Why your workplace feels off
The accountability illusion
Workplaces are artificial setups that bring seemingly random people together to produce or give the illusion of producing something that is meant to have some use by someone or something else.
With the exception of your family and most workplaces, you can choose your relationships in every other part of life. You can even choose to cut ties with a parent or sibling because of their egregious or abusive behaviour, yet at work, you can feel forced to endure unchecked and unrestrained disrespect with no real way to avoid it.
I have written about the connection between unhealthy workplaces and dysfunctional families to highlight that there is a blueprint that we each unknowingly fall into in relationships where there are clear authority figures and wannabe authority figures (including ourselves). We end up re-enacting our family dynamics at work then wonder why our workplace feels like a dysfunctional family.
One of the key features of a healthy workplace, and healthy relationships, is accountability. From my experience, this attribute is in short supply, especially within institutions. True accountability would mean admitting to the horrendous things that happen under their roof, even if doing so exposes them to legal or reputation consequences. It also requires a genuine invitation for feedback: where concerns are not only welcomed but considered and acted upon, because leaders and/or those with influence in the hierarchy recognise how they could be contributing to the problem.