any linked materials is not intended and should not be construed as medical or legal advice. If the reader of this material has a medical or legal concern, he or she should consult with an appropriately health care provider or legal advisor.
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